Alyssa Thomas is one of the greatest basketball players in Maryland history.
Strike that. Alyssa Thomas is the greatest basketball player in Maryland history. Thomas is the program’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder and its all-time leader in “win shares,” the stat created by Basketball Reference to attempt to determine who deserves the most credit for a team’s win. She was a three-time ACC Player of the Year, the 2012 ACC tournament MVP and led the Terps to the Final Four in 2014.
After winning the ACC title in ’12, Brenda Frese said, “Alyssa is by far the most competitive player I’ve ever coached and I’ve coached a lot of great players.” She had her jersey retired and sent to the Xfinity Center rafters on her Senior Day, before her college career was even over.
Thomas had no problem building off her collegiate success as a pro. So far, she’s a four-time WNBA All-Star and has been named to the All-Defensive first or second team five times. She led the league in rebounds last season and earned first-team All-WNBA honors for the first time after being a second-team selection in 2022.
The opportunity to make Team USA and represent her country at the Olympics was extremely significant for Thomas. So much so that she and her fiancée (Connecticut Sun teammate DeWanna Bonner) decided to delay even planning their wedding until after this summer so that Thomas could keep her focus on doing what was necessary to be part of the USA Basketball program and play in Paris this summer.
With that in mind, you’ll have to forgive me if I’m not losing my mind about Caitlin Clark being left off of the Olympic team as much as the rest of you.
As many have pointed out, there is a potentially interesting subplot to the discussion about Clark’s perceived “snub.” There is a fair “merit vs. media” argument being had by some, attempting to measure what the value of Clark’s presence in Paris would mean for the entire sport. We’re all quite cognizant of Clark’s popularity. Her cache is moving into true “A” list celebrity status. When she does something, a significant percentage of the country pays attention.
But having this conversation requires the discourse to start with this qualifier: “All of the players who made the team are incredibly deserving and there isn’t a single player on the team that doesn’t belong.”
If you can start there, I can listen to the debate. “All of these players are perfectly deserving and awesome representatives of Team USA. I just don’t think it would have been a bad idea for USA Basketball to consider holding a roster spot for someone who, while maybe not quite as accomplished as these players yet, is unbelievably talented and whose presence could help ‘grow the game’ a bit.” That would be a measured, reasonable take.
And I have no doubt that’s the argument that some folks are making. They just seem to be drowned out quite a bit by those who are instead choosing to try to belittle the remarkable athletes who have been selected to the team and/or those who are merely using Clark as a central figure in a culture war they insist on fighting.
The most disingenuous of this group isn’t worth speaking to. They’re attempting to capitalize on Clark’s fame by co-opting her for their own causes. “Pathetic” doesn’t go nearly far enough, but the majority of this group is so far removed from feeling shame that it’s not worth the internet ink to call them out.
There’s a less disingenuous faction that perhaps doesn’t view Clark as a figure in a full-on race or culture war but instead simply has decided that Clark is the main character in a movie that shouldn’t feature anyone else. They’ve antagonized Angel Reese (St. Frances) for having the audacity to suggest that Clark ISN’T the singular driving force of anyone and everyone paying attention to the sport.
This is the group that has essentially fetishized Clark in a manner not dissimilar to how another group has treated Taylor Swift. They’ve created a “stan culture” that dissociates from reality. Swift is a good musician, to be sure. But she has been awarded “Album of the Year” at the Grammys four times, or four times more than she’s really been worthy of. As a culture, we’ve become drunk on Taylor Swift. We’ve made “Taylor Swift” alone a personality trait.
Even some otherwise reasonable folk have begun to do the same with Clark. She’s an extraordinarily good basketball player! She has a skill set reminiscent of Steph Curry’s and is incredibly fun to watch. She might well prove to be one of the best basketball players of this era, if not the best. But she’s not that yet. She’s certainly the most famous player in her sport, and there’s nothing wrong with the additional interest surrounding her. In fact, we can definitely say she’s been a major mover in positive growth for both women’s college basketball and now the WNBA.
With that in mind, some in the less disingenuous group of Clark fans have suggested now that they’ll refuse to watch any of Team USA in the Olympics. And I have a simple question for that group.
“Why?”
I understand the disappointment of your favorite player not being a part of the team. Truly. But why wouldn’t you watch? If getting to see the best American professional basketball players all play basketball together isn’t enough to get you to watch, what does that say about you? Perhaps it says that you’re closer to the “culture war” weirdos than you want to acknowledge.
Or perhaps it says that you … just might not be a fan of the sport. I watched an awful lot of golf during the height of Tiger Woods’ dominance. I watched every major championship. I watched him hit the greatest golf shot I’ve ever seen out of a bunker at the 2000 Canadian Open. The Canadian Open! With my life on the line, I couldn’t name one golfer not named Tiger Woods who has won the Canadian Open!
But as Tiger Woods faded into mediocrity, I stopped watching golf. The sport never grew on me. Only the one figure involved with the sport did. Tiger’s prominence never “grew the game” for me. My interest was only about one person.
And if that’s the case here, if you’re not going to watch the women’s Olympic basketball team because you’re only interested in Clark and not at all interested in the sport, I don’t think her presence on the team would have ultimately helped “grow the game” the way some have suggested it would.
But I would encourage you to reconsider. There are truly great athletes who will be competing. Some of them care so deeply about the chance that they’re altering major life events in order to take part in it. Alyssa Thomas is worthy of your attention. So is every other player that will be on that roster.
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