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We were all concerned when replays of Cameron Brink's slip on Tuesday night showed her knee bending in a direction that no one's knee is supposed to bend, but there was still hope. Sometimes these things turn out to be much less severe than initially feared. Unfortunately, yesterday the Los Angeles Sparks confirmed what many of us feared, an injury that we talk about far too much in women's sports - a torn ACL.
While obviously horrible news for Brink herself in the early stages of her rookie season, and unfortunate for the Sparks as well, this also creates a complication for USA Basketball. Brink was recently named as one of the four members of the Team USA 3x3 squad to play at the upcoming Paris Olympics in late July, alongside Rhyne Howard, Hailey Van Lith and Cierra Burdick. So now they have to come up with a replacement.
The first thing to understand is that this is not quite as simple as replacing a member of the regular 5-on-5 basketball squad. As long as the player has complied with things like drug testing regulations over the requisite period of time, USA Basketball could replace one of the 12 players in the 5-on-5 squad with essentially anyone female who can dribble a basketball (and if it wasn't Caitlin Clark, immediately set off another sports media-wide meltdown). 3x3 has more rules. For FIBA, basketball's global organisation, 3x3 has been about 'inclusion'. It's theoretically easier to organise a competitive 3x3 team than a competitive 5-on-5 team because you need fewer players and less infrastructure. So they've made efforts to encourage qualification from a wider group of nations, and to make it a somewhat separate enterprise from 5-on-5. So you can't just parachute in anyone - they must have at least a minimal history with 3x3.
The basics of the Olympic 3x3 roster requirements are here, with a slightly more detailed breakdown here. Because it's FIBA, and nothing is ever easy, the two documents don't entirely match, but they are close. Essentially, at least two of the four players have to be ranked in the country's top-10 players in the 3x3 rankings; the remaining players must have participated in at least one FIBA 3x3 Official Competition between Jan. 1, 2023 and June 24, 2024.
The USA gave themselves a little wiggle-room here due to their initial squad choice. Assuming FIBA's website rankings are correct (you need to specify 'United States' as the nationality in the search box at the top), Burdick, Van Lith and Brink are all in the current top 10 - and the list isn't likely to change in the four days remaining before the deadline. So they still have two even with Brink dropping out. That means the replacement can essentially be any American who's played in an official 3x3 tournament in the last 18 months.
That does still rule out a lot of people I've seen mentioned as possibilities. It's not going to be Caitlin Clark, for example, who hasn't played any 3x3. It also rules out most American posts you can think of. Given Brink's size and length, the most obvious direction to lean for a replacement might be another big, if there was someone similar to go with. However, the likes of Brionna Jones, NaLyssa Smith, Aliyah Boston, Stefanie Dolson, Cheyenne Parker-Tyus, Shakira Austin, Isabelle Harrison, Kalani Brown, Aaliyah Edwards etc. either don't appear on that official FIBA site, or have accounts but no ranking points (indicating they haven't played any official tournaments within the relevant time period). Many other players who were part of the USA’s 5-on-5 pool but didn’t quite make it - Ariel Atkins, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, Arike Ogunbowale - are also ineligible for the 3x3 team for the same reason.
So let's take a look at the legitimate options that USA Basketball appears to have available to choose from as Brink's replacement.
The All-Stars
Most of us watch a lot more 5-on-5 basketball than we do 3x3. So the first names that come to mind as potentially worthy of representing the USA at an Olympic Games are the stars of the WNBA. There was also a Team USA 3x3 training camp in April - roster here - which obviously gives an indication of who might be in their thoughts. Dearica Hamby and Allisha Gray are the names that jump out. Both are having all-star caliber seasons, with Hamby in particular drawing a lot of discussion due to her improvement in her second season following the birth of her second child. Hamby would offer a couple of extra inches in height and a more powerful inside game; Gray is a better ballhandler and outside shooter. Gray would also bring some inbuilt chemistry, having played over 40 WNBA games alongside Howard for Atlanta. Neither Gray or Hamby has an enormous amount of recent 3x3 experience, but Gray played quite a bit of it in preparation for the previous Olympics, where she ultimately won a gold medal. Hamby played alongside Brink, Gray and Linnae Harper in the Springfield tournament organised alongside that USA training camp, and in the 2023 FIBA 3x3 AmeriCup where Team USA beat Brazil 21-20 in the final.
