The Caitlin Clark Olympic snub

Cutting off your nose to spite your own face!

Clark puts up 30 points in the aftermath of being snubbed for the Olympics, tying a record for most threes in a game. Oh, and she had 8 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 steals in the victory.

But more importantly, the team she was playing against had to move their game from their normal 4200-seat arena to the Capital One arena where over 22,000 people came to watch the electric rookie and most famous WNBA player lead her team to victory.

The WNBA is a struggling league with 12 teams that barely averaged 6600 in attendance in the 2023 season. The league makes about 2% of what the NBA makes in profits and is largely ignored by most Americans. If you asked the average sports fan to name a WBNA player other than Caitlin Clark, many might be hard pressed to think of any. Some may remember Brittney Griner (who was arrested and convicted of drug charges in Russia) simply because of that situation. But how many will really even know most of the players who will be playing in the Olympics?

By the way, Griner (who has played in one game all season) is on the Olympic roster in spite of her being fairly unliked by many Americans. But the most famous and marketable player in the league is not.

Now the argument many are making is that she has not "earned her dues" and that the players chosen ahead of her are better. Maybe and maybe not. She was the best women's college basketball player to ever put on a jersey. She is a rookie who is getting better game by game and most have little doubt she will be a superstar.

However, many old school WNBA players and league personnel believe her celebrity and popularity is a knock on the rest of the players and disrespects the league in general. But eventually the WNBA has to acknowledge that Caitlin Clark is the best chance they have at becoming a league that can sell out 20,000 seat arenas rather than struggle to fill 4000-8000 seat forums. Caitlin Clark is the best chance they have to get a more lucrative television deal. Caitlin Clark is the best chance many of these players will have at making the sort of salaries that they demand they should be making. She could do for the WNBA what Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordon did for the NBA. Instead, they seem intent on marginalizing her and looking down on her stardom as if it is a nuisance to be swatted away.