On Thursday, USA Basketball announced their roster for the 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup.
The roster
- Aliyah Boston (Indiana Fever)
- Paige Bueckers (Dallas Wings)
- Caitlin Clark (Indiana Fever)
- Napheesa Collier (Minnesota Lynx)
- Kahleah Copper (Phoenix Mercury)
- Chelsea Gray (Las Vegas Aces)
- Rhyne Howard (Atlanta Dream)
- Kelsey Plum (Phoenix Mercury)
- Angel Reese (Atlanta Dream)
- Breanna Stewart (New York Liberty)
- A’ja Wilson (Las Vegas Aces)
- Jackie Young (Las Vegas Aces)
Given how stacked the roster is, it is not surprising that the Washington Mystics had no players who made it. Kiki Iriafen played for Team USA in World Cup qualifiers and could be on the team in the future. Sonia Citron was also invited to camp last year. We’ll just have to wait until 2028 for the Olympics in Los Angeles.
That said, there are some folks on the team with Mystics ties. The USA Basketball
women’s national team’s head coach is former Mystics player, former Wizards TV color analyst Kara Lawson. She is now the Duke women’s basketball head coach. In addition, on the team itself, Copper was the Mystics’ first round draft pick in 2016 though her career only took off after getting traded to the Chicago Sky the following year.
Does Washington have players on other national teams for the World Cup? None are officially on a roster as far as I can tell. Alicia Florez made a 21 player preliminary roster for Team Spain, but the roster isn’t official yet. Georgia Amoore did not make Team Australia’s roster for the FIBA Women’s World Cup.
The Mystics have two players who they drafted in previous years but are not playing on the active roster. Both could be in the FIBA Women’s World Cup: Txell Alarcon for Spain and Nastja Claessens for Belgium.
The FIBA Women’s World Cup will be held in Germany from Sept. 4-13. The WNBA season will have a break at that time.
