When Team USA named the 12 players on the women’s basketball team for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics (that features at least 195 out athletes). WNBA rookie Caitlin Clark was left off the team. This surprised some, and it was expected by others.
Now here they are, in the gold medal game at the Paris Olympics. The players and coaches here haven’t lost a game.
More than half of the USA team in Paris — at least seven players — are LGBTQ and out. That has made the USA women’s basketball team one of the “gayest” teams at the Olympics.
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Of course, Clark not making the roster garnered headlines. This should not be a surprise to anyone. Veteran leadership means a lot, particularly when players are thrown together from across the WNBA. Experience means a lot.
Clark had a decent first few weeks with Indiana before selections had to be made. She was 13th on the WNBA scoring list with a field goal percentage of 37% at the time. That’s not great. She was fourth in the league in assists.
No doubt, she’s having a good rookie season.
Yet people like Jason Whitlock saying the Black LGBTQ community forced Team USA to abandon Clark is absurd. In the crudest possible terms, Whitlock lashed out about Clark — a rookie in the WNBA —being left off a team of legends. But, we’re talking about him, and that’s what he wants.
It echoed nonsense from Clay Travis that Clark is being bullied by Black lesbians in the league. There are White players on the team, like Breanna Stewart and Diana Taurasi.
There are other players left off the team who could claim they got dissed. This happens every time there is a “selection.”
Regardless, the United States is represented by 12 women on the basketball court, and more than half of them are publicly out.
And that’s not even including the two out LGBTQ people — head coach Cheryl Reeve and assistant coach Curt Miller — who are also publicly out.
Here are the seven out Team LGBTQ players representing the United States in women’s basketball at the Paris Summer Olympics, and who will play for gold.
Breanna Stewart
Breanna Stewart is one of the best women’s basketball players of all time. She’s won two gold medals with Team USA, and she’s won two WNBA Championships, with Seattle. She was the Finals MVP both years.
Diana Taurasi
Diana Taurasi is considered by many to be THE best women’s basketball player of all time. The all-time WNBA points leader by a mile, Taurasi has won three WNBA titles and been named an All-Star 10 times, all with the Phoenix Mercury. She is competing in her sixth Summer Olympics, and she’s won gold every previous time.
Alyssa Thomas
Alyssa Thomas has been in the WNBA for a decade and has been named an All-Star four times. She was selected in the 2014 WNBA pick fourth overall. Yet this will be the Connecticut Sun star’s first Olympic Games. If it took Thomas 10 years, you have to wonder why people are screaming about Clark not getting it in 10 weeks. Thomas is engaged to Sun teammate DeWanna Bonner.
Brittney Griner
Maybe the highest-profile player in WNBA history after her incarceration in Russia, Brittney Griner again takes the international stage just 18 months after being freed. She hasn’t won a WNBA title since her second season, in 2014, though she’s been named an All-Star almost every season she played: nine times. This will be her third Olympics, having won gold twice before.
Jewell Loyd
Jewell Loyd is aiming for her second Olympic gold medal, having joined Team USA for gold in Tokyo. She’s won two WNBA titles, both with Seattle. She was the WNBA league scoring leader last season.
Chelsea Gray
There haven’t been a ton of WNBA players to win league titles with two different teams, but Chelsea Gray is one of them. She’s got one championship with the Los Angeles Sparks, and now two with the Las Vegas Aces. She was also on the USA team that won gold in Tokyo.
Kahleah Copper
Kahleah Copper was the 2021 WNBA Finals MVP with the Phoenix Mercury, capturing the league championship. She posted engagement photos with Swedish National Team player Binta Daisy Drammeh last year, but they seem to have since been deleted.
The 2024 Paris Summer Olympics are July 26 to August 11. Outsports will be covering Team LGBTQ extensively before, during and after the Games.
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