Caitlin Clark's refusal to make 2024 Olympic team won't affect sport's popularity: Sandy Brondello

WNBA

by Andrew Crane

While the USA Basketball Association's decision to drop Fever star Caitlin Clark from the women's national team for the 2024 Paris Olympics has been met with a mix of criticism and support, Liberty University coach Sandy Brondello, who will return to coach Australia, doesn't believe it will mean viewers stop watching the sport on the international stage.

“It's the Olympics,” Brondello said before the Liberty beat the Mystics 93-88 on Sunday at Barclays Center. “No, it doesn't get any better than this. It's the U.S. Team. 70-3. Who do you leave out? It's a tough decision for the selection committee.”

Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu, the latter in her first Olympic appearance, will represent the Liberty, along with the Mercury's Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner, the Sun's Alyssa Thomas and the Aces' A'ja Wilson and Kelsey Plumb.

Jewel Loyd, Chelsea Gray and Napheesa Collier have also competed in Olympics at some point in their careers and will also be returning.

But Clark, the former Iowa star who was the No. 1 overall pick and averaged 16.8 points and 6.3 assists in her first 12 WNBA games, was left out.

“It means everything,” Ionescu said. “I was 15 years old and I got selected to the U-16 team for the first time as an uninvited member. I remember showing up there like a deer in headlights, but I believed in myself and I wanted to go out there and compete against the best and I got selected on that team. And to be able to stick with it every year and keep betting on myself and see it come full circle, if I get to make this team, it would mean so much to me and my journey as an athlete with USA Basketball.”

Clark told reporters on Sunday that he was “not disappointed” and recognized the decision “could have gone either way.”

She plans to watch from afar, enjoy a few weeks off, and use the neglect as motivation to become the next member of the team.

Fever head coach Christy Sides said Clark told her USA Basketball's decision “awakened the monster.”

The U.S. team has won nine Olympic gold medals in women's basketball since 1976, including the last seven, most recently in a 15-point victory over Japan at the Tokyo Olympics.

But Clarke is unlikely to steal the spotlight for now.

We'll have to wait until 2028 to see her contribute to the international buzz and growth of the sport.

“I know I'll have to make some tough decisions,” Brondello said. “You can't please everyone. You just do what you think is best at the moment. That's the Olympics. Everybody's going to get a chance.”