I disagree and think you’re discounting the national attention Clark garnered earlier this year when she broke the all time NCAA scoring record. Had she used that spotlight to declare her desire to play for Team USA and backed it up by not turning pro (which used to be a prerequisite to become an Olympic athlete) there would have been a ton of grass roots pressure to have her represent the USA in Paris this summer.
National attention is not the goal of people putting together Olympic squads. Winning gold medals is. There’s plenty of “grass roots pressure” already, but it’s silly. It’s very rare for people in any sport to go from the best in college to the same level in the pros. And she has not, she’s good, but she ain’t there yet. She’s not one of the 12 best players in the WNBA, she still needs to grow into the longer game against better players. The 12 best players in the WNBA are on the US team. And will likely walk to a gold. Which is what the architects of the team want.