Caitlin Clark will not be playing for the United States in the Olympics.

However she will be playing against Team USA.

No, she didn’t leave the country. But she did make the WNBA All-Star team this week, and this year’s All-Star Game will feature Team WNBA against the Paris-bound U.S. Olympics squad.

When Clark was left off the Olympic team, the most interesting part of the story was the selection committee’s explanation: they said their goal wasn’t to pick players who might promote the game, but instead to give Coach Cheryl Reeve a team that could win.

But this time, I think it’s Clark’s reaction to being chosen for Team WNBA that merits the closest look.

I’d especially focus on Clark’s response after it was pointed out that bot she and fellow WNBA rookie and perennial Clark rival Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky were chosen, meaning they’ll be playing on the same team together for the first time.

Here’s what Clark had to say:

“I know people will be really excited about it, but I hope it doesn’t take away from everyone else.

This is a huge accomplishment for everybody on Team USA and everyone on Team WNBA. They all deserve the same praise.

 

I don’t want it to take away from any of that and be the focal point of All-Star weekend because that’s not fair to them.”

The second part of that first quoted sentence jumped out at me: “I hope it doesn’t take away from everyone else,” with “it” referring to the Clark-Reese situation.

This is how a true leader handles a situation like this — deflecting personal glory, crediting her team and the other players around her, and making sure that nobody can pull a quote in context that doesn’t praise other people.

Here’s Reese’s reaction when she talked separately about making the team–although it’s worth noting, she was talking immediately after learning about her selection:

“I’m just so happy. I know the work I put in.

Coming into this league, so many people doubted me and didn’t think my game would translate and I wouldn’t be the player that I was in college or better or would be worse and wouldn’t be where I am right now.

But I trusted the process and I believed and I’m thankful …

I can’t thank my teammates and my coaches enough for just believing in me and trusting me. I know all of them are going to come to Phoenix and support me. So I’m really happy right now.”

Look, these are both young players: 22 years old.

I cringe to think of some things I might have said on the spot at that age, and I’m grateful there were never any cameras and microphones around.

They’re both learning and growing, and people are rightfully eager to see how they and their teammates, can develop both women’s basketball and the popularity of women’s sports in general.

Among the things they’ll learn are two points that rank right up there with, “praise in public; criticize in private.”

In short, successful leaders learn (a) to demonstrate humility about their own accomplishments and (b) to express pride about their teammates’ accomplishments.

There are exceptions — for example, a leader being boastful to motivate his or her team, or even intimidate a rival team. But, they need to be intentional exceptions.

Anyway, neither Clark nor Reese is the number 1 player in the WNBA. They might be someday, but not yet.

They have 10 teammates on Team WNBA, and since not being selected and playing for Team USA was a prerequisite this year to be on Team WNBA, that’s an entire other group of athletes arguably ahead of them.

But that doesn’t mean they won’t both get excellent chances to perform and maybe even star in the all-star game on July 20 and beyond. They’ll improve continually as leaders, both on and off the court.

And, a lot of people will listen to what they say while they do it.