Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese’s Team USA basketball era officially starts now as attention turns to Los Angeles 2028 Olympics following Paris gold

As one era ends, another begins.

US legend Diana Taurasi capped off a storied (and unbeaten) Olympics run on Sunday, winning her sixth straight gold medal after Team USA women’s basketball clinched a nail-biting 67-66 victory against France in the 2024 championship game.

Taurasi (left) will now pass the torch to the next generation of starsCredit: Getty
This was the 42-year-old’s sixth and final Olympics in what is likely to be viewed as a changing of the guard Games for Team USA.

Once the Paris Olympics Closing Ceremony is in the books, attention will inevitably turn to Los Angeles 2028, where a Taurasi-less Team USA boasting two transcendent stars will be eyeing a ninth consecutive Olympic gold medal.

WNBA rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese were left off the 2024 women’s roster by USA Basketball earlier this summer in a move that was widely panned by critics who suggested it was a massive missed opportunity to raise the profile of women’s basketball around the world.

The former college basketball-turned-WNBA rivals have longed been viewed as pioneers for women’s basketball – and women’s sports in general – before their controversial omissions from the American Olympics squad.

An intense NCAA women’s national championship match-up in 2023 saw Clark’s name first enter the zeitgeist and helped put former LSU standout Reese on the national map after she taunted her opponent.

The March Madness rematch earlier this year made history as 12.3 million viewers made it the most-viewed college basketball game ever on ESPN.

Days later, the NCAA championship between Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes and South Carolina Gamecocks broke that record by cracking a cool 19 million viewers, five million more than the men’s championship between UConn and Purdue the day before.

After missing out on a college title, Clark, the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer in college basketball history, was selected No. 1 overall by the Indiana Fever in the 2024 WNBA Draft while Reese went to the Chicago Sky at No. 7.

The ‘Caitlin Clark effect’ soon became a genuine economic phenomenon, as her Indiana jersey sold out in record time, Fever home tickets became the hottest in town, and the WNBA’s TV viewership went through the roof.

According to Fortune, the WNBA had its highest attended opening month in 26 years in May, and the most watched start to a season ever across all networks.

Clark is the new face of women’s basketballCredit: Getty

Angel Reese is making her mark in the WNBACredit: Getty
The number of games in May that sold out also jumped 156 per cent from 2023, and arena capacity across all WNBA arenas was at almost 95 per cent.

The W’s two rookie superstars have played each other three times this season, with ticket prices for those games soaring three times higher than the average WNBA game.

They momentarily put aside their rivalry to join forces on Team WNBA in the league’s All-Star Game against the United States women’s national team in July.

Clark, the WNBA’s assist leader, was the leading vote-getter in 2024 with a massive 700,735 votes – compared to 2023 when leading vote-getter A’ja Wilson received 95,860 votes – a testament to the Fever sharpshooter’s immense popularity and widespread appeal.

Clark and Reese joining forces for the annual exhibition was only the eighth time that two rookies had ever been on the All-Star team.

They also did what the likes of France, Australia and Nigeria couldn’t do in the Olympics and beat this current iteration of Team USA, including Taurasi, Wilson and Breanna Stewart, 117-109.

Many expected the runaway WNBA Rookie of the Year contenders to make the Team USA basketball Olympics roster, but their inclusion failed to materialize after head coach Cheryl Reeve reportedly wanted a more senior roster to take to the French capital.

Reeve’s decision may have been vindicated by USA clinching gold in dramatic fashion against France, but there’s only so long USA Basketball can keep Clark and Reese out.

In four years’ time, seniority will be a non-factor. Clark and Reese will be 26 and 28 respectively in 2028 when the Los Angeles Summer Games roll around, and could easily have multiple WNBA championships and MVPs under their belts while just about hitting their primes.

Brittney Griner will also be 37 when the Los Angeles Games take place, while Connecticut Sun forward Alyssa Thomas will be 36, and Las Vegas Aces guard Chelsea Gray will be 35.

Those three veterans could still be around the national team by then, but eventually experience always gives way to youth.

The WNBA superstar pair will be locks for the 2028 team in LACredit: Getty

Sparks star Cameron Brink will also fancy her chances of making that teamCredit: Getty
Barring injuries or a catastrophic drop off in form, Clark and Reese will be shoo-ins for LA28, and will be flying the flag for the home nation when it hosts the Games for the first time since Atlanta in 1996.

And chances are they’ll be joined by the next generation of WNBA superstars.

Clark’s Fever teammate and reigning Rookie of the Year Aliyah Boston will fancy herself to make that team, as will the likes of Cameron Brink (Los Angeles Sparks) and college basketball phenoms JuJu Watkins and Paige Bueckers.

The pool of prospective WNBA talent increasingly runs deep, and just like Team USA men’s legends Jordan, Magic, and Bird passed the torch to Kobe, Wade, LeBron, Durant, and Curry, the new wave of women’s stars are already waiting in the wings, primed to make their own mark on Olympics history as soon as they get the call up.

“That team is so talented. I think the USA, on the women’s side, is just so dominant,” Clark said recently.

“They play for the gold medal, and I really don’t see them having any trouble winning… it’s definitely something to work for in 2028.”