Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark’s omission from the Team USA basketball roster for the 2024 summer Olympics in Paris left fans outraged and many questioning the reason why she was snubbed.
According to a report from Christine Brennan of USA TODAY, there were concerns within Team USA of how Clark’s millions of fans would “react to what would likely be limited playing time on a stacked roster.”
The Team USA roster is loaded without a doubt, but Clark’s presence, even on the end of the bench, would certainly drive marketing around the premier worldwide sporting event,
Instead, Clark will be at home this summer, enjoying a mid-season Olympic break from the WNBA to rest up and root for the players who did make the roster.
Clark tied a career-high with 30 points in Friday night’s victory over the win-less Washington Mystics. In her first WNBA season, she is averaging 16.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.3 assists on 37.3% shooting from the floor.
The Fever take the court again on Monday against the Connecticut Sun, looking to capture their fourth win of the season.
"Individuals who have never covered the WNBA before, don’t have the history to help provide context, don’t know the storylines or the players, but have large platforms and the loudest voices, are helping to fan the flames."
— Lyndsey D'Arcangelo 🏀 (@darcangel21) June 3, 2024
And since I'm on a soapbox, lemme just add that "talking" about a sport does not equal "covering" a sport. These ppl are TALKING about the WNBA. But they aint covering it. I haven't seen a single one of these high profile media personalities in the press conferences (1/2)
Actually, I’m lucky enough to have my own column, so I can tell you how much I hate these tweets and I will tell you how much I hate them.
First, and most important, I’m not trying to single out the writers of tweets. I’m not familiar with either of their work, but I’ve seen this take a lot over the past few weeks and these particular tweets were retweeted into my feed Monday and pushed me to write about it.
The theory that you have to be a long-time WNBA follower/watcher in order to voice an opinion about general issues regarding the league and the game is complete nonsense.
You don’t have to watch every WNBA game to know this is a cheap shot.
Anyone who knows anything about basketball knows this is a dirty play.
I agree that someone who doesn’t follow the WNBA shouldn’t be breaking down which team has the best defense or which coaches are great at X’s and O’s strategy. But the idea that unless you are a hardcore WNBA watcher you should shut up about anything related to the league goes against everything that is sports.
People are allowed to talk about a sport without covering that sport. People who have large platforms are allowed to weigh in on any sports topic they want if they think the general audience will respond, watch, or click.
What so many people seem to be forgetting about what’s going on with the WNBA right now is that sports are supposed to be fun. Sports are supposed to be entertaining. Sports are a watercooler topic. A huge part of sports fandom is arguing, offering opinions and debating. The WNBA has that right now because of Caitlin Clark.
Here's the other thing that’s going on here. Sports are also a business. It’s a business for companies and individuals who rely on page views, engagement, clicks, subscriptions, video views, etc. If the people in those businesses see that Clark drives those things (and she does), then they will give you as much Clark content as possible regardless of what their WNBA coverage has been in the past. This is just Business 101.
So if there’s a dirty play in any sport, or if a player gets a historic contract in any sport, or if a player sets ratings records in any sport, it’s going to get talked about by plenty of people who don’t follow the sport.
The other issue here is Clark has crossed over into the mainstream. She gets covered on the Today show, network evening news, People magazine, TMZ, etc. She is not just a sports figure at this point. She is also a pop-culture figure.
Whether you like it or not, more people are watching the WNBA and attending the WNBA because of Clark. That can’t be argued. And a lot of those people just care about Clark and not the WNBA. So people with small platforms, big platforms and no platforms are going to opine on any and everything related to Clark. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
2. In Monday’s Traina Thoughts, we told you about Monica McNutt pushing back against Stephen A. Smith on First Take about his coverage of the WNBA. Smith wanted credit for talking about the WNBA on the show and McNutt said, “Stephen A., respectfully, with your platform you could’ve been doing this three years ago if you wanted to."
Here’s the reality though. You know why Smith has covered the WNBA? And do you know why ESPN covers the WNBA? Because the network airs WNBA games. If you think ESPN would spend as much time covering the WNBA if they didn’t have television rights, I have three words for you: National. Hockey. League. ESPN gave the NHL very little coverage when it didn’t air games.
3. Good news for Good Morning Football fans. Kyle Brandt revealed Monday that he will remain with the show when it moves from New York City to Los Angeles later this summer. Brandt will be on the air five days a week. Jamie Erdahl has already announced that she’s making the move to California.
4. Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano, who appeared in 75 games for the San Diego last season, was suspended for life by Major League Baseball on Tuesday for betting on the sport.
Marcaho definitely seems like he enjoys placing a wager.
He was found to have placed 387 baseball bets from Oct. 16, 2022 to Nov. 1, 2023, totaling more than $150,000.
The problem is that 231 of those wagers included MLB games. The league says 25 of those bets included wagers on Pittsburgh Pirates games while he was on the team’s major league roster.
Here is MLB's account of the baseball betting by Tucupita Marcano that caused him to be banned from baseball "permanently."
