Credits: USA TODAY Sports
USA Women’s Basketball selection committee member Dawn Staley recently confessed that Caitlin Clark’s growth in the WNBA made a strong case for her inclusion on the USA Team playing in the Paris Olympics. This has triggered a fresh new wave of “Told you so” reactions from basketball fans after Clark’s snub prompted a lot of backlash during the roster announcement last month. In June, Shannon Sharpe was among those who were fuming as the selection committee left out CC from the women’s squad.
Sharpe once again got a chance to call out the committee after Staley’s comments went viral. But he was also surprised by the timing of the statement. On his Nightcap pod, Sharpe revealed his surprise at the legendary USA Basketball coaching staff failing to foresee Clark’s ascension in the WNBA as well.
For him, a coach’s job is to predict the trajectory of a generational player rather than only judge them based on their current status. Sharpe told his co-host Chad Johnson, “I thought the job of a coach is to project. If I take a player in high school, am I saying that’s the best he’s gonna be or I’m projecting in a week, a month, or a year, they are going to be better.”
The ESPN analyst then pointed out that adding Rookie of the Year candidates Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark would have made no difference in Team USA’s search for another gold medal since they already have all the top basketball players at the international level. The International teams in the women’s game don’t have talent like the men’s teams have. So Team USA doesn’t have a lot of competition anyway.
He implied that the selectors missed a big opportunity at marketing the WNBA by platforming two of the league’s most popular faces. At the same time, Sharpe felt astonished that Staley made such a huge admission just a few hours before USA women’s team’s Olympic opener.
The NFL legend added, “So Caitlin Clark going or Angel Reese going, were they gonna lose? We got the 10 best players in the Olympics on the Women’s side… I’m a little surprised that she [Staley] said that.”
Therefore, Sharpe’s stance about Clark’s inclusion to the Olympic team has been vindicated by a selection committee member herself. But what did Dawn Staley say about her?
Dawn Staley has been encouraged by Clark’s growth
During an interview with NBC’s Mike Tirico, Staley touched upon Caitlin Clark’s growth a few weeks before the WNBA Olympic break. She admitted that Clark might have cracked the roster had she performed similarly before the team selection. The South Carolina Gamecocks Head Coach said,
“Caitlin is just a rookie in the WNBA. She wasn’t playing bad, but she wasn’t playing like she’s playing now. If we had to do it all over again, the way she’s playing, she’d be in really high consideration of making the team.”
Of course, these comments have opened a can of worms. Many prominent mainstream sports voices were disconcerted at Clark’s exclusion. They felt that her snub not only cost her personally but also dented the interest in women’s basketball at the Olympics.
