Delle Donne, 36, retired from playing this past April after a career that included an Olympic gold medal (2016), a FIBA World Cup title (2018), a WNBA title (2019) and two WNBA MVPs (2015, 2019).<\/p>\n
She was part of a deep frontcourt for the U.S. in the 2010s, teaming at different times with Brittney Griner, Sylvia Fowles, Tina Charles, A\u2019ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart.<\/p>\n
In her new role, Delle Donne will identify players and coaches for major 3×3 competitions, including the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, like Sue Bird will do for the women\u2019s 5×5 team.<\/p>\n
The U.S. won the first Olympic women\u2019s 3×3 tournament at the Tokyo Games. <\/p>\n
In Paris, the team of Cierra Burdick, Dearica Hamby, Rhyne Howard and Hailey Van Lith took bronze after an overtime defeat to Spain in the semifinals. Cameron Brink was originally named to the team but tore an ACL a month before the Games and was replaced by Hamby.<\/p>\n
While NBA players have not participated in Olympic 3×3, both the U.S. women\u2019s teams in Tokyo and Paris included WNBA players.<\/p>\n
For Tokyo and Paris, players needed to have 3×3 experience to be eligible for Olympic selection. That means hopefuls in the WNBA or in college typically need to play 3×3 in their offseasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of your questions will depend on the players and what they will commit to, but for me, I\u2019m excited that I\u2019m starting this process early, and we\u2019re going to draw out the map all the way leading up to the Olympics,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen we\u2019re going to have these qualifying tournaments, are we going to need college kids at this time? When can we throw in some (WNBA) players? When can we throw in players who have been playing it (3×3) for years now? So I\u2019m excited about the size of the pool. Obviously, 5×5 will have their 12, but that\u2019s just 12. So being able to make sure we get these players to play both. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe only have so many tournaments, so it\u2019s going to be interesting how we\u2019ll throw in four players here, maybe throw in a different there. But as we get closer to the Olympics, I want to see our four being able to play together and just starting to piece it together.\u201d<\/p>\n