With All Due Respect to Caitlin Clark, THIS is the WNBA Player Olympic Football Needs
One of the greatest high school athletes in American history and a current WNBA player, Alissa Pili has lineage and unique qualifications.
From the moment it was first announced as an Olympic sport, flag football has been the most buzzworthy element of a 2028 Los Angeles Games still three years away. And, thanks to what seems to me a clear joke couched in her genuine appreciation for the sport, Caitlin Clark roused further excitement for the fledgling competition while speaking at the annual NFL owners meetings.
Clark’s quip that if a spot on the United States women’s basketball team isn’t in the cards, she’ll try out for the inaugural football roster. Again, said in jest, though she did mention her grandfather’s time coaching high school and her brother, Blake, a back-up quarterback at Iowa State.
Ultimately, it’s a fun little tidbit good for continuing the sport’s promotion with an endorsement from one of the fastest-rising stars in American sports but not necessarily much further consideration than that.
Besides, if the first U.S. flag football team is going to mine the WNBA for talent, there’s an obvious No. 1 pick among the pro basketball league’s ranks.
Alissa Pili debuted last season with the Minnesota Lynx after garnering All-American honors in 2022-23 and 2023-24 at the University of Utah. Pili posted 20.7 and 21.4 points per game while shooting better than 60 percent from inside the 3-point arc.
Her combined toughness in the paint and speed making plays off the dribble defined Pili as one of the most versatile scorers in women’s college basketball. She eased into a reserve role in the pros with Minnesota, but don’t be surprised if her multifaceted game sees Pili take considerable strides as a WNBA sophomore.
Come 2028, Alissa Pili could have evolved into a full-fledged star from the same class that produced Caitlin Clark. But if Pili isn’t part of the next Olympic women’s basketball team, those in charge with assembling a flag football roster might give her call.
She’s the rare WNBA player with familial NFL ties, her brother Brandon Pili spending the last two seasons with the Miami Dolphins.
Brandon Pili signed at USC in 2017, flying under the radar as a 3-star prospect. In five seasons with the Trojans, however, he matured into a consistent bright spot on defenses that were anything but consistent.
Alissa Pili, on the other hand, was hardly overlooked or underrated as a high school basketball recruit. She had 5-star billing upon signing to follow her brother to USC in the 2019 class, and was in fact the most celebrated girls high school athlete in America.
Pili won MaxPreps National High School Athlete of the Year in the 2018 and 2019 for her exploits on the basketball and volleyball courts; in track & field; and on wrestling mats. I’d recommend viewing the footnotes1 for a visual analogy for the list of state championships Pili won across the four sports.
When the Pili siblings were at USC together, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum jumbotron more than a few times ran this video of the two quizzed on each other.
The last of the questions is touching — and suggests Alissa could get some NFL-level instruction to bring to the Los Angeles Olympics.
I’m not suggesting the 2028 Olympic flag football team be populated with standouts from other sports; the sport has already debuted at several colleges and is gaining traction as a varsity offering for high schools around the nation.
LA 2028 Olympics Brings Football's Future to the Global Stage
As Paris hands the torch of the Summer Olympics off to Los Angeles, so begins the long run to the goal line of the first-ever football competition at the Games. The introduction of flag football on the LA 2028 stage isn’t a beginning for this take on the sport, though: It marks a culmination in what has been a fast-growing movement at the global epicent…
But, if any WNBA talent is up for a spot, Alissa Pili deserves the first call. Maybe Caitlin Clark gets the second call.
