Los Angeles Sparks center Cameron Brink’s season-ending knee injury was a big blow to women’s basketball, as the electric rookie had been playing phenomenal basketball since her WNBA debut.
But Brink’s torn ACL was also devastating to the U.S. Olympic team, as she was a star on the women’s 3×3 basketball squad.
Earlier this month, Brink was selected to the four-member 3×3 squad along with Valencia forward Cierra Burdick, Atlanta Dream guard Rhyne Howard and TCU guard Hailey Van Lith. Brink, Burdick and Van Lith represented the U.S. at the 3×3 World Cup in 2023 and took home the gold medal. The fourth member of that team was current free agent guard Linnae Harper.
The U.S. squad went 3-1 in pool play during the World Cup last summer, then beat Japan, Austria, China and France in the knockout rounds to win the title. Brink was named to the tournament’s All-Star team and was named tournament MVP.
Team USA is the defending Olympic champion in women’s 3×3 basketball. At the 2020 Olympics, Stefanie Dolson, Allisha Gray, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young dominated pool play, going 6–1, before beating France in the semifinals and Russia in the gold medal match. Plum tied for the tournament lead with 55 points, but she’ll be playing with the 5×5 team this time around.
The first instinct everyone will have is that this provides an opening for Caitlin Clark to wind up at the Paris Olympics. Not so fast. Brink is a versatile forward who can play in the post and step out to shoot on the perimeter. The Americans will almost certainly need to find another big to replace her, not a point guard. It’s a shame that there doesn’t seem to be a spot for Clark on the team, but she wouldn’t appear to be a fit.
Expect an Olympic replacement for Brink to be named in the coming days.