Wings’ Arike Ogunbowale – ‘Politics’ concerned in Olympics choice

Dallas Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale instructed the “Nightcap” podcast in an episode launched Thursday that she took her identify out of the pool for the U.S. girls’s basketball Olympic crew “months in the past” and that she thinks “politics” goes into the collection of the squad.

The 12-member 5-on-5 girls’s crew for the Paris Video games was introduced Tuesday. The gamers most talked about who did not make it had been Indiana Fever rookie guard Caitlin Clark and Ogunbowale, who has been one of many prime scorers within the league throughout her six WNBA seasons, all with Dallas.

“Me being me, I simply felt the vibes,” Ogunbowale mentioned of how she thought she was being assessed by USA Basketball. “In the case of that stuff, it actually does not have a lot to do together with your sport. It is actually about who they really feel like suits with the crew. That is on the lads’s facet, too.

“The committees say they search for individuals who … I do not know, truthfully. However I might already inform. I truly took my identify out of the pool months in the past. With the pool, it is a large dedication. If I do know they don’t seem to be choosing me, I am not going to maintain going to those [camps] after I know the vibe. I am not going to present you my time if I do know the vibe.”

Talking to podcast hosts Shannon Sharpe and Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson, Ogunbowale mentioned there’s a lot expertise within the WNBA that a number of gamers may very well be Olympians.

“It is subjective who they assume needs to be on the crew; all people’s nice within the WNBA,” she mentioned. “So who they select is who they select, I am unable to actually management that.”

The guard place has lots of depth on this Olympic crew. It is led by six-time Olympian Diana Taurasi of Phoenix and two-time Olympians Jewell Loyd (Seattle), Chelsea Grey, Jackie Younger and Kelsey Plum (all with Las Vegas). The opposite guard on the U.S. crew is New York’s Sabrina Ionescu, who’s in her first Olympics.

Ogunbowale is the top-scoring guard within the WNBA. Her 24.9 factors per sport is second solely to Aces ahead A’ja Wilson’s 28.0. Wilson will play in her second Olympics.

Through the years, some gamers have mentioned they believed school and professional connections might issue into who made the U.S. crew. Ogunbowale gained a nationwide championship at Notre Dame in 2018 and was the fifth choose within the 2019 WNBA draft.

“I am unable to actually communicate to USA Basketball typically,” Ogunbowale mentioned. “However simply after I consider girls’s basketball … politics is all the time surrounding it. Whether or not that is USA Basketball, All-Star groups, [All-WNBA] first crew, there’s politics. There’s politics in every thing.”

A USA Basketball official confirmed to ESPN on Saturday that Ogunbowale did take her identify out of consideration for the Olympics. USA Basketball didn’t have any touch upon Ogunbowale’s remarks about “politics” being a part of the choice.

In an interview with ESPN on Tuesday, USA Basketball choice committee chair Jennifer Rizzotti mentioned the only real standards for selecting the Olympians is placing collectively the absolute best crew. She mentioned issues corresponding to the place a participant went to varsity, what professional crew she is on or her age weren’t talked about by the six-member committee.

“What we might focus on was the participant’s physique of labor and why they deserved to be on the crew,” Rizzotti mentioned.

If they’re chosen as All-Stars, Ogunbowale and Clark each might have an opportunity to face the Olympians earlier than they go to Paris. The WNBA All-Star Sport in Phoenix on July 20 will match the U.S. crew towards a crew of different WNBA All-Stars.

That was additionally the case in 2021 and Ogunbowale gained All-Star MVP honors with 26 factors as Crew WNBA beat Crew USA 93-85 in Las Vegas.