Candace Parker and Geno Auriemma's Olympic beef

SB Nation

Candace Parker, one of the best women’s basketball players in the history of basketball, in her prime in 2016, was left off the 2016 Olympic team.  Why? Some including Parker herself believe USA basketball coach Geno Auriemma kept her off the team because he does not like her. Wherein lies the heart, the blood, and the soul of our beef.  Candace's accusation forces us to ask questions like, why are there so many UConn players on team USA? Why did Geno bench her in the 2012 Olympics? Does Auriemma still hate the University of Tennessee? And here's the big one, why was she cut from the 2016 Olympic team?!   Written and Produced by Clara Morris Directed and edited by Charlotte Atkinson

Transcript

00:00Candice Parker, one of the best women's basketball players in the history of

00:04basketball, in her prime in 2016, was left off the 2016 Olympic team. Why?

00:11Oh, hi Gina or Emma. What are you doing here? This episode of Beef History is

00:17presented by Sam Adams American Light, the most premium light beer. Candice Parker

00:24was supposed to be on Team USA in 2016. Look at her trophy case. I don't think

00:30they do a trophy for league assist leader, but let's just imagine they do.

00:33And what's that over there? Just the medals she's racked up with USA

00:38basketball. And six months before she was rejected by Team USA, she played really

00:44well for Team USA during a four-game Euro tour. Okay, okay, small asterisk. This was

00:49during the 2015 finals, so nobody from the finals teams was on this tour, but

00:53still. Parker was 30 going into the 2016 Olympics, and she did miss the first half

00:59of the 2015 WNBA season with an injury, but she was fine when she returned. And

01:05fine in Candice Parker terms is 19 points and 10 rebounds a game. She was

01:10the finals MVP months after the Olympics, which is after, yes, but I bring it up to

01:15emphasize that she was still quite good at age 30. According to her own account,

01:20Parker did well at the Olympic team camp. I got a triple-double at the camp,

01:24was I think first or second in scoring. And when I say she was supposed to be on

01:30the team, it's not really a matter of opinion or numbers. She was literally

01:34supposed to be on the team. She was one of four players at the Team USA media

01:39summit in March. She had portraits taken in the uniform, and she shot commercials

01:44promoting the Olympics and USA basketball. So when she was left off the

01:49roster, it was a shock, nearly impossible to make sense of. Though people tried.

01:54Maybe it was because Nike is a huge Team USA sponsor and she's with Adidas. Maybe

02:00it was because she was planning on getting pregnant and worried about the

02:04Zika virus in Rio, Brazil. Or maybe it was because of the coach. Gino Auriemma, of

02:11UConn Husky fame and success and complete dominance, did these numbers

02:16even convey it properly? Like, in 2016, Connecticut beat opponents by an average

02:22of 40 points. I know, that's more numbers. All right, how about this? UConn is so

02:27good, people think it might actually be bad for the sport. I don't totally get

02:32that myself, but it speaks to the extreme, unprecedented power of this powerhouse.

02:37In other words, Gino is a really good coach. He has faults. He can be a bit...

02:43We'll go with outspoken. There are always a lot of UConn alums on Team USA. Take a

02:50look at the 2012 roster. So the team can look a little bit like a Connecticut

02:55clique, and maybe that's on Auriemma, but it also kind of makes sense that the

03:00school with these stats churns out world-class players. Oh, one thing we

03:05should mention about the college coach extraordinaire, he was not Candace

03:08Parker's college coach. Parker was the top-rated recruit in 2004, predicted to

03:13change the game. She had a column for the Chicago Tribune detailing her senior

03:18high school season. She won the McDonald's All-American Dunk Contest. She

03:22could have played for any school she wanted. She considered UConn, but that's

03:27as far as it got. Live on ESPN, young Parker announced her pick, the University

03:32of Tennessee, UConn, and Gino Auriemma's greatest rival. Because while UConn is

03:38so great, Tennessee is not that far behind them. The schools have competed

03:42for a national title four times, met in the Final Four twice, and the Elite Eight

03:47once. The majority of the time, UConn came out on top. But while Candace Parker was

03:52in college, UConn won no titles. Tennessee won two. Guess who was the most

03:58outstanding player both times? And while Tennessee versus Connecticut started out

04:03as a rivalry, simply the best teams playing each other for a good-spirited

04:07challenge, it got personal and nasty and turned to beef between Gino and

04:12Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, which my esteemed colleague has covered in depth.

04:16And the beef just so happened to be at its beefiest while Parker was starring

04:21in Knoxville. In fact, Parker's sophomore year, Pat Summitt ended the school's

04:25regular season series that had been going on for more than a decade. In the

04:29last game they played against each other until 2020, Parker humiliated UConn on

04:35their home court. She beat them, yeah, snapping their perfect 12-0 start. And

04:39she also twisted the knife a little. And postgame she was like, twisting the knife

04:44is kind of fun. Whee! So perhaps Gino has a preference for UConn players and a

04:50distaste for the human representation of Tennessee's success. Could that

04:55preference-distaste combo be so strong that he kept Parker off the Olympic team?

05:00That's essentially what Candice Parker said in an interview in 2021.

05:05Why do you think he did not want Candice Parker on the team? I mean, we, he doesn't

05:09like me, I don't like, I mean, we don't like each other. She wasn't the only one,

05:12nor the first, to state this theory. As soon as the news broke that Candice

05:16would not be going to Rio, people were convinced Gino kept her off the team.

05:21Especially Tennessee fans, who showed just a hint of bias. USA Basketball

05:27didn't help curb speculation when they refused to say why the superstar was cut.

