It’s barely been every week since Monica McNutt took Stephen A. Smith to process on First Take for the best way he mentioned Chennedy Carter’s foul on Caitlin Clark and his historic lack of protection of the WNBA.
Simply mere days later, right here we’re once more. This time, it’s Chiney Ogwumike and Andraya Carter taking him to process for his tackle Caitlin Clark being left off Staff USA’s ladies’s basketball staff.
All of us came upon Caitlin Clark didn’t make Staff USA’s roster on Saturday, so that you’d assume the (wholly pointless) fervor behind it might’ve died down by now. Particularly as a result of she doesn’t appear to thoughts it a lot in any respect.
Nope! Improper. Right here comes Stephen A. Smith, able to rehash the problem once more.
Not solely did he say that Clark deserved to be on the staff for “advertising” functions, however he additionally advised Chiney Ogwumike and Andraya Carter that the basketball causes that saved Clark off the staff don’t matter.
It was fully ridiculous.
.@stephenasmith spoke in regards to the choice to go away Caitlin Clark off the USA Basketball Olympic staff. pic.twitter.com/wa4SGDEam3
— First Take (@FirstTake) June 10, 2024
Smith mentioned:
“It’s not that you simply’re fallacious. It’s that we don’t care. We all know they received seven straight golds … You already know, good and rattling effectively, with or with out Caitlin Clark, they’re most likely going to win gold once more. That’s not what this dialog is about. That is about what I’ll personally label the idiocy of Staff USA Ladies’s Basketball. How dare you make this choice? It’s silly. And I’m going to inform you why it’s silly. I need all the women on this squad to know each single one in every of y’all deserve it. Caitlin Clark doesn’t deserve a spot forward of any of the gamers on this roster if we’re speaking simply basketball. You already know we’re not.”
Of us, these faces say all of it.
As we defined earlier than, there are legit basketball causes that Clark was left off of Staff USA for this Olympic cycle. May you make a basketball argument that possibly she needs to be on there? I suppose! However you’d additionally should do the identical for, say, Arike Ogunbowale, who is definitely top-of-the-line gamers within the league and was nonetheless left off this roster.
However that’s by no means what we’re speaking about right here. Stephen A. Smith’s level facilities round advertising, viewership and different non-basketball elements. And that, people, is the issue with the Caitlin Clark discourse in a nutshell.
The topic may change right here and there, however Stephen A. and numerous others on the market refuse to speak about ladies’s basketball as the game it’s.
As an alternative, ladies’s hoops get handled like a pageant. Staff USA is meant to parade Caitlin Clark round as a sideshow whereas worrying about viewership as a substitute of carrying 12 gamers who’ve labored exhausting and educated collectively during the last three years making ready for this second. And that’s all presupposed to be executed to “develop the sport,” as they are saying.
It’s not on Staff USA to fret about that. The one concern the oldsters placing collectively that staff ought to have is successful a gold medal. In the event that they thought Clark would assist them do this? Nice. If not? That’s high-quality, too! However worrying about rankings whereas placing collectively a basketball staff is hustling backwards.
Plus, if Stephen A. Smith does his job accurately when the time comes and talks in regards to the staff with or with out Clark, it received’t want any kind of advertising push.
Andraya Carter took it upon herself to remind him of that on the present.
Andraya Carter calls Stephen A. Smith out about protection and, effectively, watch….
🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠#WNBA pic.twitter.com/lXD2e7AgBO
— Vanshay Murdock 🎥🎥 (@VanshayM) June 10, 2024
Carter mentioned:
“Stephen A. what’d you simply say final week after we had been on the present collectively? What’d you say about A’ja Wilson? That she’s essentially the most marketable participant within the sport. So when this Olympics comes up, we must always have First Take segments on what A’ja Wilson does within the Olympics. After which folks will watch since you say it.”
And that’s that on that. Do your job, Stephen A., and we received’t have to fret about this.
