U.S. Women's Basketball Posts Embarrassing Attendance Number Without Caitlin Clark /d

The U.S. women’s basketball team got off to a fast start at the Summer Olympics on Monday, topping Japan in the opening game of the tournament, 102-76.

But while the Americans shined on the court without Caitlin Clark, the attendance number at the Summer Games left a lot to be desired. In fact, the U.S. women’s basketball team posted the lowest attendance number of any team at the Summer Olympics so far.

Here’s how the other games have done attendance-wise:

Spain vs. China – 27,021

Serbia vs. Puerto Rico – 15,324
Nigeria vs. Australia – 24,023
Germany vs. Belgium – 20,211
France vs. Canada – 20,211

The U.S. women vs. Japan, meanwhile, got just 13,040. Now, there were some other factors at play, like the game being at 9 p.m. local time in a city outside of Paris.

But the fact remains – there is no bigger draw in women’s basketball right now than Caitlin Clark. If she was on the team, the attendance number would have undoubtedly been larger.

Is this something the U.S. women’s basketball team players should care about? No. Their job is to win gold and they are on track to do that, based on their play on Monday.

But growing the game – and the amount of attention on women’s basketball – should be a goal of the Summer Olympics, too. That’s why it remains fair to criticize the U.S. women’s basketball selection committee for their decision.

Even South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley, who was part of the committee, has admitted that maybe things would be different if the decision was made today.

“As a committee member you are charged with putting together the best team of players. The best talent. Caitlin is just a rookie in the WNBA. Wasn’t playing bad but wasn’t playing like she is playing now. If we had to do it all over the again, the way that she’s playing, she would be in really high consideration of making the team. Because she is playing head and shoulders above a lot of people. Shooting the ball extremely well. I mean she is an elite passer. She’s just got a great basketball IQ. And she’s a little more seasoned,” Staley said on NBC following the U.S. men’s win over Serbia on Sunday afternoon.

Clark, meanwhile, has had nothing but good words to say about the U.S. women’s team.

“They’re really good. They have plenty of talent on that team. Four years prior I’m pretty sure Team WNBA beat Team USA, [and] they were perfectly fine in the Olympics,” she said.

“If anything, it shows how good this league is. It shows how much talent is in this league and how you have to show up and prepare every single night. There’s a lot of players that aren’t even here tonight that could be here too. It just shows the amount of talent we have.”

The U.S. women will be back in action on Thursday against Belgium. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. E.T.