Credits: USA TODAY Sports
The USA women’s basketball team had a dominant performance to begin their 2024 Olympic campaign, defeating Japan 102-76. Despite the 26-point blowout victory, A’ja Wilson and co. had a humiliating record associated with them – drawing the lowest crowd at the Paris Games. Stephen A. Smith condemned the selection committee for not adding Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese to the squad using this particular reason.
The NBA analyst took to his talk show and educated fans about the crowd that Team USA attracted for the tournament opener against Japan. Among the first six women’s games played, the USA-Japan had the lowest footfall. Smith encapsulated the reaction of several American basketball enthusiasts when implying that rookies Clark and Reese would’ve filled the arena.
“Team USA’s win over Japan only drew 13,040 fans which was the lowest attended game among the opening six matchups in group play. The Serbia v. Puerto Rico game was the 2nd worst-attended game with 15,324 fans in attendance… Four of the six opening games drew over 20,000 fans. This had some observers wondering if the presence of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese would have the stands packed for Team USA.”
Clark is massively responsible for popularising women’s basketball. First, she got millions of fans hooked to women’s college basketball during her stint with the Iowa Hawkeyes. Now, she’s become the major attraction for sporting enthusiasts to catch the WNBA. Stephen backed his take by presenting a few stats related to the views that the sensational player is generating.
“Not only did this year’s WNBA All-Star Game set a record with 3.4 million viewers, an increase of over 300% from the 2023 game, but the top 12 WNBA broadcasts this season have all been Fever games… On top of that, the Fever lead the WNBA in attendance at over 16,000 fans per game, over 4,000 more than the next closest team.”
The ESPN analyst also decided to shed light on Dawn Staley’s comments regarding Clark’s potential selection on the squad had the national team roster been made a few weeks after it actually was. The Iowa Hawkeyes’ coach said,
“If we had to do it all over again, the way that she’s playing, she would be in really high consideration of making the team because she is playing head and shoulders above a lot of people.”
Stephen recalled Staley’s comments about Clark and said, “Dawn Staley said Clark’s chances of making the team would’ve been a lot higher if she and her fellow committee members were selecting the roster today rather than several weeks ago.”
To be fair, Clark is a much better player than some of the players in the guard position on the squad. She would’ve also been a huge asset for the A’ja Wilson and co., who are struggling to shoot the three-point shot, from the long range and as a playmaker.
