For their first tune-up game before the 2024 Paris Olympics, the U.S. women’s national basketball team took on a team of their peers in the WNBA All-Star Game Saturday night.
The result wasn’t exactly what anyone was expecting.
Favored by 6.5 points at tip — with 75% of the handle at BetMGM on them winning — Team USA couldn’t quite pull away from Team WNBA in what turned into one of the more compelling All-Star Games in recent memory. In the end, it was the non-Olympians who found themselves gaining distance and pulling away for a 117-109 win.
And considering how a couple snubs on the winning side performed in the win, it was only natural to wonder whether they should have been the ones representing the U.S.
The answer is yes.
An MVP night for Arike Ogunbowale pic.twitter.com/jVgPuWFncb
— WNBA (@WNBA) July 21, 2024
Arike Ogunbowale, who won MVP with an All-Star Game record 34 points, is good enough to be an Olympian. So is Caitlin Clark, whose 10 assists came one short of Sue Bird’s All-Star Game record.
They were considered maybe the two biggest snubs from Team USA, but they weren’t alone. Former league MVPs Jonquel Jones and Nneka Ogwumike should be Olympians too. Even rookie Angel Reese, who fittingly recorded a double-double in the game, is ready for Team USA.
By now, you’re probably picking up on the problem here: everybody can’t make it.
You can argue who should and shouldn’t be on Team USA until your face turns blue, and you might be right. But the team’s All-Star loss wasn’t about that. It was about how deep the W truly is. The U.S. could send either one of those teams to Paris and they’d both likely come home with gold. They could put together a third team of players who didn’t make either squad, and that team would win gold too.
Clark said it best after the game.
Clark asked about Team WNBA winning, and if that's vindication for them not being chosen. "Um, no. They're really good. They have plenty of talent on that team… four years prior I'm pretty sure Team WNBA beat Team USA… if anything, it shows how good this league is."
Full: pic.twitter.com/0pp9qMCACE
— Matthew Byrne (@MatthewByrne1) July 21, 2024
“If anything, it shows how good this league is. It shows how much talent is in this league, and how you have to show up and prepare every single night,” she said after dismissing the idea that winning was vindication for her snub. “Because there’s a lot of players that aren’t even here at All-Star weekend that can be here and be in these moments too.”
That’s it. There’s just an incredible wealth of American basketball talent, and there has been for awhile. The gap between the rest of the world remains a large one, as demonstrated by USA’s -1400 odds to win gold.
That’s what the All-Star Game was about, a showcase of the league’s immense depth. Many are good enough to represent the U.S. in the Olympics. Only 12 get to go.
