INDIANAPOLIS — Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games organizing committee president Casey Wasserman said Saturday night that the USA Basketball Association's decision not to include Kaitlyn Clark on the 2024 Olympic team was a “missed opportunity.”
“She's clearly a generational talent and I think we missed out on that at a time when the world needed her most,” Wasserman, who also heads an eponymous sports marketing and management company, said at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials.
“There was great talent in the world, unfortunately the world just wasn't ready for it,” Wasserman said. “Take Diana (Taurasi) or Breanna Stewart or some of our clients who will be joining the team. They were more dominant than we've ever seen, but the world just wasn't ready to pack the halls the way Caitlin Clark did at the Final Four.”
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“Now that we have both, this is a great opportunity. I think it was an opportunity to raise the level of the women's team. But I also understand the flip side of it, which is that this is an independent process and it's hard to tell (the coaches and committee) what to do.”
“I understand both sides of this issue, obviously it's just an opportunity to showcase the talent of a generation to the world, but I completely understand both sides. If it were that simple, we wouldn't be arguing,” Wasserman said.
Wasserman said the timing of the U.S. basketball national team training camp, held in Cleveland at the same time Clark's University of Iowa team was playing in the Women's Final Four, wasn't ideal.
“Unfortunately, one thing the USA Basketball Association needs to look at is the qualification process for players. If you have players that make it to the top of the NCAA Tournament, it makes it very difficult for them to get into that process and they don't necessarily get the opportunities that other players get,” he said.
“Whether she should have played or not, she didn't have the opportunity to be on the court in that moment and be recognized in the same way. That's hard for any athlete.”
As the organizer of the next Summer Olympics, Wasserman would definitely like to see Clark come to Los Angeles.
“I really hope she makes it to the 2028 Olympics,” he said. “She's a great star and the future is bright for American basketball.”
