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On the eve of her team’s opening contest at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris, USA Women’s Basketball head coach Dawn Staley revisited the decision to leave Caitlin Clark off the roster.
Staley was part of the five-person women’s basketball committee that selected the 12 members of Team USA in early June. Speaking to NBC Sports on Sunday, July 28, Staley didn’t say she regretted leaving Clark off the team or that Clark would definitely be on the roster if the committee selected the group today. However, Staley did indicate that it would be difficult to leave Clark out now based on the improvement the WNBA star rookie displayed over the past several weeks of the regular season.
“If we had to do it all over again … she would be in really high consideration of making the [Olympic] team because she is playing head and shoulders above a lot of people,” Staley said, per the official SportsCenter Instagram account.
Caitlin Clark, Fever on Tear Over Last Several Weeks of WNBA Season
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GettyIndiana Fever point guard Caitlin Clark.
The Indiana Fever made Clark the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA draft, and the point guard has lived up to the investment.
Clark is averaging 17.1 points, 8.2 assists, 5.8 rebounds and 1.5 steals across 26 games played. The league is on an approximately month-long hiatus following All-Star Weekend due to the absence of so many players participating in the Olympic Games.
Indiana was the worst of the 12 teams in the WNBA last season but has jumped to seventh in the league-wide standings as of the break with a win/loss record of 11-15. The fever would make the playoffs if they started today.
Clark began the year with legitimate turnover and offensive efficiency issues, as the Fever got out to an abysmal 1-8 start as the calendar flipped from May to June. Since then, however, the team is 10-7 with a victory over both the current No. 1 seed New York Liberty and the current No. 3 seed Minnesota Lynx in its last five regular-season contests.
Clark has taken control of the group from the point guard position and her 8.2 assists per game lead the league. She is also fifth in the WNBA in average 3-pointers made at 2.7 per contest, despite shooting just under 33% from behind the arc. Clark is tied for 11th in points per game with the aforementioned average of 17.1.
Caitlin Clark on WNBA All-Star Team That Bested Team USA in Exhibition Game
GettyWNBA All-Star Caitlin Clark.
In the final game before the break against the Dallas Wings, Clark broke a WNBA record with 19 assists in a single contest. She also earned All-Star honors as a rookie and helped lead Team WNBA to a 117-109 victory over Team USA on All-Star Weekend. Clark finished the game with 10 assists and is a heavy favorite to win WNBA Rookie of the Year over Angel Reese.
Clark texted Fever head coach Christie Sides on June 9 after finding out the committee had left her off the Olympic roster and offered what now appears to be something of a harbinger on what was to come.
“She got the call on the bus and she texted me to let me know, and I just tried to keep her spirits up,” Sides said during a press conference. “The thing she said was, ‘Hey coach, they woke a monster,’ which I thought was awesome.”
Clark is already trending toward a status as one of the WNBA’s best players and has Staley questioning her own committee’s call to keep Clark off Team USA after helping the league’s group of second-tier stars best the Olympic squad earlier this month.
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