USA Basketball Refusing To Address Tweets From Olympic Coach Criticizing Caitlin Clark Proves Its Ineptitude

Caitlin Clark being left off the U.S. Olympic women's basketball roster for the upcoming Games in Paris is one of the most moronic, head-scratching decisions in the history of modern sports. Many are pinning the blame on Cheryl Reeve, not only because she is the U.S. team's head coach, but because of her past comments about Clark.

USA Basketball is not only predictably refusing to comment about Reeve's recent criticisms of Clark, but also making the claim Reeve, who also coaches the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx, doesn't have all that much say about how the U.S. roster is constructed.

Last month, Reeve comically complained about how a Lynx preseason game wasn't being televised like the first preseason game of Clark's career was with the Indiana Fever.

This feels like a good time to remind everyone that Caitlin Clark was the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft, is the all-time leading scorer in the history of college basketball, and is arguably the most popular female athlete in the Western hemisphere. 

USA Basketball made a mistake in keeping Caitlin Clark off of the U.S. women's basketball roster for Paris. (Credit: Getty Images)

Anyway, Reeve specifically mentioned Clark on X, formerly Twitter, in ultra-petty fashion when commenting on a post from the WNBA's account promoting the Fever and Clark.

"ALSO in action tonight — @minnesotalynx vs @chicagosky 7 pm CST. Though fans won’t be able to watch, #Lynx fans can go to the Lynx app to follow along via play by play. Or if you are in market, come to the game…as we start the season off right," Reeve wrote.

She finished off her posts with the petty hashtags "#theWismorethanoneplayer" and "#12teams."

Someone under the post asked why the Lynx game wasn't being televised, to which another person replied, "Because they only care about Caitlin." Reeve replied to that post, writing, "That part."

It doesn't take much to see why some would claim that Reeve kept Clark off of the Olympic roster out of spite.

USA Basketball isn't exactly slowing down the spread of that idea as Michael Terry, a spokesperson for the organization, told USA Today "Cheryl told me that she would not be commenting."

Cheryl Reeve, the head coach of the women's Olympic team, has criticized Caitlin Clark in the past. (Credit: Getty Images)

USA Basketball then stated that Reeve "does not have an official role in picking the 12" players on the Olympic roster. Instead, the "roster is selected by the committee as per the selection procedures."

READ: USA Basketball: 'Irresponsible' To Put Caitlin Clark On Olympics Roster Just For Exposure

The reality is that the U.S. Women's basketball team doesn't need a coach. The team has won seven gold medals since 1990 and should coast to another gold medal this summer in Paris. Reeve not having a say in roster construction may very well be true given dozens of different American rosters could be put together and the results in Paris would be the same.

Two things can be true at once, however, and USA Basketball completely ignoring its women's Olympic coach badmouthing the most popular player in the WNBA and the biggest snub in Olympic history is cowardly. 

Then again, the only entity to blame for this entire mess is USA Basketball itself. It dug deeper into an already crater-sized hole filled with criticisms of Clark.

USA women's basketball is hurting USA women's basketball more than anyone and anything else, period. It has fully committed to distancing itself from Clark, for now, and has to stick with that strategy no matter how incompetent it may be.