Caitlin Clark …. Seriously

[Wilcox Cummingtonite 2,949]

On 6/5/2024 at 5:57 AM, Pam Cummings said:

Those chicks look like 16 year olds

[PittsburghTiger 6,187]

I think she scored 30 last night, a career high, or tied her career high in the WNBA.

Yup from ESPN: Clark shot 7-of-13 from 3-point range and 8-of-15 overall, tying her season scoring high (May 28 vs. Los Angeles) for Indiana (3-9). She also had 8 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals with 8 turnovers.

[Macklemore 2,872]

How fucking stupid Team USA. Everyone wants to see Caitlin Clark. She is the face of women’s basketball.

 

Edited June 8 by Macklemore

[alincoln 2,371]

That’s what people enjoy watching.  Shooting and passing that resembles the best from the men’s game.  The wnba post game that most of the league’s best players have employed to dominate simply doesn’t engage the casual sports fan that drives ratings.  

[MNLonghornFUKM 8,817]

How fucking stupid Team USA. Everyone wants to see Caitlin Clark. She is the face of women’s basketball.
 

What? Diana Taurasi playing in her 7th Olympics isn’t good enough for you!?

[Kermit 3,156]

She needs a break, but that isn’t a good look. These old heads need to take a step back and let the new generation come up. That goes for the men’s team too.

[alincoln 2,371]

Reminiscent of the USWNT.  “You can pry my roster spot from my cold, dead fingers.”

Women team sports need to move beyond the mean girls era.  

[aggie08 21,504]

Do Olympians ever get their spots because of popularity, and not merit? The only one that comes to mean is Christian Laettner instead of LSU Shaq on the Dream Team, and no Isaiah.

[Kermit 3,156]

9 minutes ago, aggie08 said:

Do Olympians ever get their spots because of popularity, and not merit? The only one that comes to mean is Christian Laettner instead of LSU Shaq on the Dream Team, and no Isaiah.

Would her inclusion not be merited? 

[YGIFS 19,450]

Isaiah didn't get on because Jordan said he'd walk away if Thomas got on the roster.  And you can't have a Dream Team without Michael.  The Laettner thing over Shaq was always strange to me. I guess they needed some boring white dude to make Larry Bird seem hip?  

I don't know this game as well as most of you, but that seems strange to leave Caitlin off the Olympic Roster when she's clearly one of the best 12 female basketball players in the United States at any level.  I get that she's getting gruff in the WNBA, wrong as it may be.  But the U.S. team shouldn't be doling out this tacit "Well, she hasn't paid her dues yet.  We need to give the veterans their duly-earned spots"  Bullshit, the USOC doesn't fucking do that in any other women's olympic sports.  They don't leave off 19yo gymnasts or 21yo swimmers because "they need to put in their time."  This is it, this is their peak time.  They don't build a relay team off of 3 peak athletes and then 37yo Monica because she's really put in the work all these years.  

[Fud 9,552]

4 minutes ago, Kermit said:

Would her inclusion not be merited? 

Probably not

[Fud 9,552]

The bigger snub was Nneka last time around

[Fud 9,552]

 

[Pato del Muerto 52,499]

Who cares about crowd or tv size for the Olympics?  But if she makes them better she should be on the team. 

[Fud 9,552]

 

[YGIFS 19,450]

24 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Who cares about crowd or tv size for the Olympics?  But if she makes them better she should be on the team. 

^

this.  I don't care how Paris does on revenue from women's games attendance  I'd probably tune in to watch a game or two if my oldest who is into women's hoops now wants to.  All that matters is, "Is this player one of 12 that can guide us to gold?"  Again, y'all know this game way better than I do........but it's impossible she's not one of the 12 best women's basketball players in the Continental United States right now.  

[Fud 9,552]

2 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

impossible she's not one of the 12 best women's basketball players in the Continental United States right now.  

