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Stephen A. Smith should probably just stop talking about Caitlin Clark because he keeps getting cooked

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For The Win (usatoday.com) 

It’s barely been a week since Monica McNutt took Stephen A. Smith to task on First Take for the way he discussed Chennedy Carter’s foul on Caitlin Clark and his historic lack of coverage of the WNBA.

Just mere days later, here we are again. This time, it’s Chiney Ogwumike and Andraya Carter taking him to task for his take on Caitlin Clark being left off Team USA’s women’s basketball team.

We all found out Caitlin Clark didn’t make Team USA’s roster on Saturday, so you’d think the (wholly unnecessary) fervor behind it would’ve died down by now. Especially because she doesn’t seem to mind it much at all.

Nope! Wrong. Here comes Stephen A. Smith, ready to rehash the issue again.

Not only did he say that Clark deserved to be on the team for “marketing” purposes, but he also told Chiney Ogwumike and Andraya Carter that the basketball reasons that kept Clark off the team don’t matter.

It was completely ridiculous.

Smith said:

“It’s not that you’re wrong. It’s that we don’t care. We know they won seven straight golds … You know, good and damn well, with or without Caitlin Clark, they’re probably going to win gold again. That’s not what this conversation is about. This is about what I will personally label the idiocy of Team USA Women’s Basketball. How dare you make this decision? It’s stupid. And I’m going to tell you why it’s stupid. I want all the ladies on this squad to know every single one of y’all deserve it. Caitlin Clark does not deserve a spot ahead of any of the players on this roster if we’re talking just basketball. You know we’re not.” 

Folks, these faces say it all.

As we explained before, there are legitimate basketball reasons that Clark was left off of Team USA for this Olympic cycle. Could you make a basketball argument that maybe she should be on there? I guess! But you’d also have to do the same for, say, Arike Ogunbowale, who is unquestionably one of the best players in the league and was still left off this roster.

But that’s not at all what we’re talking about here. Stephen A. Smith’s point centers around marketing, viewership and other non-basketball factors. And that, folks, is the problem with the Caitlin Clark discourse in a nutshell.

The subject might change here and there, but Stephen A. and countless others out there refuse to talk about women’s basketball as the sport it is.

Instead, women’s hoops get treated like a pageant. Team USA is supposed to parade Caitlin Clark around as a sideshow while worrying about viewership instead of carrying 12 players who’ve worked hard and trained together over the last three years preparing for this moment. And that’s all supposed to be done to “grow the game,” as they say.

It’s not on Team USA to worry about that. The only concern the folks putting together that team should have is winning a gold medal. If they thought Clark would help them do that? Great. If not? That’s fine, too! But worrying about ratings while putting together a basketball team is hustling backwards.

Plus, if Stephen A. Smith does his job correctly when the time comes and talks about the team with or without Clark, it won’t need any sort of marketing push.

Andraya Carter took it upon herself to remind him of that on the show.

Carter said:

“Stephen A. what’d you just say last week when we were on the show together? What’d you say about A’ja Wilson? That she’s the most marketable player in the sport. So when this Olympics comes up, we should have First Take segments on what A’ja Wilson does in the Olympics. And then people will watch because you say it.” 

And that’s that on that. Do your job, Stephen A., and we won’t have to worry about this.