It’s official: When Team USA takes the court for the 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup next month, the lineup will be stacked.Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, Angel Reese and Aliyah Boston will make their debut in a major international competition, joining veteran stalwarts A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, among others, on the star-studded roster.
But while the team is bursting with talented playmakers, there are still questions about the roster makeup and a few head-scratching players who didn’t get the nod, including Olivia Miles, Sabrina Ionescu and Alyssa Thomas.
Here’s what we learned from the roster announcement and subsequent press conference from USA Basketball Women’s National Team managing director Sue Bird.
When is the World Cup and who made the roster?
The tournament will take place from Sept. 4-13 in Berlin, and the WNBA will break from Aug. 31 until Sept. 16 so that players can participate.
Bird emphasized that while she was thrilled with the roster, picking the final 12 was not an easy decision.
“I knew taking this job that I’d be sitting here one day talking to you all about whatever player it was who didn’t get selected, and it’s the hard part,” Bird stated. “It’s also, I guess, the best problem to have because of all the talent.”
| PLAYER | WNBA TEAM | POSITION | AGE | HEIGHT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Aliyah Boston |
Fever |
F/C |
24 | 6-5 |
|
Paige Bueckers |
Wings |
G |
24 | 6-0 |
|
Caitlin Clark |
Fever |
G |
24 | 6-0 |
|
Napheesa Collier |
Lynx |
F |
29 | 6-1 |
|
Kahleah Copper |
Mercury |
G/F |
31 | 6-1 |
|
Chelsea Gray |
Aces |
G |
33 | 5-11 |
|
Rhyne Howard |
Dream |
G |
26 | 6-2 |
|
Kelsey Plum |
Mercury |
G |
31 | 5-8 |
|
Angel Reese |
Dream |
F |
24 | 6-3 |
|
Breanna Stewart |
Liberty |
F |
31 | 6-4 |
|
A’ja Wilson |
Aces |
F |
29 | 6-5 |
|
Jackie Young |
Aces |
G |
28 | 6-0 |
This will be the first major tournament for head coach Kara Lawson, who will be assisted by Natalie Nakase (Golden State Valkyries), Nate Tibbetts (Phoenix Mercury) and Stephanie White (Indiana Fever).
“It’s great to have a team and to have a roster,” Lawson stated. “It’s been a long process to whittle it down to 12 players, and I think that speaks to just the talent we have in our country across the board. These 12 have earned it through their play and their consistency. I couldn’t be more excited about working with each of them, and I’ve had good experience with each of them.”
The top players are ready to go
Since the World Cup isn’t as prestigious as the Olympics, sometimes top players are more likely to sit out. Considering this World Cup is taking place in the middle of a busy WNBA season and will add a lot of miles on the players’ bodies right before the playoffs, there were some questions about whether the biggest names, such as Wilson, Clark, and Stewart, would want to participate.
But it doesn’t appear that anyone has turned down the invitation.
“This is the roster that I and all of us at USA Basketball want to and will be taking to Berlin,” Bird stated, before adding the “barring injury” caveat.
Of course, only time will tell whether these are the 12 that will actually get on the plane to Germany, but it doesn’t seem like Bird and her USA Basketball cohorts are viewing this as a “wish list” or a “reach.” They expect these 12 players to compete for gold.
Sabrina Ionescu, Olivia Miles among biggest snubs
The player pool for Team USA is deep, and when all the best players opt in, there are very few roster spots up for grabs in the traditional sense. That means some of the best players in the world will inevitably be staying home in September.
Take rookie sensation Olivia Miles, for example. CBS Sports’ Jack Maloney had her in his roster prediction last month, but she did not make the cut. However, Maloney made his roster predictions before Plum’s comeback from a leg injury, which got off to a phenomenal start this week. With Plum on the roster, and Clark, Bueckers and Gray making the trip, too, there just weren’t any guard spots left.
“Olivia, tremendous player. So much fun to watch. It’s been amazing watching her grow in this league,” Bird stated. “She will undoubtedly be in the mix for teams in the future.”
For Miles, this omission might end up being a blessing in disguise — she has been playing non-stop since the college season began last fall, and could probably use a break to rest and recalibrate before the WNBA postseason.
Ionescu, meanwhile, has been a part of Team USA for her entire career and won gold with the team at the 2022 World Cup and 2024 Olympics. She didn’t make the WNBA All-Star team this season because of injuries and inconsistent play throughout May and June, but has been playing really well over the last month.
But USA Basketball historically likes to go with a balance of veterans and youth. It seems to have selected Gray and Plum as the experienced leaders in the guard rotation and Clark and Bueckers as the backcourt of the future (and present), so Ionescu was squeezed out.
“There are so many players that have earned the right to be on this team. For Sabrina, a player that has already been on this team, she understands what it is to wear the jersey,” Bird stated. “It’s making choices for those that I think are going to be part of the 12 to win a gold medal and complement each other … playing under Kara, having a cohesiveness, and this is where it landed. It’s not easy.”
How about Alyssa Thomas, Kelsey Mitchell or Jessica Shepard?
Looking at the WNBA stats leaderboard and the All-Star roster, Alyssa Thomas, Kelsey Mitchell and Jessica Shepard were among the other notable players kept off the roster.
Let’s start with Shepard. She is having a breakout season, but has never really been part of the USA player pool and, in fact, accepted Slovenian citizenship for international play in 2024. So we won’t be seeing her on Team USA this fall.
As for Mitchell, Maloney put it well in his roster prediction story:
Team USA experience matters. Kelsey Mitchell, for example, is playing as well as any American guard right now, but she’s never been on the roster for a major 5×5 international tournament and wasn’t a part of the most recent Team USA training camp. It’s extremely unlikely she’s on the World Cup squad as a result.
The same can be stated for Lynx forward Natasha Howard, who has never been rostered for a major tournament. And as for Thomas? Well, despite leading the league in assists, this hasn’t been Thomas’s best season ever, as evidenced by her absence from the All-Star Game.
Like Ionescu, Thomas was part of the 2022 World Cup and 2024 Olympic gold-medal-winning teams. But as a big, she is in a category with generational talents like Wilson, Collier and Stewart. With all three of them accepting, it was going to be hard for Thomas to crack the roster, because Team USA wants to have a couple of young bigs in the mix. For the young bigs, they went with Reese and Boston, two players they have clearly pegged as part of their core going forward.
History with USA Basketball was a difference maker
Many of the questions about roster construction and snubs can be answered by recognizing how much Team USA values balancing youth and experience in an international setting, particularly during a World Cup year.
Gray might not have the stats this season to have made the roster if this were an All-Star Game. But it is not. She has been on the last two Olympic teams and the 2022 World Cup squad that won in Australia. With the days of the Bird and Diana Taurasi backcourt over, that leadership was always going to be given priority.
Additionally, training camp experience is always valued, and that can be a knock for rookies such as Miles this season or Clark in 2022, who were unable to participate in training camps because of the demands of the college season.
“In terms of criteria, there is no rule that you have to be in a camp,” Bird stated. “What being in camps and what being on [the team that] went to Puerto Rico for the qualifier, what that does is it allows me and everybody else to see these players in the USA Basketball environment. It allows us to see them under Kara Lawson and her system. So of course, it’s an important piece. It’s not a necessity. It’s not a requirement.”