05:31Though they tried to take the heat off Gino. It's a committee decision, the

05:35coach is not part of the committee. But even the Connecticut press had to admit

05:39a guy like Ariema is gonna have a lot of influence, whether he's on a committee or

05:44not. How much influence is the debate? The Connecticut press wouldn't cede that

05:48Gino had total say, but some in the national press believed he did. And when

05:55the most recent bell of the UConn ball, Breonna Stewart, was added to the Olympic

05:59team in Parker's place, speculation intensified. Gino said Stewart was added

06:05because she was the future of women's basketball. She definitely was, and it

06:09makes sense to have some younger players on the team to get experience and learn

06:13from the vets and prepare for the future. But is that only true of Candice Parker's

06:19position? For Rio, Team USA's point guards were both in their mid-30s. Why not

06:24build a foundation for the future in that position? And I don't want to take

06:28anything away from Sue Bird, because she's obviously great and Olympic gold

06:33caliber at 35 and at 39, and also she's cool and I want her to like me. But the

06:40fact that she's a UConn alum, well, those who believe there was a bias saw one

06:45there. From within women's basketball, not a lot of people spoke out, which ESPN

06:50attributed to the power of USA basketball. Yet leaving Parker off the

06:55roster was so egregious, there were some comments. Kelsey Bone of the Connecticut

06:59Sun kept it vague, but we know what she was saying. The recently retired Notre

07:04Dame coach Muffet McGraw backed up Parker's claims completely. She actually

07:08went further, saying even within Team USA, Gino treats UConn players better. But it

07:14should be noted she had a bit of beef with Oriyama herself, as evidenced by his

07:19response. Now, there are plenty of people who do not think Gino pushed Parker out.

07:23They point to the fact that Oriyama was the Olympic coach in 2012, and he didn't

07:28cut Parker from the team then. And at first blush, yeah, that's a good point. But

07:33let's look a little deeper. As early as 2009, eight players were simply appointed

07:39to the 2012 Olympic team by USA basketball. The eight were basically

07:43everyone who'd won a gold medal the year before in the Beijing Olympics and was

07:48still in their prime, or under 35. That group included Candice Parker. Also, Gino

07:53was new. He was announced as coach just a few months before those eight players

07:57were appointed to the team. He might have had less influence as a new hire. Whereas

08:02in 2016, he was a gold medal winning coach, and he could, in theory, have more

08:07influence over the committee. On the Husky message board, someone claims Gino

08:11said as much, but I don't think message boards are admissible in court. And

08:14having more influence doesn't mean he got Parker cut. Let's look at something

08:19more tangible. Had Candice and Gino get along in those 2012 London Olympics? They

08:24won gold, so I assume everything was... Oh, Gino took away her starting spot early,

08:31before the end of the group stage, when they were crushing everyone, sometimes by

08:35as much as 40 points. In her place, Oriyama started former Connecticut

08:40player Maya Moore, who is really good. No disrespect to Maya Moore. But she was

08:45young in 2012, just in the middle of her second WNBA season. And it's not like

08:50Parker was doing badly. Even coming off the bench, she led the team in rebounds

08:55and blocks and was third in scoring. In the gold medal game against France, she

08:59was the difference maker. France was down just three points in the second quarter,

09:04and Parker came off the bench to put an end to that. Postgame, Gino was full of

09:09praise for her. He was a little mean about her less good semifinals

09:14performance. But that's Gino. He's outspoken. And hey, given the coach's

09:19penchant for being kind of mean in the press, he probably had a lot to say about

09:24Parker being left off the 2016 roster, right? No, actually. When asked if he was

09:29surprised at a Rio press conference, he replied yes and no, and kind of dodged

09:35the question. It was a very diplomatic answer from a guy who has maybe never

09:40been described as diplomatic in his life. But surely he had something to say in

09:45response to Parker directly blaming him for her exclusion in that 2021 interview.

09:50Like, I knew as soon as he was named the coach again, I was like, oh well, this is gonna be interesting.

09:56Nope. No comment. How uncharacteristic. Maybe if what Parker is alleging is true,

10:04he doesn't need to say anything. And in fact, it would just make USA Basketball

10:08look really, really bad if he does. And USA Basketball is a powerful force who

10:14he probably doesn't want to piss off for the sake of all his UConn players who

10:18want to go to the Olympics in the future. Am I veering into speculation land?

10:22While we're here, might be worth considering that Ariema didn't make a comment because

10:26Pat Summitt, who he'd long ago made up with, passed away about a month before

10:30the Olympics. Not really the time to be snarky. But whatever the reason, his

10:35silence can't point to guilt. That's the Fifth Amendment for you. We don't know if

10:39Gino actually pushed Parker off the team. We don't know if he has beef with her.

10:44He could like her even. He hasn't said one way or another. But what we do know is

10:48that Candice Parker absolutely has beef with Gino Ariema. It wasn't just that she

10:54didn't get to go to the Rio Olympics, it's also that her exclusion was done in

10:58such a shitty way. Traveling to camps, to media summits, taking promo pics, shooting

11:03commercials, that was all a waste of time. Parker's a mom. She had to be away from

11:07her daughter to do all that stuff. And she resents that. Who wouldn't? In 2017,

11:13USA Basketball invited her to training camp for a chance to make the team again.

11:17She declined. Gino wasn't the coach anymore, but that didn't matter. The

11:22relationship had been severed permanently. Didn't matter who did the

11:25severing. This isn't the kind of beef with a lot of petty back-and-forth. This

11:29might not even be a beef with two sides. But because it's defined by something so

11:35big, you get a pretty substantial meal anyway.

11:46Thanks for watching everybody. We've got more videos I think you'd like. Check us

11:51out on Patreon. And for Secret Base, I'm Clara Morris. Good night and good game.

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