That’s objectively not true. Tim Tebow was the most popular player on the NFL and led the league in jersey sales coming back damn near at 40 years old. Yao Ming was leading the league in all star votes because of the Chinese market and literally broke MJ’s vote record. He started the NBA all star game averaging 13 points a game.
Team USA in 1992 put Christian Laettner on the team. In 2004 Lebron and Melo were on the team to just be there until everyone realized the team was bad.
In soccer National teams will regularly bring along young stars to generate interest and ticket sales.
Never mind the fact you are comparing the WNBA to teams that aren’t legitimately subsidized by their parent organization so they can stay afloat and where the average player is barely making a living wage.
I don’t care if Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are dogshyt (which they aren’t, both are already setting records, you insinuating they are scrubs is baffling) , you stick them on the team because it makes business and financial sense.
Let me start by saying the WNBA hasn't dropped the ball on Caitlin Clark at all. They've maxed her out so much that giving her the month off in the long run will benefit everyone. They've rode the wave to perfection. From a league standpoint, what have they done wrong? The NFL never treated Tebow like one of the best players in the sport. Yao became a hall of fame center who had the biggest population in the world ridin for him. Respective to their leagues, Clark hasn't been slighted.
To the bolded: whether you wanna come to terms with this or not, the WNBA has nothing to do with the USWNT committee's process and structure and development. If the committee wanted to call up JuJu and Paige and stick em on the team, they could and the WNBA couldn't say shyt. Hell, the NBA isn't lording over the Olympic committee for 3x3, which is why Jimmer Fredette is there. Soon enough, the whole committee will plan for LA primarily around Clark, Reese, Ionescu, Wilson, maybe Flau'jae, etc. and in 4 years, we may be watching the greatest women's team of all time together in LA with Clark being the face of US Sports (not just the women's team), but too many people lack foresight. The Christine Brennan's of the world wanted Clark there because in her mind, trying to make the current best players in the world a popular and interesting human interest story is too tough for her. Make me care about the best players in the world going out there and doing their thing because when the WNBA comes back they're gonna have to do that anyway, especially when Clark and Reese eventually get eliminated from the playoffs. For the league to truly grow, it can't just be about milking the Clark cow dry. Long story short, her not being there getting scrap minutes isn't slowing shyt down and it'll be proven once league play resumes.
Clark and Reese are ballin this year. The USWNT's process goes back farther than that when selecting the team. Their selection process wasn't based off of who was having the best season so far (and some really thought that's all it was because they couldn't believe Chelsea Gray was on the team despite not playing much this season). The outcry for now wanting Reese there when 3 months ago, some didn't know if her game would translate to the pros undermines their entire process which Reese will capitalize greatly off of as soon as 2 years from now. They're pretty much running back the same squad from 2 years ago at the World Cup (and the ones who subbed in were all at Tokyo in some capacity). In 2026, the team's gonna look just like this except Loyd, Thomas, Griner and Taurasi walk away for Clark, Reese, Hamby or Brink and then someone else and then that roster's gonna get 4-6 years together. They're not gonna mess with the formula.
They know they fukked up big time
. Even other countries wanna see and meet Caitlin Clark.
