Regarding Team USA Basketball, it wasn’t just Caitlin Clark who should be on the team

Just as Caitlin Clark should play for Team USA in the 2024 Summer Olympics so should Arike Ogunbowale.

You really care about Clark’s exclusion, and likely have no idea that Dallas Wings’ Ogunbowale was so perturbed at the selection process she just took her name out of consideration.

Since we’re on the subject, the Dallas Mavericks’ Kyrie Irving should be playing for the men over Indiana’s Tyrese Halliburton.

If a player as good as Ogunbowale withdraws from even being considered for your team, you need to re-think how that team is run. If a player as good as Irving is not included on your roster, you need to re-think how that team is run. Immediately after USA Women’s Basketball wins gold at the 2024 Summer Olympics, the priority is not celebration but rather re-evaluation.

The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris begin on July 26, and the only real topic of conversation about Team USA’s women’s basketball team won’t be the results, because they won’t lose a game, but rather the one person who is not there.

The only real topic of conversation about Team USA’s men’s basketball team will be if they don’t win gold, and why a few players, specifically Irving, weren’t on the team.

A strong case can be made that Ogunbowale should be ahead of Clark in terms of players deserving to have a spot on the Team USA women’s basketball roster.

An argument that but 0.00001 percent of Americans cared about for the better part of 40 plus years has become the focal point of conversation all over America when Clark was not included on the team when the roster was announced last month.

Clark needs to be on the team, because when it comes to certain aspects USA Women’s Basketball must think that it’s still in the same spot when it picked the roster for the 1996 Olympics. That was a team built to win gold, and to sell tickets and drive interest.

This 2024 roster had to be built to win gold, and to still drive interest in the sport. We’re talking about women’s basketball, which is gaining momentum but still needs to think from the position of, “Sell! Sell! Sell!” Clark’s inclusion would not be some Livvy Dunne at the end of the bench.

Arika should have been on the team because she’s one of the best guards in the game. She ranks second in the WNBA in scoring, and ninth in assists.

“At the end of the day, I probably wasn’t going to be on the team and I realize that,” she said in a recent interview after a Dallas Wings practice. “It was more so not that I didn’t think I was good, it was the requirements to be in the Olympic pool.

“You have to get (drug) tested. You have to go their training camps. I’m not on any drugs, but as a competitor, I am not going to spend months going to their camps, getting tested, only to not make it.

“I’m not saying the Olympics won’t happen in the future, but I removed myself from the situation. It’s all respect. I have been playing for USA Basketball since I was 15, and it was a decision in the time of my life when I felt it was right.”

There is something seriously wrong with that.

Shortly after USA basketball announced the men’s roster, Irving said he wanted to be on the team. He also said he would miss the “tryout” camps that function in name only; that everyone knew who was going to be on the team before the roster was announced.

Reviewing this 12-player roster, and Irving would have been a better pick at guard over Haliburton. Jrue Holiday, too.

No one said the following, but they didn’t need to. The reason Irving wasn’t picked wasn’t because of his game, but rather his personality. Team USA wanted no potential part of a scenario where Irving is sitting before the international press corps discussing his controversial position about the COVID vaccine.

As a result, both deserving candidates to represent Team USA will not be playing in Paris.

Just as there is something seriously wrong with Caitlin Clark not playing in the Olympics, the same must be said for Arike Ogunbowale and Kyrie Irving. The reasons are all different, but the result is the same.