Grant Hill Wanted Nothing To Do With Gus Johnson Asking Him About Caitlin Clark Not Making Team USA

We got our first official look at the 2024 USA men’s Olympic basketball team on Wednesday night as they played a showcase game in Las Vegas against a talented Canadian squad. It wasn’t a perfect first outing, as there are clearly some things to clean up — particularly getting Joel Embiid in rhythm and not fouling out in the mid-third quarter — but they flexed their defensive muscles and showed the potential to be a terror in transition.

Earlier in the day, some big news about the Team USA roster got announced when Kawhi Leonard dropped out with some lingering knee issues and Celtics guard Derrick White replacing him. That brought a bit of controversy, as Jaylen Brown very clearly wanted to be a part of the team coming off a Finals MVP campaign but got left off for his teammate. USA Basketball director Grant Hill said the goal was to build the best team and he and the staff felt White fit the needs of this team best, indicating the need for more of a role guy was more important.

While that created a bit of a kerfuffle, it was nothing compared to what happened when the women’s team got announced earlier this summer and WNBA rookie star Caitlin Clark was not on the roster, as that became the lead story on every network (sports and beyond). On Wednesday’s broadcast of the USA-Canada game, Grant Hill joined Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery during the third quarter and Johnson decided to ask Hill about Clark’s omission, which Hill wanted no part of, making it clear he’s only in charge of the men’s team.

Grant doing analyst work as his day job when he’s not working on USA Basketball helped him in this scenario as he had no problem quickly and deftly dodging that question firmly but nicely at the same time — a tough needle to thread. There is no topic in sports that is more of a lightning rod than Clark, and Hill was understandably not interested in touching that at all.