Ex-WNBA Player Describes the Reasons Behind Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark’s Exclusion from Team USA

The women’s team appears to have slipped under the radar while the entire basketball world seems to be fixated on the USA men’s national basketball team. In case you missed it, the USAB Showcase featured a victory over Germany by Team USA’s women’s basketball team. Nevertheless, Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, the two biggest sensations to join the WNBA this year, are not on the women’s national team.

Lindsay Whalen, a four-time champion and WNBA legend, recently appeared as a guest on SiriusXM NBA Radio. The former WNBA player continued her explanation for why none of the two rookies was selected for the women’s squad of Team USA.

She said that the players have been training as a core group for the previous four years. And it’s priceless how much chemistry and understanding they have been able to develop with one another.

“This is a four-year process to make this team. And there’s training camps and there’s practices and there is, I’m sure, Zoom calls. There’s so much that goes into it that I understand. Obviously, we have some incredible young players and rookies that have infused so much into the league.”

Lindsay raised a very important issue on the dynamics of a team. As she pointed out, the method of assembling the men’s national team differs slightly from that of assembling the national team to represent the nation.

“But we’re talking about an Olympic team. It’s to me, it was just a lot of timing of availability. Not by anyone’s fault. Caitlin-Angel, they’re in college trying to win national championships. And this group over here is practicing and training to win a gold medal.”

Furthermore, Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark were still in college, playing against each other for NCAA titles, as the current squad of the Women’s national team was still forming during their four-year process.Therefore, it makes perfect sense that nobody would want to alter the dynamic inside the current core group