I mean, it’s very possible. US women’s is loaded

The more I think about it, the more it probably made sense to keep her off. She would have been buried on the bench, and everyone question from the media would have been about her

[Not a cat 5,657]

Just now, Fud said:

I mean, it’s very possible. US women’s is loaded

The more I think about it, the more it probably made sense to keep her off. She would have been buried on the bench, and everyone question from the media would have been about her

This, plus I imagine she'll welcome the break.  She has to be exhausted going straight from Iowa season to rookie season.

[Mitch Cumsteen 18,549]

lol they left her off the team. The tv execs have got to be just thrilled. We’re paying x billion dollars for what? For USA basketball to try to kill our ratings out of spite? Jealousy? As if her inclusion would have any bearing on the fact that team USA is going to roll regardless.

Years and years of women’s sports begging for any sort of attention and financial backing, and USA basketball is just going to stick their finger right in the eye.  This isn’t biting the hand that feeds you. It’s cutting off the hand and then rage eating it while you choke to death. These dumbasses deserve everything coming their way. 

[aggie08 21,504]

52 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

she's clearly one of the best 12 female basketball players in the United States at any level. 

You sure?

[Pato del Muerto 52,499]

7 minutes ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

lol they left her off the team. The tv execs have got to be just thrilled. We’re paying x billion dollars for what? For USA basketball to try to kill our ratings out of spite? Jealousy? As if her inclusion would have any bearing on the fact that team USA is going to roll regardless.

Years and years of women’s sports begging for any sort of attention and financial backing, and USA basketball is just going to stick their finger right in the eye.  This isn’t biting the hand that feeds you. It’s cutting off the hand and then rage eating it while you choke to death. These dumbasses deserve everything coming their way. 

If Clark has raised awareness of women’s basketball and created more fans, they’ll be watching their national team compete at one of its biggest events. 
If it’s just a bunch of Caitlin Clark fans, then is she really growing the game?  
 

I did see the post upthread about the venue change and sell out. That’s wonderful but is it only happening for Clark’s/indiana’s schedule?  I hope the game was entertaining so that people will go back for more. 

[Mitch Cumsteen 18,549]

4 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

If Clark has raised awareness of women’s basketball and created more fans, they’ll be watching their national team compete at one of its biggest events. 
If it’s just a bunch of Caitlin Clark fans, then is she really growing the game?  
 

I did see the post upthread about the venue change and sell out. That’s wonderful but is it only happening for Clark’s/indiana’s schedule?  I hope the game was entertaining so that people will go back for more. 

I’m not really a marketing guy but maybe, just maybe, they would have a better chance of growing the game if they included its most popular player on its biggest stage? Like, are you being serious?

[Pancho 44,805]

1 hour ago, Kermit said:

Would her inclusion not be merited? 

Compare her stats to the guards that were selected and you tell us

[Kermit 3,156]

7 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

If Clark has raised awareness of women’s basketball and created more fans, they’ll be watching their national team compete at one of its biggest events. 
If it’s just a bunch of Caitlin Clark fans, then is she really growing the game?  
 

I did see the post upthread about the venue change and sell out. That’s wonderful but is it only happening for Clark’s/indiana’s schedule?  I hope the game was entertaining so that people will go back for more. 

It doesn’t really matter if they’re just there for CC or not, they’re there. Other players will have these new fans watching them as well. They’ve been trying for so long to get any kind of traction with the casual basketball fan, and miraculously this popular player drops into their lap along with a pretty sizable fanbase. She’s going to help them grow the game, even women’s basketball continues to shoot itself in the tit.

[ChickenSandwich 9,836]

Scoring:13th

Assist:4th

Steals: 17th

Reb: 26th 

 

Still a terrible decision not to include her. Would think her assists would rise even more with better teammates 

[Kermit 3,156]

3 minutes ago, Pancho said:

Compare her stats to the guards that were selected and you tell us

If we’re going on this seasons stats, explain Diana and Britney.

