Grant Williams highlights lack of media attention on U.S. women’s basketball at the Olympics — and he’s right

When Caitlin Clark was left off of the Olympic basketball roster, media companies’ and fans’ interest in the games shouldn’t have wavered. We’re watching an all-time great team dominate their competition.

Grant Williams, who is currently on the ground at the Paris Olympics, called out the sharp disparity in media coverage between the men’s and women’s basketball teams.

“The difference between the men’s vs women’s postgame is disrespectful and the women deserve better,” Williams wrote on X shortly after the U.S. women beat Australia to advance to the gold medal game.

The reality is that the U.S. women’s basketball team is one of the most dominant teams at the Olympics. They’ve won 60 consecutive Olympic games, have led by double-digits for nearly the entire tournament, and will go for an 8th straight Olympic gold medal on Sunday.

The roster includes some of the sports greats: Diana Taurasi, the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer; A’ja Wilson, the indisputable best player in the WNBA; Kelsey Plum, who broke the all-time NCAA Division I scoring record; Sabrina Ionescu, one of the best shooters in the world; Breanna Stewart, as decorated an athlete as any — and the list goes on.

Still, when the team’s greatness is mentioned, many people’s first instinct is to bring up the player who’s not on the roster: Caitlin Clark.

It’s an understandable instinct. After all, Clark has brought unrivaled attention to women’s basketball this year, with WNBA viewership and ticket sales both at an all-time high. It’s also indisputable that had Clark made the roster, there would be more media coverage of these games.

And, from a basketball standpoint, she could have easily made the roster — after a somewhat slow start to her rookie season, she hit her stride in the weeks leading up to the midseason break, and is now averaging 17.1 points and a league-high 8.2 assists per game on the year. Last month, she even broke the WNBA’s single-game assist record with a 19-assist outing against the Wings.

Dawn Staley, the current coach of South Carolina’s women’s basketball team and a member of the USA Basketball Olympic committee, recently acknowledged that Clark would have likely made the roster had she hit her stride a little bit sooner.

“As a committee member, you’re charged with putting together the best team,” Staley said. “Caitlin is just a rookie in the WNBA. She wasn’t playing bad, but she wasn’t playing like she’s playing now. If we had to do it all over again, the way she’s playing, she’d be in really high consideration of making the team.”

But, there’s no reason for USA Basketball to fret the decision too much — not from a basketball standpoint, anyways. That’s because Team USA has been steamrolling their opponents, most recently defeating Australia by 21. They appear to be a shoe-in for gold, and everyone has played their role nearly perfectly.

The continuity on the roster is apparent, as is the the buy-in from all twelve players on the roster. A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart have been two of the most dominant players of the Olympics, and Jackie Young has been excellent on both ends of the floor. All twelve players have been regular contributors, and the team’s defensive connectivity has been undeniable.

So, while one could argue that Clark should have been on the roster, the players on the roster are clearly doing their job and winning basketball games. Olympic selection decisions should not be made with marketability in mind — they should be made purely from a basketball perspective. When the U.S. roster was assembled, Clark was just beginning her professional career.

If there’s a lack of excitement about this U.S. women’s basketball team, it’s not because the selected players aren’t exciting to watch — it’s because those players haven’t been sufficiently covered throughout their careers to the same extent as Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and some of the younger players in the game. Their stories haven’t been told at the national level, at least not at the scale and with the attention that Clark’s has.

That’s not to say there haven’t been individual media entities and reporters who have dedicated their lives to this coverage — because there certainly have been revolutionaries in this field. This coverage just hasn’t benefited from the same level of financial investment.

From a basketball perspective alone, Kahleah Copper is as exciting as it gets. Kobe Bryant called Jewell Loyd the Gold Mamba for a good reason. When Sabrina Ionescu is feeling it (which is often) her three-point shooting is nothing short of spectacular. And if you’re a basketball purist, you’ll be mesmerized by Jackie Young’s two-way excellence.

Grant Williams noted that after the women’s game, there were “3-4 media outlets pushing the game forward”, whereas after the men’s games, there were between 60 and 80 media outlets doing postgame coverage.

“Viewership isn’t the struggle, it’s the marketing,” he wrote.

He also importantly noted that if people had recognized Diana Taurasi’s greatness, they wouldn’t have questioned the program’s decision to name her to the Olympic roster.

The good news is that past issues with media coverage are still correctable. The 12 players on the U.S. women’s basketball roster are talented, marketable, and worth investing in. Their games are engaging, as are their personalities — when given the chance to meaningfully showcase themselves.

Most importantly, they’re on the brink of an Olympic gold medal — the program’s 8th straight — and many of them will soon contend for a WNBA championship. It’s not too late.

Caitlin Clark will soon be one of the best players in the world, if she’s not already. She’s practically a lock for the next Olympics. But, her ascension in the sport should also spur fans and media alike to learn about the older players who have long been doing this — the players who have been hitting deep threes, dishing out crazy passes, and playing this sport at an elite level for a very long time.

Not sure you know those players? A great place to start would be tuning into the U.S. women’s team gold medal game on Sunday.