DALLAS — NBA commissioner Adam Silver discussed Caitlin Clark’s absence from the 12-player Team USA women’s basketball roster Thursday, telling a small group of reporters at a charity event that “it would have been nice to see her on the floor” in the upcoming Summer Olympics.
As Silver was quick to point out, the priorities that come with his role don’t completely align with those that drive the selection committee that builds the roster. While his job does involve overseeing the WNBA in which Clark is in her rookie season for the Indiana Fever, that’s completely separate from the USA Basketball decision-makers who made this call. And while he insisted that he’s not disappointed, he knows as well as anyone how Clark’s transcendent popularity would have helped grow the game.
“I want to be fair to the selection committee,” Silver said while at a Boys & Girls Club for the NBA Cares event. “Their job and their mandate was to field what they felt was the best possible team to help the U.S. compete in the Olympics, and I have no reason to believe they didn’t do their job as they set out to do it. But I’d say, (from) my standpoint — and I’m independent from USA Basketball (and) somebody whose job is to oversee the NBA and ultimately the WNBA.
“I…
