The basketball world went into a frenzy when the U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team was announced on Saturday, mostly because Caitlin Clark was left off the roster.
While many fans were upset about this “snub,” Clark reacted to the news with class by explaining how she wasn’t disappointed to hear the news. Instead, she’s using this as motivation to help her make the team for the 2028 Olympics.
“Honestly, no disappointment. I think it just gives you something to work for,” Clark said, via Indy Star’s Chloe Peterson. “It’s a dream, hopefully one day I can be there. I think it’s just a little more motivation. You remember that and hopefully in four years, when four years comes back around, I can be there.”
Here are her full comments:
When it comes to not making the Olympic team, Caitlin Clark has nothing but praise for the 12 who made it: “it’s the toughest team to make.”
Instead of just focusing on herself, Clark shifted the conversation to talk about how excited she is for the 12 women who were named to Team USA.
“I’m excited for the girls that are on the team,” Clark said. “I know it’s the most competitive team in the world. I know it could’ve gone either way of me being on the team, me not being on the team. I’m excited for them. I’m going to be rooting them on to win gold.”
Clark has helped bring in record crowds to Indiana Fever games this season, and her stardom was reportedly part of the reason she was kept off the Olympic team this year as the team worried how fans would “react to what would likely be limited playing time on a stacked roster.”
Many heated WNBA discussions began after Chicago Sky's Chennedy Carter committed a hard foul on Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark during Saturday's game.
Even though this situation has been at the forefront of fan and media conversations, the players haven't said too much about what happened. Carter refused to answer questions about Clark after the game, and Sky rookie Angel Reese even skipped her media session, which earned her a $1,000 fine from the league.
Reese spoke out on Monday, though, in regards to conversations surrounding her being seen as a "villain" in contrast to Clark, the No. 1 WNBA draft pick. No matter how people talk about her, Reese admitted she's just happy that the WNBA is getting more recognition. But, she highlighted how there's more stars than just Clark in the league right now.
"People are talking about women's basketball, you never would think they'd be talking about women's basketball," Reese said. "People are pulling up to games. We got celebrities coming to games, sold out arenas. ... Just looking at that, I'll take that role. I'll take the bad guy role, and I'll continue to take that on and be that for my teammates. I know I'll go down in history. I'll look back in 20 years and be like, the reason why we're watching women's basketball is not just because of one person. It's because of me, too. I want y'all to realize that."
Angel Reese:
"We got celebrities coming to games. Sold out arenas...The reason why we're watching women's basketball is not just because of 1 person. It's because of me, too. I want y'all to realize that."
"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 didn't disappoint in her WNBA debut on Friday night, a 79–76 preseason loss for the Indiana Fever at the hands of the Dallas Wings at College Park Center in Arlington, TX.
Clark, playing professional basketball for the first time, looked right at home, scoring a team-high 21 points while draining five three-pointers in 28 minutes of action.
The Iowa product also provided a highlight reel moment in the first quarter, as she lost Wings defender Jacy Sheldon on the dribble—perhaps due to some contact by Clark—resulting in Sheldon falling to the floor as a photographer with impeccable timing snapped the picture. The Fever posted the epic photo onto X, formerly Twitter, and WNBA fans absolutely loved it.
Kudos to Gregory Shamus of Getty Images for getting the perfect photo. Clark went on to drain the three-pointer, to the delight of the sold-out crowd at the College Park Center.
Clark will next take the court for her home debut against the Atlanta Dream at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Thursday night after the contest was rescheduled to avoid conflict with the Indiana Pacers' playoff game.
