WNBA Analyst Misses Mark with Caitlin Clark Team USA World Cup Take
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark was one of many current women's basketball stars who took part in the Team USA training camp in Durham, North Carolina, last month.
It was great to see Clark back on the court, especially since she hadn't competed since July. While this training camp technically wasn't a tryout, it was the first opportunity for Team USA managing director Sue Bird to see the crop of players she could potentially be picking for future international hoops events and tournaments.
The most notable of these is the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics. Yet, there are several important events before that. The biggest one this year is the 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup, which takes place in Berlin, Germany, in September 2026.
Analyst Asserts Caitlin Clark Will Skip Team USA World Cup Invite
During a January 1 live stream with Bleacher Report that listed bold predictions for the 2026 WNBA season, WNBA analyst Jordan Robinson said, "My prediction is that Caitlin Clark makes the 2026 World Cup roster, of course. But the timing of that, around September, playoffs are about to start, Indiana could be making a run for the Finals, because they got close this past year... But I think she makes the roster, but declines, to rest for the WNBA playoffs."
"I could see her saying, 'Okay, cool. I make the World Cup roster, which probably means I'm going to make the Olympic roster.' I'm just gonna sit this one out because I want to bring a championship to the Fever," Robinson added of Clark
This was certainly a bold take from Robinson, given how important the World Cup is, especially when figuring out who will be on a future Olympics roster.
Caitlin Clark World Cup Comments Show WNBA Analyst Missed Mark
Caitlin Clark was the guest on a December 31 episode of the New Heights podcast. At one point, she conveyed how important the 2026 FIBA World Cup actually is.
After talking about how nice it had been for Clark to be back on the court during that Team USA training camp, she said, "[The training camp] kind of kicks off the next cycle, for like, preparing for the Olympics, and then we have the World Cup in 2026, at the end of September. So we'll actually pause the WNBA season — very similar to how we do when we have the Olympics — right before the playoffs, and then we'll play the World Cup.
"Which, technically, the World Cup, in the past, has almost been harder for us to win, because there's more teams that play in the World Cup than [teams who] qualified for the Olympics. So sometimes it's harder to win that.
"So hopefully I'm on the team for that," Clark added of the 2026 FIBA World Cup. "And my goal is to be on the Olympic team for 2028. It feels like it's far away, but it's probably way closer than it sounds."
Clark's comments make it clear that she's keen to compete in the FIBA World Cup. Therefore, while Robinson deserves credit for going out on a limb with her bold take, it doesn't sound like this one will be coming true.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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