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USA Basketball defends decision to leave Caitlin Clark off the 2024 Paris Olympics team
Fans were disappointed earlier this week when Caitlin Clark, the first round overall draft pick for the WNBA, was not on the U.S. women’s basketball team roster for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Now, USA Basketball has responded.
Selection committee chair Jen Rizzotti told the Associated Press it all comes down to the criteria for choosing players. Experience was a factor.
“And when you base your decision on criteria, there were other players that were harder to cut because they checked a lot more boxes,” Rizzotti said. “Then sometimes it comes down to position, style of play for Cheryl [Reeve] and then sometimes a vote.”
Clark, credited with drawing millions of new viewers to both women’s college and professional basketball games this year, said making the Olympic team is a dream and that she now has something to work toward.
“Hopefully one day I can be there,” she told reporters after practice on Sunday. “I think it’s just a little more motivation. You remember that. Hopefully when four years comes back around, I can be there.”
She said she wasn’t disappointed and is excited for the women who made the team.
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The team is a mix of players with individual skill sets, USA Basketball CEO Jim Tooley told the AP.
“We have veterans, newcomers and those in the middle,” he said. “Good perspective and continuity is such an important thing and is why we’ve been successful in the Olympics.”
The Team USA women’s basketball team has won gold at every single Olympics since 1988, except for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when they took home Bronze.
The six-person selection committee formed a team of players who have already won either an Olympic or World Cup gold medal, according to USA Basketball.
Diana Taurasi, who played in her first Olympics 20 years ago in Athens, returns for her sixth consecutive Olympic Games. Her Phoenix Mercury teammates Brittney Griner and Kahleah Copper join her on Team USA.
Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier, Chelsea Gray, Jewell Loyd and A’ja Wilson, who have all played in past Olympics, also made the team. Sabrina Ionescu, Kelsey Plum, Alyssa Thomas and Jackie Young who have all earned Olympic gold or World Cup gold medals for 3×3 games were also selected. Plum and Young will play on the 5×5 team.
Players like Clark and Ariel Atkins, who played at the Tokyo Olympics, and 2022 World Cup team members Shakira Austin, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton and Brionna Jones, could be taken to the Paris Olympics as alternates, according to the AP.
Still, fans were shocked when Clark — who is the all-time NCAA Division I scoring leader and is one of two players in WNBA history to have 150 points, 50 rebounds and 50 assists in their first 10 games — was left off the roster.
“Leaving Catlin Clark of the Woman’s USA @Olympics Team has to be one of the all-time misses in sports history,” one person wrote on social media.
“Caitlin Clark not playing with the Olympic team is going to lose them millions and millions of dollars. Wild. Her international publicity would be outrageous numbers. Very surprising they left her out,” wrote another.
“I don’t follow the WNBA nor do I know any of their names – EXCEPT Catlin Clark. The WNBA missed out on eyes viewing the basketball Olympic Games,” another person posted.
Some social media users, however, pointed out that no WNBA rookies were selected. Clark also did not attend Olympic training camp – which improves players’ chances of making the roster – because she was playing in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship, CBS Sports reports.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters says workers at seven Amazon facilities will begin a strike Thursday morning in an effort by the union to pressure the e-commerce giant for a labor agreement during a key shopping period.
The Teamsters say the workers, who authorized walkouts in the past few days, are joining the picket line after Amazon ignored a Dec. 15 deadline the union set for contract negotiations. Amazon says it doesn’t expect any impact on its operations during what the union calls the largest strike against the company in U.S. history.
The Teamsters say they represent nearly 10,000 workers at 10 Amazon facilities, a small portion of the 1.5 million people Amazon employs in its warehouses and corporate offices.
Amazon is ranked No. 2 on the Fortune 500 list of the nation’s largest companies.
At a warehouse in the New York City borough of Staten Island, thousands of workers who voted for the Amazon Labor Union in 2022 and have since affiliated with the Teamsters. At the other facilities, employees – including many delivery drivers – have unionized with them by demonstrating majority support but without holding government-administered elections.
The strikes happening Thursday are taking place at an Amazon warehouse in San Francisco and six delivery stations in southern California, New York City, Atlanta and the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois, according to the union’s announcement. Amazon workers at the other facilities are “prepared to join” them, the union said.
“Amazon is pushing its workers closer to the picket line by failing to show them the respect they have earned,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it,” he said.
The Seattle-based online retailer has been seeking to re-do the election that led to the union victory at the warehouse on Staten Island, which the Teamsters now represent. In the process, the company has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board.
Meanwhile, Amazon says the delivery drivers, which the Teamsters have organized for more than a year, aren’t its employees. Under its business model, the drivers work for third-party businesses, called Delivery Service Partners, who drop off millions of packages to customers everyday.
“For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public – claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers’. They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement. “The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union.“
The Teamsters have argued Amazon essentially controls everything the drivers do and should be classified as an employer.
Some U.S. labor regulators have sided with the union in filings made before the NLRB. In September, Amazon boosted pay for the drivers amid the growing pressure.
NEW YORK — The Teamsters union is launching a strike against Amazon at numerous locations across the country, including in Maspeth, Queens.
The Teamsters are calling it the largest strike against Amazon in United States history, and it’s set to begin at 6 a.m. Thursday. In addition to New York City, workers will be joining picket lines in Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco and Illinois.
In a video announcement released Wednesday night, workers voiced their frustrations.
“Us being strike ready means we’re fed up, and Amazon is clearly ignoring us and we want to be heard,” one worker says in the video.
“It’s really exciting. We’re taking steps for ourselves to win better conditions, better benefits, better wages,” another worker in the video says.
The union says it represents about 10,000 Amazon employees and that Amazon ignored a deadline to come to the table and negotiate. The $2 trillion company doesn’t pay employees enough to make ends meet, the union asserts.
At the height of the holiday season, many are wondering what this means for packages currently in transit.
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said, “If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed.”
Amazon says Teamsters are misleading the public
An Amazon spokesperson says the Teamsters are misleading the public and do not represent any Amazon employees, despite any claims.
“The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
An Amazon representative says the company doesn’t expect operations to be impacted.
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