You can love Caitlin Clark. You can hate Caitlin Clark. You can love her Iowa roots. You can hate her Iowa roots. You can like her because she’s white or dislike her because she’s white.

The same goes for being straight. You can love the media’s fascination with her, or hate it. You can love the historic TV ratings and sell-out crowds or hate them. You can love her interviews or hate them.

But there’s one thing that we all know to be true:

With Caitlin Clark on the 2024 U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team, players who have been largely ignored by the sports media at every Summer Olympic Games that I’ve covered, which is everyone since 1984, would have finally received the spotlight they deserve from a national and global audience.

But following Clark would have meant following much more than Clark. She would have introduced all those Olympic viewers and readers — many of whom are not big sports fans and have never watched a women’s Olympic basketball game — to the entire U.S. team.

Because this great opportunity to publicize international women’s basketball has been eliminated, the vast majority of broadcasters and reporters will be able to focus as they always have on the swimmers, gymnasts, and runners and leave the U.S. women’s basketball team alone.

No one has received the kind of attention she has as a rookie. She is not the best player in the league, but she’s clearly the most important.