“My marketing is doing just fine” - Andraya Carter rebukes Stephen A. Smith’s career advice amid heated debate on Caitlin Clark's Olympic snub

Caitlin Clark was snubbed from the Team USA for the Paris Olympics later this month. Clark’s snub generated a heated debate on ESPN’s First Take between sports analysts Stephen A. Smith and Andraya Carter. In the debate, Smith tried to give career advice to Carter but she said she was doing just fine.

Stephen A. Smith criticized Team USA’s decision from the WNBA's marketing perspective. However, Andrea Carter said that winning the Olympic gold should matter more to Team USA than focusing on marketing. She also said that sending the best players from the country was the right decision by Team USA.

In the later part of the segment, Smith suggested to Carter that if she doesn’t do her marketing right, she might end up being underpaid in her job. However, the reporter for WNBA said that she wasn’t ready to sacrifice her basketball integrity for marketing.

"I hear you, Stephen A. But I will not sacrifice my basketball knowledge and my integrity in terms of the game for marketing. My marketing is doing just fine,” she rebuked.

In the last few years, Carter has established herself as one of the biggest names in ESPN college basketball. In 2024, she was part of the record-breaking viewership for the channel for Women’s Final Four with Chiney Ogwumike and Elle Duncan. Carter, Ogwumike, and Duncan were called “the big three” of women’s basketball on ESPN.

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Stephen A. Smith calls Caitlin Clark’s Olympic snub a 'dumb' decision by Team USA

Caitlin Clark’s snub from the Team USA Olympic roster was one of the biggest stories around the WNBA. Despite what many believed would be an obvious choice, Clark being left out wasn’t a surprise for many. But for Stephen A. Smith, it was a 'dumb' decision.

According to Smith, the Olympics provided a perfect platform for the WNBA to widen its reach as a brand.

"It was a stupid decision,'' said Smith, "because it compromises what your ultimate goal is, which is to elevate the WNBA brand. How could you be that idiotic and not make that call, when throughout history, Team USA has been, in part, about marketing? It's dumb, period."

Chiney Ogwumike and Andraya Carter supported Team USA’s decision to leave Caitlin Clark out of the roster. According to Ogwumike, the primary reason that Clark's snub makes sense is because of her lack of experience. She is a rookie and hasn’t played against other national teams.

Moreover, Ogwumike added that unlike other players who have made it to the roster, Clark hasn’t shared the court with players on the roster. It would have posed difficulty for the team to get familiar with Clark’s style of play in this short period.

Despite being left out of the roster, Caitlin Clark is not disappointed. She said that she liked Team USA to compete since her childhood and the feeling will be the same for her, cheering for her team.