ESPN personality Frank Isola criticizes Dawn Staley defending Caitlin Clark’s Olympic snub

The decision by Team USA to leave Caitlin Clark off the women’s Olympic basketball team for Paris continues to face tough scrutiny from some of sports’ biggest voices.

On Sunday, ESPN personality Frank Isola weighed in on the controversial omission, suggesting once again that it was a major mistake.

He voiced his opinion just hours after South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley further attempted to justify the decision while speaking with Mike Tirico on the air on an NBC broadcast.

“So leaving college basketball as the all time leading scorer wasn’t taken into consideration?” Isola wrote on Twitter. “Reminder: it’s not a WNBA All Star team or a Fading Legends team. It’s a national team.”

The implication was straightforward. Caitlin Clark should be there in Paris.

She’s set multiple WNBA records in her rookie season and has introduced a level of passing (and passion) to the league that has rarely been seen in the women’s game. In the eyes of many fans, analysts and even fellow players, that was one reason Clark definitely should have received an invite.

Even Staley, in sticking to the Team USA decision, seemed to hesitate a bit over whether they’d made the right move.

“As a committee member, you’re charged with putting together best teams of players, the best talent,” Staley said ahead of Team USA’s debut vs. Japan. “Caitlin is just a rookie in the WNBA. Wasn’t playing bad, but wasn’t playing like she’s playing now.

“If we had to do it all over again, the way that she’s playing, she would be in really high consideration of making the team because she is playing head and shoulders above a lot of people. Shooting the ball extremely well, she is an elite passer. She’s just got a great basketball IQ and she’s a little more seasoned in the pro game in a couple of months than she was two months ago.”

It sure seems like Caitlin Clark would have little problem holding her own against the world’s best at this point, many of whom she already plays against on a daily basis now.

Clark was averaging 16.3 points, 6.0 assists and 4.9 rebounds per game when the Team USA roster was announced. At the All-Star break, she’s now averaging 17.1 points, 8.3 assists and 5.8 rebounds per game.

Time will tell whether Team USA can win it all without Caitlin Clark, but expect the scrutiny to increase tenfold in the event the Americans are unable to take home the gold medal.