As many Indiana Fever fans can easily recall, Caitiln Clark was not part of the 2024 National Team that traveled to Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. The decision to leave Clark off the roster was ultimately made by Cheryl Reeve, who coached the team that summer.
No one has really brought up controversy that surrounded that call until very recently, when Lisa Leslie said on an episode of ESPN's "First Take" that she doesn't "know how we left the country without her." While Team USA managed to win the gold medal, their championship match against the French National Team was a little tighter than some might have wished.
It's not possible to know what kind of impact Clark could have made at the time. She was brand new to the league and coming off her collegiate season still, and there's no way to know what kind of time Reeve would have given her and what she could have done with it. Of course, it's never been too difficult for her fans to imagine that she would have put in the performance of a lifetime, and Clark's own comments about being on the senior National Team definitely indicate she would have given it her best shot.
Caitlin Clark made her senior Team USA debut in 2025
Clark made her senior debut for Team USA in late 2025, when she joined several others as part of a training camp roster. She also joined the team in Puerto Rico this year, where they won the tournament. The tournament was also her first time back on the court since suffering a series of season-ending injuries in 2025, and Clark made it clear she was a little nervous about how the games would go. She was ultimately named tournament MVP, which more or less she had little to worry about — but the initial concern is justified.
The topic of whether or not Clark should represent Team USA at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California, will be a big one in the coming months. Team USA will participate in the FIBA tournament in Germany this September, which will give fans the first glimpse of what could be the final roster put together by managing director Sue Bird and head coach Kara Lawson. But it's also possible that Bird and Lawson will simply be trying out different iterations and versions of a roster that could ultimately continue Team USA's very successful Olympics win streak.
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