Not and Hot
Posted on 06/12/2024 4:01:54 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Does popularity overshadow merit in sports? This question has gained attention recently. Take Olivia Dunne, for instance. With 8 million followers on TikTok, surpassing even Beyonce, and 5.1 million on Instagram, she’s undeniably the most famous college gymnast, boasting a NIL value of $3.9 million. But is that enough for her to go to the Paris Olympics?
Most people would say no. Then why are people backing the WNBA sensation, Caitlin Clark? While she has pushed women’s basketball to the forefront, her popularity didn’t result in her selection for the Paris Olympics roster.
Some supporters believe Dunne deserves a spot on the Paris 2024 Olympics team, citing her potential to further grow the sport. However, detractors question this opinion after how she did not compete in the finals for LSU Tigers’ first-ever NCAA title in gymnastics. Now, with the exclusion of Clark from the Paris roster, debates have intensified.
(Excerpt) Read more at essentiallysports.com ...
One could ask if the media rule is it is merit if the blacks win, popularity if the whites win.
Olivia Dunne hot. Caitlin Clark set a scoring record and demonstrated a tremendous work ethic.
Clark was snubbed for being white and straight. Her performance elevated her to prominence but is irrelevant to her denial of a spot on the Olympic team. I haven’t looked, but I doubt the current roster are also holders of all the top performance records in the league. Even if it were, that assumes there are no others that could perform our out-perform those selected. It is not a mathematical elimination like swimming, where you have to perform as top 2 in your event at trials to get a spot. Personality/popularity will always play a part with team sports because they do not have fixed standards.
Olivia Dunne is quite attractive and obviously fit, the source of her popularity. I don’t know what her ranking is in gymnastics or even if she’s interested/tried out/was invited to try out. But the Olympic gymnastic team selection is based on scores at trials, so the premise of the article is flawed.
Olivia Dunne is to gymnastics as Paige Van Zant is to MMA.
Gymnastics is an individual sport. Basketball is about building team spirity. I would think the coach would want a mix of colors, orientation, and religion. 66pct should be white, 17pct black, 5pct queer, the rest of the spots can be competed for. THESE people built this world of Equity, be equitable.
To be fair, Clark leads the league in turning the ball over. Her time is coming.
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.
And for Caitlin's sake, they need to make the floor higher so she doesn't have that long a distance to dribble.
I watched the Fever play the New York Liberty the other night,
(Imagine that, this cowboy watching a WNBA game), I think Caitlin only played about two minutes in the second half, and the sellout crowd of about 20,000 were chanting: “We want Caitlin”. What Caitlin needs is somebody like Bill Laimbeer, an enforcer, on the team so when somebody body slams her to the floor while she’s waiting for an inbounds pass the enforcer can say to Chennedy: “I’m sorry, your face got in the way of my elbow”. Caitlin needs to get in the weight room during the off-season and gain some upper body strength. She’s already played a full college schedule this season and now 10 games in the WNBA. I think the girl could use some rest, as much as I would have liked to see her play in the Olympics.
Not and Hot
Looks like CC's coach is terrible. She may do fine if she was coaching high school basketball. But now that CC is here and it appears that she does not know how to coach, everyone is noticing it.
No one noticed last year because like you said no one cared about the WNBA.
Jealosy is an ‘included at no extra cost’ with leftists, since they realize that they’ll never have any true class.
Dunne is popular because she is hot, not because she is a great gymnast. She is for display, not for top competition.
Look, the term sportsman is common and practiced. The term sportswoman is never used because women professionals are spiteful and selfish.
I get tired of all this “find somebody somewhere on the internet and make a big deal about what he’s saying as though it represents anything more than one guy’s opinion journalism.”
Olivia Dunne’s boyfriend pitches for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Draymond Green also said the Fever needs an “enforcer”. Michael Jordan did not get past the Pistons til he hit the weights gaining 15# of muscle. Clark will adjust to the physicality and mentality of the WNBA.
Truth is Clark did not make the Olympic team because she did not attend the camps (tryouts) because she was otherwise occupied with a little thing called NCAA basketball Tournament finals.
PS don’t bring up Christian Laettner 😣
Well, obviously they do not need to make money if the NBA is paying for everything.
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