Considering that the USA Basketball Women’s National Team is the most dominant in the history of the sport, every spot on the roster is highly coveted.
Ahead of the 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, which runs from Sept. 4 to 13 in Berlin, Germany, USA Basketball unveiled the roster on Thursday morning, with managing director Sue Bird making the announcement on the TODAY show
The final roster is a who’s who in American basketball with 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 making the cut.
In a press release announcing the team, Bird discussed the quality of this group of American players, emphasizing:
This is an incredibly talented group that has earned the opportunity to compete in Berlin. Wearing a USA jersey is a privilege, and I know these 12 players will embrace that responsibility as we go after another gold medal. I can’t wait to see what this team accomplishes together.
Every time Team USA takes the court, the pressure is on.
They have won 10 Olympic gold medals and 11 more gold medals in FIBA World Cup play. This latest iteration of the team will be expected to win again. Given the talent they have, they’ll be favored in every contest in Germany.
Of course, because of the depth of talented American players, every Team USA announcement comes an uproar about who didn’t make the cut. This year is no exception.
The one player whose absence generated the most outrage is rookie phenom Olivia Miles.
Miles is averaging 19.7 points, 5.8 assists, and 4.7 rebounds per game for the Minnesota Lynx. Thanks to her play, Minnesota is the top team in the WNBA, and she’s the only first-year player who has won a Rookie of the Month award this season so far, making her a shoo-in for Rookie of the Year honors. She also was named a WNBA All-Star starter, confirming that she is in the conversation for the best guard in the league and certainly good enough to make Team USA.
However, she didn’t make the cut.
A popular theory as to why Miles is on the outside looking in at Team USA is that she did not attend a training camp in March. Miles was still in college at the time, so, even though Bird asserted the training camp participation is not a prerequisite to making the final roster, perhaps the timing and unwritten rules are why she didn’t make the roster.
Along with Miles, other seemingly deserving players also didn’t make the cut, headlined by Sonia Citron.
She’s a two-time All-Star with two-way versatility. Defensively, Citron is averaging 1.2 steals and 0.8 blocks per game, while also thriving as an offensive producer, averaging 17.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists this season for the Washington Mystics.
While figuring out the 12 players that made Team USA was tough, building out a coaching staff was another challenging task for Bird to navigae.
In her first major tournament as the head coach of Team USA, Duke head coach Kara Lawson will by three WNBA head coaches: the Golden State Valkyries’ Natalie Nakase, Phoenix Mercury’s Nate Tibbetts and Indiana Fever’s Stephanie White. The Dallas Wings’ Jose Fernandez and Tia Jackson, one of Lawson’s assistants at Duke, will be scout coaches.
Team USA will begin group play against China on Sept. 4, followed by Italy on Sept. 6 and Czechia on Sept. 7. All games will be broadcast on TNT Sports.
While debates on who the best dozen Team USA players are will likely rage on for an eternity, what’s clear is that this team is elite. They are stacked with talent and a ton of experience. This roster has a combined 14 Olympic and nine World Cup gold medals, and they’ll need all hands on deck to ensure Team USA’s dominance against the world continues this summer.
