Caitlin Clark has emerged as one of the most famous athletes in the world. As was the case with Steph Curry in his rise to superstardom, Clark’s long-range shooting has been a big reason. Despite that, she will not partake in the Three-Point Contest on Friday night as part of the WNBA’s All-Star Weekend.
On Thursday’s Around the Horn , host Tony Reali asked the panel how the WNBA should feel about “Clark reportedly saying no to the three.”
Panelist David Dennis Jr. criticized Clark for not participating, saying bluntly, “I don’t like it when the stars do not do these competitions.” He then compared it to similar showcase events like MLB’s Home Run Derby and the NBA Slam Dunk Contest.
“I didn’t like not seeing Aaron Judge and Ohtani; I don’t like seeing the Lebron’s and the Zion’s [not] in the dunk contest,” he said. “But especially right now. For Caitlin Clark, this is a missed opportunity — as much for Caitlin Clark as it is for all those people who spent all that time talking about, ‘How could Team USA not have her on the team?’ Because ‘How do you grow the game without Caitlin Clark?’ This is another opportunity. What are they going to say now? Because Caitlin Clark has opted out of an opportunity that will grow the game.”
Dennis then referenced Sabrina Ionescu’s record-setting performance in the WNBA Three-Point Contest a year ago.
“We saw when [Sabrina] Ionescu broke the record for the three-point competition. She grew the game and it became a mainstream moment. So Caitlin Clark is opting out of that. Don’t tell me she’s tired. Because you wanted her on Team USA. Don’t tell me she doesn’t want attention. Because if she was on Team USA, she’d be getting a lot of attention. There’s really no excuse for her not to go out there and shoot a few threes for the betterment of the game that everybody says is so desperate for her to make grow.”
Dennis is far from the only person who wants to see stars in the showcase events. He’s not even the only commentator to detail this specific event. When the Three-Point Contest lineup was announced on Wednesday night, Sarah Spain said that the absence of both Clark and Ionescu was a “massive disappointment” and a “missed opportunity.” And Dennis has a point — to a degree. While Clark isn’t a one-woman show in the WNBA, she’s easily the most significant person behind the league’s increase in popularity. So, if she doesn’t participate in an event she can be in, it is a missed opportunity. That is fair.
Where Dennis loses his argument is comparing the WNBA Three-Point Contest to the Olympics. Michael Jordan’s performances in the Slam Dunk Contest in the 1980s were legendary, as were Larry Bird’s Three-Point shootout wins. But as great as they were, those triumphs didn’t have anything close to the global impact that the Dream Team — which both Jordan and Bird were part of — had in the summer of 1992 at the Barcelona Olympics.
During the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Jeré Longman detailed in The New York Times how much the face of the NBA had changed in the 20 years since the Dream Team’s epic gold medal win in 1992.
“Two decades ago, the N.B.A. was viewed in 88 countries,” Longman wrote . “Now it is 217 nations and territories. On opening day of the 1991-92 season, N.B.A. rosters featured 23 international players from 18 countries. As last season began, it was 74 players from 35 countries.”
That’s not to say that Team USA at its present construction won’t help grow women’s basketball at the Paris Olympics. It’s also not to say that Clark would have sparked Dream Team levels of growth if she was an Olympian or that none of that growth would have happened without the Dream Team. But the Olympics and Three-Point shootout are apples and oranges.
Or, think of it this way. Imagine coming home after a long day at work. Someone asks you if you want to go out to dinner and you decline, saying you’re tired. Minutes later, someone tells you they have an extra ticket for a game that night, a game that features Clark and her Indiana Fever. If you’re a WNBA fan, you probably go. Theoretically, the answer should even be a harder no. Going to a game is far more draining and time-consuming than going to dinner. If you’re not up to do one, you shouldn’t be up to do the other, right? Well, only when the events are comparable.
Being disappointed that Clark won’t be on the Olympic team is fine, as is being disappointed that she won’t be in the Three-Point Contest. But we just can’t compare the events. So, expecting similar reactions from Clark’s absence in both isn’t realistic.
[David Dennis Jr. on X , The New York Times ]
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