Diana Taurasi Has Strong Reaction to Caitlin Clark Wearing Her Team USA Jersey Number
There were plenty of reasons for fans to be excited about Caitlin Clark returning to the court for the first time in about eight months when Team USA played the FIBA Women's World Cup Qualifying Tournament in Puerto Rico earlier this month.
Fans wanted nothing more than to see No. 22 back doing what she loves. However, she wasn't No. 22 when she made her debut appearance for Team USA. Clark was instead wearing No. 12 for the USA squad.
Clark wearing this jersey number caused a stir, largely because this was the same number that the legendary Diana Taurasi wore when suiting up Team USA. Taurasi captured six Olympic gold medals for Team USA but has since retired from professional basketball, and therefore left her jersey available for someone else. And Team USA gave the number to Clark.
Diana Taurasi Sends Clear Message on Caitlin Clark Wearing Her Team USA No. 12
Taurasi spoke with Women's Fastbreak on SI on March 23 and was asked about seeing Clark wearing the Team USA jersey number that once belonged to her.
"I mean, it's so cool to see Caitlin not only wear the USA jersey, number 12. I mean, I spent two decades wearing that jersey and that number, and I couldn't think of anyone better to take it and put it on and just have an amazing career. And Caitlin will do that. She had great qualifiers down in Puerto Rico. It's just going to be fun to watch her play in the summer in Germany and then the Olympics. No one better to wear the 12, and Caitlin's going to put some gold medals on that jersey, you know," Taurasi said.
When asked whether she had any hand in Clark wearing No. 12 or whether it was random, she added, "You know, once I'm out of things, I'm out. Maybe Sue [Bird], you know, she's a little bit more calculated than people think. So maybe that was a Sue job. That wouldn't surprise me."
Diana Taurasi on Caitlin Clark wearing No. 12 for Team USA (plus whether she or Sue Bird had a hand in making that happen):
— Grant Young (@GrvntYoung) March 23, 2026
“I couldn't think of anyone better to take it… No one better to wear the 12, and Caitlin's going to put some gold medals on that jersey.” pic.twitter.com/8bn9oARFUG
Props to Taurasi for showing Clark so much support and passing the No. 12 Team USA torch on to her. One would imagine that Clark will need this jersey number whenever suiting up for the USA team, as No. 22 isn't available to her because of FIBA's rules on numbers.
As Taurasi alluded to, No. 12 will surely continue to see a lot more success with Clark wearing it.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the Indiana Fever 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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