Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark drives on the New York Liberty forward Betnijah Laney-Hamilton at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Sat May 18, 2024 (AP file photo)

Caitlan Clark was snubbed from the Olympic roster?

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

By Amaury Pi-González

It looks like not everybody is pleased with Caitlin Clark’s popularity; could this be pure envy because she is so good, or could there be other motives? In 2023, over 60% of players in the WNBA were black or African American. Caitlin Clark is not. The question is why she was snubbed from the USA Olympic Basketball team roster for the Olympic games in Paris, France. Nobody seems to have a reason why she will not be with the US Olympic team.

However, we all agree that Caitlin Clark put the WNBA on the prosperity map. The Commissioner of the WNBA said in early May that the league plans to commit $50 million over the next two years to provide full-time charter flights for teams during the season.

This addresses years of player safety concerns. That means WNBA players do not have to stand in the security lines to board a regular commercial flight. Commissioner Engelbert said the first two seasons will cost $25 million annually. For the first time in the history of this women’s professional basketball league, all the teams are traveling charter planes. This would not have happened without the arrival of Caitlin Clark.

Caitlin Clark’s base salary for her first year in the WNBA is around $76,000. In April 2024, CBS reported that Clark’s four-year rookie contract is worth $338,056. She’ll be paid $76,535 in 2024, $78,066 in 2025, $85,873 in 2026, and $97,582 in 2027.

Clark has made the WNBA relevant and has grown as popular as ever. Jackie Young of the Las Vegas Aces has the highest average salary in the WNBA for the 2024 season, according to Spotrac. She is making $252,450 for the 2024 season as a part of a two-year, $504,900 contract.

But let’s return to why Caitlan Clark was left off the 2024 US Olympic Women’s Basketball roster. Citing two sources, USA Today columnist Christine Brennan reported one factor in omitting Clark from the women’s national team was the concern about how the former Iowa star’s fans would react to her playing time in the Olympics, which would likely have been limited. “If true, that would be an extraordinary admission of the existence of real tension that the old guard of women’s basketball harbors for this multi-million-dollar sensation,” Brennan wrote of the sources’ knowledge.

Clark has won three gold medals with USA Basketball junior national teams, including her latest with the 2021 USA Women’s U19 National Team. The U.S. women have won every gold medal in women’s basketball since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

I’m not speculating why Caitlin is left out, but it doesn’t seem to make sense if the US is trying to win gold this summer. If Caitlin Clark is not with the US Women’s Olympic Basketball team, I truly hope the ‘powers to be’ reconsider.

Just imagine what would have happened if Michael Jordan had not been selected to play with the US Olympic Dream team in Barcelona in 1992. Charles Barkley, who is never afraid of speaking his mind, calls out the “pettiness” of WNBA veterans against rookie Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark and said he was flabbergasted. “Considering the WNBA was hitting the lottery with the “shining star.”

Amaury Pi Gonzalez was a former Golden State Warriors Spanish broadcaster and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com