[Fud 9,552]

It was dumb from an interest/views perspective. It’s not necessarily a snub though. Nneka’s was worse. It’s similar to Kyrie and Brunson not making it because the men’s team is so loaded, but her probably having less of an argument than those two 

Funny thing is she would have only seen garbage time minutes.. which would have actually been considerable due to how much better they are than everyone else. So everyone would stay tuned through blowouts so they could catch all of her minutes 

[Fud 9,552]

1 minute ago, ChickenSandwich said:

Scoring:13th

Assist:4th

Steals: 17th

Reb: 26th 

 

Still a terrible decision not to include her. Would think her assists would rise even more with better teammates 

The guards who made it are flat out better than her right now. She might be better in two years, but I think the merits argument is less convincing than an “interest” argument 

[Kermit 3,156]

Just now, Fud said:

The guards who made it are flat out better than her right now. She might be better in two years, but I think the merits argument is less convincing than an “interest” argument 

My merit argument would include her college career as well, seeing as how one has just blended into the other without any rest. There are definitely more deserving candidates and if they were going to choose her, it would be as a mascot.

[Pancho 44,805]

And 

5 minutes ago, Kermit said:

If we’re going on this seasons stats, explain Diana and Britney.

Taurasi is the Jordan of women’s basketball right now. Why would she be left off the team?

Griner isn’t a guard so that is a bad comparison on your part.

[Derka 6,208]

51 minutes ago, Fud said:

 

so do they want eyeballs or not? do they want to grow the game and its popularity or not? the team is going to win every single game easily, but you’re going to have about 10x more viewership if CC is on the team and being showcased all over social media and television. look, pick only the best players if you want to, but STFU about it if nobody watches.

this summer is this sport’s one moment in time to actually advance the popularity of their sport, something they’ve been desperately trying to do for years, and to this point all they’ve done is taken people who were indifferent about the league and it’s players and made them anti-wnba. one of the all-time fumblings of a great opportunity. just hilariously pathetic.

Edited June 8 by definitely not derka

[Kermit 3,156]

8 minutes ago, Pancho said:

And 

Taurasi is the Jordan of women’s basketball right now. Why would she be left off the team?

Griner isn’t a guard so that is a bad comparison on your part.

If we’re going in stats, she doesn’t belong. If we’re going by popularity, CC has her beat there too. They could’ve shoe-horned her in, but there are admittedly players that deserve inclusion more than the two of them. Also, there are more deserving post players than someone who hasn’t played the entire season. 

[Pancho 44,805]

Also Clark didn’t/couldnt attend the national training camp which is basically where the team is selected. 
 

Why now should olympians be chosen by popularity? And how do people know she wanted to do this? It’s entirely possible it’s not something she wanted to do. 

[TonyTexas 10,515]

If it had gone the other way, there would have been an equal outcry that more deserving players got the shaft in the pursuit of eyeballs vs fielding the best team. 

[immamac 42,852]

28 minutes ago, Pancho said:

Compare her stats to the guards that were selected and you tell us

Points: meh

Assists: meh

Rebounds: meh 

Dribbles: lots

Eyeballs: more than everyone else on that team combined. 

 

[Derka 6,208]

Just now, Pancho said:

Why now should olympians be chosen by popularity?

are you serious? pancho i’ve “known” you for probably 20 years on these boards, and i generally respect you and your takes, but you are so far off the fucking deep end when it comes to the wnba that it’s impossible to take you seriously. you are way too smart to be making the posts and taking the stances that you’re taking. stop it. use your head. use even a modicum of common sense. you know the answer to this question.

that said, to answer your question, which again is a completely asinine and tone deaf question, the reason that NOW is the time to do this is because THESE UNTALENTED BITCHES HAVE BEEN BEGGING FOR ATTENTION FOR DECADES. HELLO!!! all we ever hear from these entitled “athletes” who play a sport that nobody likes is how much more attention and respect they deserve. they FINALLY have a player who puts asses in the seats and eyeballs on tv and instead of embracing her the entire league treats her like a pariah. they push her away. they turn up their collective nose at the attention they’ve been begging for. it is just monumentally stupid and petty, the way these women have reacted to caitlyn clark joining their league. leaving her out of their worldwide showcase event is just the cherry on top of the tone deaf sundae. it’s pathetic.

seriously dude- you should be better than this. objectivity should not be beyond you.

