If Clark stayed amateur and declared her intent/desire to play for team USA in the Olympics after setting the NCAA scoring record, it would have been hard to ignore her.
No, actually it would have been easier. The fact is the Olympics will have lots of WNBA players all over many of the teams, and the entire US team. If Clark had opted to not compete with them at all she wouldn’t have even been considered. Making the move to the WNBA showed she can compete with them, but she isn’t right now one of the best 12 players in the league.