The USA women's national basketball team won gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics, marking their eighth-consecutive first-place finish at the worldwide event. They did so in thrilling fashion, just squeaking by France in the gold medal game by a final score of 67-66.
Although Team USA didn't have much of an issue on their way to the final, fans still believed some players were snubbed off the team. Stars like Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese and Dallas Wings guard and WNBA All-Star MVP Arike Ogunbowale all could have made an impact for the USA.
But WNBA legend Sue Bird thinks it would have been tough to take someone off the roster to make room for the aforementioned three.
Bird sat down with Rachel Nichols on " Open Run " and set the record straight on this year's snubs, mentioning the difficulty in deciding the USA roster with so much WNBA talent.
“No, I mean, it's a gift and a curse," Bird said. "It's the reason for the dominance—we have so much talent. We've always said, and not lightly, that we could probably field another Olympic team, another World Cup team. Sadly, that always leads to this idea of snubs. It's tough."
The former Seattle Storm star proceeded to give an example of an Olympic snub that was a tough pill to swallow.
"There have been ones before," Bird continued. "Candace Parker is probably the biggest one, in my opinion, in all of USA basketball. But then it always comes down to who do you take off, right? If you're someone out there willing to pick one player to take off to put another on, by all means."
Parker played in the WNBA from 2008 to 2023. Although she made Team USA in 2008 and 2012, she was left off the team in 2016 even though she was still playing at an All-Star level.
"For me, personally, I look back at all of our Olympic teams, all of our World Cup teams, and I don't know who I would take off," Bird stated. "That's kind of, again, the gift and the curse of it all."
Bird played 20 years in the WNBA with the Seattle Storm, bringing them four championships. She also played in five different Olympics with Team USA, winning gold in all of them.
Clark, Reese, and Ogunbowale will get another chance to play for Team USA as soon as 2026, when Germany hosts the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup. They are also young enough to compete at multiple Olympics in the future, with the next being in Los Angeles in 2028.
Related: Brittney Griner's Blunt Response To Caitlin Clark Sign In USA-Japan
Related: Caitlin Clark's New Nickname From WNBA All-Star MVP Says It All
Most Popular
Comments / 0