[Derka 6,208]

7 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:

If it had gone the other way, there would have been an equal outcry that more deserving players got the shaft in the pursuit of eyeballs vs fielding the best team. 

lol no. not even remotely close.

[Derka 6,208]

this thread has more posts in the last three weeks than this forum’s wnba thread has in its four-year existence. and people seriously ask why caitlyn clark should be on the team. smh. 

[Derka 6,208]

 

a)as if this solution was not objectively worse

b)as if they couldn’t find enough PT for her as team usa defeats kyrgyzstan 115-28.

Edited June 8 by definitely not derka

[Pancho 44,805]

20 minutes ago, Kermit said:

If we’re going in stats, she doesn’t belong. If we’re going by popularity, CC has her beat there too. They could’ve shoe-horned her in, but there are admittedly players that deserve inclusion more than the two of them. Also, there are more deserving post players than someone who hasn’t played the entire season. 

It’s not clear who you’re talking about here 

[Macklemore 2,872]

I dropped $100 a ticket to take my wife to see Caitlin Clark in a few weeks. First time ever going to a women’s basketball game. We’re going solely to see CC. She is that much of a badass that she fills NBA arenas on her own. Yet, she is not good enough for Team USA. Fuck that bullshit. All of her haters in the WNBA can fuck off. Angel Reese is up there with Draymond as biggest assholes who I root to fail in basketball.

[Kermit 3,156]

8 minutes ago, Pancho said:

It’s not clear who you’re talking about here 

 Diana for the stats, which was your argument before you went all Jordan thinking that would end the discussion. Britney for the post as you mentioned that her and CC play different positions (which is true). There are more deserving players than Britney Griner, who has played one fucking game all season. 

[LTtxfan 49,188]

3 hours ago, Kermit said:

She needs a break, but that isn’t a good look. These old heads need to take a step back and let the new generation come up. That goes for the men’s team too.

Yeah if I'm Caitlin's team, I would be recommending that she skip the Olympics this year.  Needs the off time, and also has to get a lot stronger in the off-season.  

[MrX 734]

Leaving Clark off the team is super dumb. Who cares about merit when you’re talking about the 12th spot - it’s arguable she’s a top 12 American player anyway. And why not get her experience now when you know she’s going to be a centerpiece of the ‘28 team. 

[Pancho 44,805]

27 minutes ago, Kermit said:

 Diana for the stats, which was your argument before you went all Jordan thinking that would end the discussion. Britney for the post as you mentioned that her and CC play different positions (which is true). There are more deserving players than Britney Griner, who has played one fucking game all season. 

No I didn’t think that would end the discussion lol. Taurasi isn’t deserving? Is that your argument?

Who are more deserving centers than Griner? Did they also try out for the team?

[Pancho 44,805]

3 hours ago, Kermit said:

She needs a break, but that isn’t a good look. These old heads need to take a step back and let the new generation come up. That goes for the men’s team too.

You can’t have both here. Would you be as emotional if she was invited but declined?

[LTtxfan 49,188]

50 minutes ago, definitely not derka said:

 

a)as if this solution was not objectively worse

b)as if they couldn’t find enough PT for her as team usa defeats kyrgyzstan 115-28.

This tweet cracked me up.  Here's rest of it in case yah didn't click to see it...

[Mitch Cumsteen 18,549]

4 minutes ago, Pancho said:

You can’t have both here. Would you be as emotional if she was invited but declined?

Zero chance she declines. You think Nike is paying her all that dough to not play in the Olympics? You don’t think they would be cramming her commercials non stop during the games? Hell, they will probably will anyway. 

David Stern has got to be doing backflips in his grave today. 

[Kermit 3,156]

Quote

You can’t have both here. Would you be as emotional if she was invited but declined?

No one is emotional. We’re having a sports argument on the internet champ.

Edited June 8 by Kermit

[closetohumping 17,442]

Surprising but I’m pleased that most male minority sportscasters are saying “yes there is a racial component.  The women are jealous but need to realize CC is the reason for attention. “. Lavar and tj think cc should be on team.  I disagree