{"id":156418,"date":"2025-07-08T18:39:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T18:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/156418\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T18:39:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T18:39:12","slug":"diana-taurasi-farewell-present-played-part-in-caitlin-clark-olympic-snub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/156418\/","title":{"rendered":"Diana Taurasi ‘farewell present’ played part in Caitlin Clark Olympic snub"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caitlin Clark being snubbed from the Olympics last summer remains one of the most controversial decisions in recent memory, and a new detail in USA Today columnist Christine Brennan\u2019s new book \u201cOn Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women\u2019s Sports\u201d<\/a> will only further that controversy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s basketball phenom was already facing an uphill battle to make the U.S. women\u2019s basketball team heading to Paris for the Summer Olympics, which included the fact that despite there being 12 roster spots available, one had already been promised to Diana Taurasi.<\/p>\n

Brennan\u2019s book<\/a> reported that the roster spot and a chance for an Olympic basketball-record sixth gold medal was Taurasi\u2019s \u201cfarewell present by USA Basketball.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Caitlin Clark\u2019s snubbing from the Olympics last summer remains one of the most controversial decisions in recent memory. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThis meant 11 spots, not 12, were open and available. Taurasi was a lock unless she was totally injured and couldn\u2019t play. And, frankly, she would be going even if she was a little injured and could only play sparingly,\u201d Brennan wrote in the book.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Taurasi, who was 42 during the Games, was moved to the bench for Jackie Young for the team\u2019s quarterfinals game. She did not play at all in Team USA\u2019s 67-66 win over France in the gold medal game.<\/p>\n

Clark had been averaging 16.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game through her first 16 games of her rookie WNBA season when she was passed over for a spot on the Olympic roster.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The decision not to include her created a stir of controversy and added to calls from fans and pundits that the old guard of women\u2019s basketball was jealous of the attention Clark had been getting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Christine Brennan wrote a biography of Caitlin Clark. AP<\/p>\n

The book further claimed that the USA Basketball Women\u2019s National Team Committee had been concerned that Clark fans would react negatively if she received limited playing time during the Olympics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brennan wrote that US women\u2019s basketball was \u201cconcerned about critical posts on X and Facebook and the like\u201d and that \u201cthey didn\u2019t want to deal\u201d with people\u2019s reactions over Clark\u2019s playing time.<\/p>\n

Selection committee chair Jen Rizzotti cited the group\u2019s \u201cbasketball criteria for why Clark did not make the squad. <\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s the basketball criteria that we were given as a committee and how do we evaluate our players based on that?\u201d Rizzotti told the AP at the time. \u201cAnd when you base your decision on criteria, there were other players that were harder to cut because they checked a lot more boxes. Then sometimes it comes down to position, style of play for [coach Cheryl Reeve] and then sometimes a vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark was offered a spot on the 3\u00d73 national team by USA Basketball, but she turned down the spot.<\/p>\n

Diana Taurasi Getty Images<\/p>\n

The United States did win gold in Paris behind the efforts of A\u2019ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner, Alyssa Thomas, Napheesa Collier, Jewell Loyd, Kelsey Plum, Jackie Young, Sabrina Ionescu, Chelsea Gray and Kahleah Copper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caitlin Clark being snubbed from the Olympics last summer remains one of the most controversial decisions in recent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,455,27929,5744,66,29598,3359,458],"class_list":{"0":"post-156418","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-caitlin-clark","10":"tag-diana-taurasi","11":"tag-olympics","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-summer-olympics","14":"tag-usa-basketball","15":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114819076272739158","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}