With the FIBA Women’s World Cup in Berlin tipping off in less than a month, USA Basketball announced the roster for the team that will try to win their 12th World Cup gold. The team will include Aliyah Boston, Paige Bueckers, Caitlin Clark, Napheesa Collier, Kahleah Copper, Chelsea Gray, Rhyne Howard, Kelsey Plum, Angel Reese, Breanna Stewart, A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young.
It’s a team that shows USA Basketball turning the page to a younger group of athletes. Gray, at 33, is the oldest player.
“I wanted to have a good mixture of people with experience and a good mixture of people with you because that sets us up for the future,” Sue Bird, USAB’s managing director, said to media on Thursday. “But also, a team that complemented each other, and can go on the court and win gold. That’s always the North Star in all of these decisions that I’ve made.
Here’s what you need to know about the team that will be coached by Duke’s Kara Lawson in Berlin in September.
The next generation is here
Team USA stalwarts like Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner and Bird have moved on. The team headed to Berlin has players who are responsible for basketball’s popularity explosion, but are also young and in need of experience at the top international level.
While seven members from the gold-medal winning 2024 Olympic team are on the roster, there are also several players who don’t have World Cup or Olympic experience.
This will be the first time Boston, Bueckers, Clark and Reese play at a top-level international tournament. Howard is an Olympian, having won bronze with the 3×3 team in 2024, but hasn’t played with the 5 on 5 team at this level yet.
Don’t overlook the rest of world
In the gold-medal game at the 2024 Olympics, France came an inch of Gabby Williams’ foot from sending the game into overtime. A few months earlier at the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Antwerp, a Stewart last-second tip-in helped the U.S. avoid an upset by Belgium.
While the U.S. women’s basketball team is one of the most successful teams in sporting history, the rest of the world is coming. Bird pointed out France as a tough competitor.
“France. We only won by a couple points in Paris. They have a ton of talent. A lot of that talent’s in the WNBA right now,” Bird said on the “Today Show.” “You can go watch them! Every time I watch a game, there’s a French player playing. I’m like, oh lord, that’ll be tough. But there’s a lot of countries. It’s going to be very competitive”
While France hasn’t yet announced its roster, Williams, a 2026 All-Star for the Golden State Valkyries, is expected to lead the team again. She will likely be joined by Seattle Storm phenom Dominique Malonga and Connecticut Sun standout Leila Lacan.
Australia’s team is coached by Toronto Tempo coach Sandy Brondello, and has WNBA standouts Ezi Magbegor and Steph Talbot. Belgium won the 2025 European Championships, and is led by Emma Meesseman, the best player not currently in the WNBA.
The United States does still have the best basketball talent in the world, but the globalization of the game means that the rest of the world will challenge the U.S. After pool play, the World Cup is a single-elimination tournament. The U.S. cannot let their guard down.
Injuries did play a part in decisions
Both Collier and Plum have missed multiple games during the WNBA season due to injury. Bird said she waited until the last possible minute to set the roster to make sure the team she chose would be as healthy as possible in Berlin.
“You can’t decide until it’s time to decide. You can’t make this decision in May. You can’t make the decision in June,” Bird said. “You can’t make a decision until it’s time to make the decision, especially because our players are playing [in the WNBA], so there’s injuries. There’s all kinds of things you have to take into consideration, and you can’t make it until it’s time to make it.”
If Bird had constructed the roster in May or June, Collier and Plum might have been iffy to make the team. Instead, she waited to see where their health was.
Plum’s latest game was a 19-point performance against Atlanta, and Collier scored 18 points, grabbed eight rebounds and made seven assists against Indiana.
Los Angeles 2028 does play a part — sort of
With games at the 18,000-seat Intuit Dome, the Los Angeles Olympics are expected to show off the growth of women’s hoops. From Cheryl Miller and Anne Meyers to Lisa Leslie and Candace Parker to Juju Watkins and the 2026 UCLA team, Southern California is key to the history of women’s basketball.
But Bird isn’t exactly thinking beyond Berlin just yet, except for one thing. She wants the young players to learn from the ones who have been there before as she did when she debuted at the World Cup in 2002.
“My first World Cup, my first Olympics, I knew exactly why I was there. I was there to learn,” she said. “I was there to taste the international game, and that paid dividends as I moved forward because I had that experience. So you have to have that understanding as you’re building. But I’m not thinking about LA in any concrete way. This is not an indicator of what’s going to happen two years from now.”
Making the team for the World Cup doesn’t guarantee an Olympic spot in Los Angeles, nor does missing the roster of this team mean missing the roster for 2028. The key is for young players to drink in the experience and learn everything they can about the USA Basketball experience.
The World Cup starts on September 4 in Berlin.