231 bets on baseball Baseball bets totaling $87,319 25 bets on the Pirates while he was a Pirates player pic.twitter.com/WTEAslhqel
6. The latest episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina features a conversation with Charles Barkley.
The Inside the NBA host discusses the possibility of TNT losing the NBA in the current television rights negotiations, his frustration with the lack of communication from Warner Brothers Discovery about the negotiations, whether the show could continue on another network, reaction from fans to the possible end of Inside the NBA, the awkwardness of still having to work next season for TNT if it loses the NBA beginning in the 2025–26 season, and the lack of loyalty from the NBA and what would make him decide between ESPN, NBC and Amazon if he became a free agent.
Barkley also goes off on CNN for never telling him that his show with Gayle King, King Charles, was canceled, he explains what could make him be the subject of a comedy roast, who the two nicest GOATs are in sports, the Lakers saying that LeBron James doesn't have a say in their coaching search and the reaction to his recent Caitlin Clark rant.
Following Barkley, Sal Licata from WFAN and SNY joins me for the weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week's topics include the passing of Bill Walton, Ángel Hernández's retirement from Major League Baseball, the mystery behind the Dov Kleiman Twitter account and the latest story about a restaurant charging for a ridiculous service.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Since I included Scott Van Pelt’s rant about going to the beach today, we should remember when happened when Larry David went to the beach.
Caitlin Clark has the entire sports talk industry turned upside down right now. Clark and the Indiana Fever have been playing nonstop since the season started and between the attention and pressure, she has struggledout of the gate. On top of that there's how she's being treated by other teams, which has not been very nicely, culminating in a cheap shot from Chennedy Carter over the weekend.
On Monday's episode of The Pat McAfee Show, the eponymous host got out from behind the desk and did a whole presentation about how important Clark is and how jealous all the haters are. He did this is in a McAfee-specific fashion as he swore on ESPN and identified Clark as the "white b----" who has lifted the entire sport.
Monday's Pat McAfee Show opened with a Caitlin Clark PowerPoint:
"I would like the media people that continue to say, 'This rookie class, this rookie class, this rookie class'. Nah, just call it for what it is — there's one white bitch for the Indiana team who is a superstar." pic.twitter.com/psGNQXts5O
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 3, 2024
"I would like the media people that continue to say this rookie class, this rookie class, this rookie class. Nah. Just call it for what it is," said McAfee. "There's one white b---- for this Indiana team who is a superstar. And is it because she stayed in Iowa, put an entire team on her back, took a program from nothing to a multiple-year success story?"
"Is it because she would go on to break the entire points records in the history of the NCAA? Not just the women's by Kelsea Plum - shout out - but also "Pistol" Pete Maravich's. The dude's record as well. Is there a chance that people just like watching her play basketball? Because of how electrifying she is. What she did. What she stood for. How she went about going what she went for? Maybe. But instead we have to hear people say that we only like her because she's white. And she's only popular because the rest of the rookie class is doing what they're doing. That's a bunch of bulls----. And we think the WNBA, more specifically, their refs, need to stop trying to screw her over at every single turn. What you have is somebody special. And we're lucky to have her in Indiana."
McAfee also discussed the "Eminem effect," playing a clip of 50 Cent saying people didn't want to give Eminem credit because he was white. "Let's just take that into the WNBA situation," said McAfee. "That it is just a bunch of racist people who will only watch if a white superstar is there." Then the show put up pictures of Diana Taurasi, Sabrina Ionescu, Kelsey Plum and Breanna Stewart. "I think what we're trying to say is what the WNBA currently has is what we like to describe as a cash cow. There is a superstar."
All-in-all, a very colorful presentation by McAfee, who continues to make it clear that he can do whatever he wants on ESPN. Including defending Clark by trying to make sense of why so many people apparently hate her. By whatever means necessary.
Caitlin Clark is a supporter of all women's sports, not just the WNBA.
Prior to Clark's game with the Indiana Fever on Friday night, an 85-83 Fever win over the winless Washington Mystics, the rookie was asked if she had tuned into Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks, which had tipped off Thursday night.
Clark's response was perfect.
Caitlin Clark was asked if she watched the NBA Finals last night: “I had the women’s college softball World Series on instead… there’s a girl that pitches for Texas who’s a freshman that actually lived a couple streets over from me growing up.”
"To be honest, I had the women’s college softball world series on instead," Clark said. "It was a little bit better of a game, but when I flipped back to the NBA... Yeah I was flipping back and forth."
"There’s a girl that pitches for Texas who’s a freshman that actually lived a couple streets over from me growing up, so I was rooting for the Texas Longhorns, unfortunately, they couldn't get it done. I think that's even just a great display of women's sports and where it's going. I've always been a big fan of women's softball and women's sports across the board, so I was moreso watching that."
Clark did acknowledge that she's watching the finals, though she also admitted that the Indiana Pacers, who lost to the Boston Celtics in the conference finals, not making it affected her interest levels a bit.
But the bigger point here is Clark's unwavering support for women's sports across the board. As arguably the biggest driver of interest in the WNBA at the moment, Clark has the ability to help lift up nearly any other women's sport she supports or has an interest in.
Clark was doing just that by bringing attention to the women's college softball world series.
