How some media members reacted after Dawn Staley comments on Caitlin Clark, Olympic basketball

South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley and rest of the selection committee for USA women’s basketball were criticized when former Iowa star and WNBA rookie Caitlin Clark did not make the Olympic team for the Paris Games.

While appearing on NBC during the USA men’s basketball game on Sunday, Staley told studio host Mike Tirico that if she had the chance to create the roster all over again, Clark would be in high consideration.

Clark had a historic career and senior season at Iowa, highlighted by breaking the NCAA All-Time scoring record in March. The Hawkeyes fell short of the national championship in April, losing to South Carolina 87-75 in Clark’s final college game.

The Olympic roster was officially announced on June 11, a little less than a month after Clark made her WNBA debut with the Indiana Fever. At the time, Clark had only played 13 games in the professional league and was averaging roughly 5.7 turnovers per game, the most in the WNBA.

Clark is now leading the league in assists with 8.2 per game and averages 17 points per game, 15th overall in the WNBA. Clark competed against the best women’s players for a spot, and eight players from the 12-person Olympic roster sit above her for points per game this season. Arike Ogunbowale also didn’t make the team and at the time the roster was finalized, the Dallas Wings guard was the second-leading scorer in the WNBA.

After Staley said Sunday that Clark is playing “head and shoulders above a lot of people,” some took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to question those comments and the decision to leave Clark off the roster.