Awful comparison....
Jeremy Lin wasn't the #1 pick, considered the future of women's basketball, one of the best college players of all time, and the biggest name in sports period. And most importantly....the NBA wasn't a dying league. They had stars, they had exposure, they had money...
the WNBA has none of that. So yes, if the NBA was in the same position as the WNBA is now, I would have absolutely put his ass on the team.
Future of women's basketball. So 2028, ALL hers. No argument on future. That ain't today though. Jeremy Lin became one of the biggest names in sports in TWO WEEKS. Jeremy Lin went from sleepin on a couch to "ehh put him in the all-star game. why not? It's a celebration." The NBA, the league with stars, exposure and money, STILL tried to shoehorn Lin into everything. Why? Because that's what Americans do: milk cows dry. Nobody argued Lin for the Olympics for 2 reasons:
1. he didn't go through the process of making the team and America got serious about that process because they didn't want a repeat of 2004.
2. there were better players than him.
The WNBA is NOT a dying league. See, if WNBA players are jealous, I can kinda understand, because they have been making strides. The growth they've made the last couple of years cannot be ignored. It's why Clark could enter the league and there actually be anticipation. Clark will be the piece that propels this further but there's no deadline to this. Diana Taurasi's about to enter Olympics #6 yet if Clark didn't make it now the whole operation falls apart? One day, Clark will wind up in Olympics #5 or whatever and we'll be talking about Clark the way everyone's talking about Taurasi now. There's no expiration date on where women's basketball is going. Only devastating injury can destroy the Clark component of this (and I'm talking so bad that it prevents her from being the face of the Olympics as a whole which happen in 4 years. When has a female basketball player been the headliner? That will be there for her, but people want it now without justification.