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PARIS — Shortly after learning last month that she had not been selected for the U.S. women’s Olympic basketball team, Caitlin Clark received a text message from her high school coach.
Kristin Meyer wanted to remind Clark how she reacted the last time someone dared to tell her she wasn’t good enough.
In May 2018, as Clark was finishing her sophomore year of high school, she flew to Colorado Springs to try out for the U.S. Under-17 World Cup team. Clark expected to be selected since she had been part of the rotation team that helped the U.S. qualify for the Under-17 World Cup the previous summer.
At the time, Clark wasn’t yet inundated with autograph requests, social media followers or endorsement deals, but there were already glimpses of her now-familiar game. You could see that little girl bombing three-pointers from long range, whipping high-risk passes through traffic and making defenders tremble in transition with behind-the-back dribbles.
Meyer remembers thinking Clark had “played well” at tryouts, but USA Basketball’s youth selection committee had a plethora of future college stars to choose from. Eight of the 12 players from the previous year’s U-16 team were retained. Clark was the highest-ranked prospect of the four the committee chose not to recall.
“She broke her pinky early in the tryouts, but I don’t think that was the deciding factor,” Meyer told Yahoo Sports. “There were just a couple of players that the committee felt played better.”
As Haley Jones, Paige Bueckers and Aliyah Boston began preparing to lead the U.S. under-17 team to the gold medal in Belarus, Clark was heading home to Des Moines, Iowa, to work on her talent. The embarrassment of being cut and the realization that there were other players ahead of her inspired Clark to continue looking for ways to improve instead of relying on her talent.
“She always worked hard and loved going to the gym, but she had reached a different level of maturity that summer,” Meyer said. “She just had this stuck-on attitude when she was in the gym. She was really motivated to get better.”
Between the end of tryouts and the start of his junior season, Clark took a big step forward. Every key element of his game became sharper, Meyer said, from his ball control to his decisions with the ball in his hands to his shooting percentages at all three levels.
Caitlin 1.0 could attempt a risky, wasteful pass or dash and shoot from 27 feet early in the shot clock. Caitlin 2.0 resisted that temptation more often and became more effective when she attempted a bold play.
Caitlin 1.0 might storm off or throw her arms up in frustration if a referee missed a call or a precise pass ricocheted off an unsuspecting teammate’s hands. Caitlin 2.0 was still a competitor with a heart of gold. She was just beginning to understand how her body language and temperament affected those around her.
At the end of her freshman year at Dowling Catholic, Clark was among the youngest players invited to try out for the team that would represent the United States at the U19 World Championships in Bangkok later that summer. At 17, Clark was part of a star-studded team headlined by Rhyne Howard, Bueckers and Boston.
Although Clark averaged just 14.7 minutes in seven games in Bangkok, coach Jeff Walz trusted her as the United States trailed by three points in the final minute of the gold medal game against Australia. Walz called on Clark to shoot free throws after an Australian player hit Howard in the nose with her elbow, temporarily forcing her to leave the game.
Two years later, after averaging 26.6 points per game as a freshman at Iowa, Clark was an obvious choice to make the U.S. Under-19 team for the 2021 World Championship. This time, she guided the U.S. to a 7-0 record, averaging 14.3 points and a team-best 5.6 assists, and earned tournament MVP honors.
Over the next three years, Clark went from basketball star to famous-Famous for leading Iowa to two championship game appearances and for introducing the world to his incandescent talent. His stage grew larger with every three-pointer, every YouTube-worthy assist, every cheeky behind-the-back dribble and every Jordan shrug.
Fans who previously did not follow women’s sports flocked to their living room televisions and packed stadiums to watch Clark play. Sports talk shows that previously ignored women’s basketball devoted segment after segment to Clark’s offensive remarks and exploits.
Clark is now one of the biggest draws in sports, but USA Basketball officials have insisted that his ability to attract new viewers to the sport would not matter when selecting the Olympic team. As USA Basketball selection committee chair Jen Rizzotti told The Associated Press earlier this summer: “It was not our committee’s job to decide how many people would watch or how many people would support the United States. It was our job to build the best team we could.”
Because Iowa played in the women’s Final Four the same weekend USA Basketball held its Olympic training camp, Clark was unable to attend. As a result, the committee had only the first four weeks of Clark’s season to study her evaluation against the WNBA competition.
USA Basketball officials informed Clark that she had not been selected for the Olympics while she was on the Indiana Fever bus en route to a game. Clark responded to the ignominy with grace in interviews with reporters, but what she apparently told Fever coach Christie Sides speaks volumes.
“Hey coach, they woke up a monster,” Sides remembers hearing Clark say.
The message Clark received from her former high school coach encouraged her to adopt that mindset. Meyer reminded Clark that the biggest strides in her game came between her sophomore and junior years of high school after not being selected for the U.S. Under-17 World Cup and between her sophomore and junior years of college after Iowa’s stunning second-round NCAA Tournament exit to Creighton.
“When adversity hits, you either break down and feel sorry for yourself or you dig a little deeper,” Meyer said. “Those things that really hurt you and really disappoint you have helped her in the past take her game to the next level, her attitude, her preparation and her work ethic.”
Meyer has already seen signs from afar that history is repeating itself. In her 11 games before being cut from the U.S. roster, Clark averaged 15.6 points and 6.3 assists. In the next 15 games, she averaged 18.2 points and 9.5 assists. In one game, she recorded the first triple-double by a WNBA rookie. In another, she broke the WNBA single-game record with 19 assists.
“Not many people have seen Caitlin play as much basketball as I have, and I’m still amazed at some of the things she can do against that level of competition,” Meyer said. “When I think she can’t surprise me anymore, she comes out with a pass or a shot or a read on the court that I have to go over three or four times.”
When Clark helped the WNBA stars defeat the U.S. Olympic team on July 20, she insisted the win wasn’t “revenge” for her. Clark said she was looking forward to a few weeks of rest and watching the Americans “dominate” without her.
No strong emotions.
Only four years of motivation.