Caitlin Clark is not going to the Olympics as a member of USA Basketball, but she will get the chance to compete against the red, white, and blue before they make their way over to Paris. Clark was selected to the WNBA All-Star Game, which will see some of the top players in the league take on Team USA in Phoenix on Saturday night.
The game will be the only thing Clark does over the weekend, as she did not participate in the Skills Challenge or 3-Point Contest on Friday night. While Clark’s skill-set lends itself extremely well to both of those events, she explained to Michele Steele of ESPN that she frankly just needed a break.
“To be honest, I’m pretty mentally, physically, emotionally exhausted,” Clark said at the 1:10 mark of the above video. “I’ve been competing for a year straight, tolls can be taken, and obviously, I’ve been very fortunate to have so many great opportunities over the course of the last year, and I know there’s gonna be so many more great opportunities for me to come.”
Clark stressed that she’ll be in the event at some point down the road, but that she’s proud of herself for giving herself a break. The spotlight has been on Clark for years at this point, but she’s in the middle of an especially difficult stretch because of the brutal transition from the college basketball season to playing in the WNBA, which holds its draft in mid-April before the season tips off a month later. The good news for Clark is that she’s about to get a bit of time to decompress, as the league takes a break from July 21 to August 14 for the Olympics.
