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Roughly two years after Caitlin Clark's notable omission from the U.S. women's national basketball team at the Paris Olympics, the Indiana Fever star made her long-awaited Team USA debut while wearing an iconic jersey number.
The No. 12 jersey has long been associated with WNBA legend and six-time gold medalist Diana Taurasi's storied Olympic runs. Clark recently took the floor in her first senior national team appearance, a move that drew praise from Taurasi.
"It's so cool to see Caitlin not only wear the USA jersey, but number 12. I spent two decades wearing that jersey and that number, and I couldn't think of anyone better to take it and put it on and just have an amazing career," Taurasi told Sports Illustrated.
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Clark scored 17 points and averaged 11.6 points and 6.4 assists during the FIBA World Cup qualifier earlier this month, earning MVP honors.
Taurasi, a three-time FIBA women's gold medalist, praised Clark's performance and said she looks forward to watching her this summer as she prepares for her first Olympic run.
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"And Caitlin will do that. She had a great qualifier down in Puerto Rico. It's just going to be fun to watch her play in the summer, in Germany, and then the Olympics."
"No one better to wear the 12, and Caitlin's going to put some gold medals on that jersey, you know," she added.
Clark wore No. 22 during her first two WNBA seasons. She also wore the number during her rise to stardom at Iowa.
While players often wear different jersey numbers in international competition, Taurasi said she had no role in Clark's decision to wear No. 12, but joked that a familiar figure may have had a hand in it.
"You know, once I'm out of things, I'm out," Taurasi said. "Maybe Sue [Bird], you know, she's a little bit more calculated than people think. So maybe that was a Sue job. That wouldn't surprise me."
Before this month's FIBA action, a string of injuries sidelined Clark for much of the past eight months, limiting the NCAA's all-time scoring leader to 13 games in her second WNBA season.
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