{"id":845762,"date":"2026-08-06T16:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T16:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/845762\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T16:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T16:04:11","slug":"aja-wilson-breanna-stewart-headline-u-s-womens-basketball-roster-for-fiba-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/845762\/","title":{"rendered":"A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart headline U.S. women’s basketball roster for FIBA World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\u2019ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart, the last two Olympic MVPs, headline the U.S. roster for September\u2019s FIBA World Cup, the biggest women\u2019s basketball tournament before the 2028 Los Angeles Games.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re joined by fellow 2024 Olympic gold medalists Napheesa Collier, Kahleah Copper, Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young. Plus Rhyne Howard, an Olympic 3×3 bronze medalist in 2024.<\/p>\n

Aliyah Boston, Paige Bueckers, Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese made the team for their global championship debuts.<\/p>\n

The players were selected by national team managing director Sue Bird, who announced the team on TODAY on Thursday. It\u2019s Bird\u2019s first team for a major tournament since becoming the first U.S. women\u2019s managing director in May 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years from now we\u2019ve got the Olympics, you have to kind of always be thinking about the future while in the present,\u201d Bird said. \u201cSo what I love about this team, it\u2019s got experience \u2014 internationally, WNBA, you name it. It also has youth. You need both of those energies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bueckers, Clark and Reese played on the national team as pros for the first time at an international tournament in March.<\/p>\n

Brittney Griner, who hasn\u2019t played a WNBA game since July 19 due to a knee injury, is not on the team. It\u2019s the second time in the last decade she will miss a global championship. The other time, the 2022 World Cup, was when she was detained in Russia for 10 months.<\/p>\n

Sabrina Ionescu, Jewell Loyd and Alyssa Thomas are also not on the team after playing at the most recent Olympic and World Cup tournaments.<\/p>\n

The U.S. won its last 66 games between Olympic and World Cup play dating to its last defeat in the 2006 Worlds semifinals to Russia.<\/p>\n

At the Paris Games, the U.S. broke the Olympic team sport record with an eighth consecutive gold medal.<\/p>\n

Last year, Kara Lawson was named head coach, succeeding Cheryl Reeve.<\/p>\n

The U.S. opens World Cup group play on Sept. 4 against China in a rematch of the 2022 World Cup final won by the U.S. 83-61.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Caitlin<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The U.S. women\u2019s national team plays a tournament in Puerto Rico starting Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\u2019ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart, the last two Olympic MVPs, headline the U.S. roster for September\u2019s FIBA World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-845762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}