Other WNBA Options
If you scroll down the FIBA rankings points list, or even just look at the USA training camp roster from April, there are other recognisable names who could be called in. Kelsey Mitchell was at the camp, and part of that successful AmeriCup team in 2023, and would offer more on-ball creation and shooting. Fellow member of the Indiana Fever Lexie Hull was also at the camp, and played alongside Burdick, Van Lith and Howard at the Springfield tournament. That team lost 20-18 to Canada in the final, and USA Basketball obviously decided to replace Hull with Brink, but they could simply choose to put that team back together and rely on the additional chemistry it would offer (plus Hull's significantly better defense and additional size over someone like Mitchell). There was one more current WNBA player at the camp who we'll address a little later. Names like Zia Cooke and Azurá Stevens also show up with ranking points in the relevant period, but don't seem likely to receive the call (Stevens would've been a definite option if not for her injury woes).
3x3 Experience
As the squad USA Basketball chose in the first place illustrates, they were never intending to simply throw together as much raw basketball talent as possible and expect it to work. Excelling in 3x3 does take certain skills, and experience playing it helps. Hence the willingness to select someone like Van Lith who's still in college (and not necessarily expected to be a high-end WNBA draft pick when she does turn pro), and a player like Burdick who's only ever been on the fringes of WNBA rosters. So a less recognisable name could still be a possibility. Other names in that USA top 10 include Arica Carter, Camille Zimmerman, Blake Dietrick, Madison Scott, Azana Baines and the aforementioned Linnae Harper. All of them were at the 3x3 camp in April apart from Carter, who’s listed as the No. 1 ranked player from the United States, but appears to have gained Azerbaijani citizenship (so may well be at the Olympics, but not with the US). The most obvious option in that group for USA Basketball would seem to be Harper, who's played a lot of 3x3, including with Gray, Brink and Hamby on a second USA-organised team in that Springfield competition. That team only went 1-2 in group play before losing to Canada in the semis, which might be part of why only Brink stepped into the initial Olympic group. Harper’s also a small guard, so would obviously be a significant switch from Brink’s size. None of the other options in the group are taller than Hamby, so there’s no true size here either.
The Romantic Choice
Back in 2021, before the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Katie Lou Samuelson was named as part of the USA's squad for the Games. Then she contracted COVID-19 and had to withdraw, being replaced on the team that went on to win gold by Jackie Young. Samuelson is now on her fifth WNBA team in five seasons and missed the whole of last year to have a child, but is starting to settle in with Indiana. She was also at the April camp, and on that 2023 AmeriCup team with Hamby, Mitchell and Zimmerman (which is where she gets the ranking points to be eligible). On pure performance levels it would be hard to justify, but for the storyline of sending someone to the Olympics who heartbreakingly missed out on the last one, it would be the dramatic choice.
Conclusion
It takes us back around to where we started, but Hamby and Gray seem the most likely options. Both are in form, eligible, have USA Basketball experience and were in the recent training squad. Also, due to the roster requirements, there's no obvious way to replace Brink's size with anything close to like-for-like with a top-end talent. If someone like Brionna Jones had played some 3x3, then great. But that's not an option. So you go for the best player available and work the rest out later. You don't necessarily need pure size in 3x3 anyway, where flexibility and movement can be more important as long as you can compete with the few teams who bring someone big.
The 'Paris 2024 Sport Entries deadline' is July 8, so we'll find out soon, regardless of the decision. Let's hope this is the only replacement decision that needs to be made between now and the opening of the Games.
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