Caitlin Clark’s snub from the 2024 US Olympics team made headlines on Saturday, but it’s not the first time a WNBA superstar didn’t make the cut in recent years.
Candace Parker, a two-time WNBA MVP was left off the team for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Parker said she believes her snub was a direct result of Geno Auriemma — the Connecticut Huskies head coach who had considerable influence on the 12-woman roster — not wanting her on the team.
“As soon as he [Auriemma] was named the coach again, I was like ‘Ah, well, this is gonna be interesting,’” Parker said. “He doesn’t like me. I don’t like him. We don’t like each other.”
Parker called the league’s politics into question during her snub.
“There’s a number of players who are deserving … but how many times are we gonna say it’s unfair?” Parker told reporters at the time. “How many times are we gonna say it’s not politics? I think we all know that.”
But, what really made her angry was when her longtime Los Angeles Sparks teammate Nneka Ogwumike was left off the roster five years later at the 2021 Tokyo games.
Ogwumike was the 2016 league MVP and WNBA players’ association president, something Parker believed should have earned her the spot back then, and definitely in 2021.
“You have someone that arguably, maybe [should have been on Team USA in] 2016, but definitely [2020],” Parker said about Ogwumike. “She’s the only MVP of the league. She went and got MVP of the World Games. And then you leave her off the team?!”
USA Today reported that Clark’s popularity and the potential reaction from fans to her inevitable lack of playing time on a stacked roster factored into the decision.
Coach Cheryl Reeve’s roster will rely more heavily on veteran players, such as Breanna Stewart, A’ja Wilson, Napheesa Collier, Jewell Loyd and Chelsea Gray.
Jemele Hill, former ESPN anchor and current writer for the Atlantic, said she believes this decision likely will serve as a much-needed break for Clark, who has been playing non-stop since her final season at Iowa.
“Honestly, Caitlin Clark not being on this year’s Olympics team is actually a good thing — FOR HER,” Hill, the former ESPN anchor and current Atlantic writer wrote on X on Saturday. “In the span of weeks, she went from playing college ball, to becoming a professional, to having a grind of schedule. A multi-week break probably isn’t the worst thing in the world. She will eventually make an Olympic team.”
Hill also doesn’t see the decision as a “snub” at all.
“I don’t consider Caitlin Clark being left off the Olympic team, a snub. Now when Candace Parker and Nneka Ogwumike were left off the Olympic teams, THAT was a snub,” Hill wrote. “Nneka was league MVP, led Team USA in scoring a year before the Olympics, and was MVP of the FIBA qualifying tournament. CP had won two gold medals, was a former MVP and a champion. Think Nneka is the only WNBA MVP to not make an Olympic roster.”
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