Twelve players, all of them current WNBA players, and half of them playing a global championship for the first time. Sue Bird picked the squad and Kara Lawson coaches it in Berlin. The roster that landed in Germany is not the one announced in August: A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum both withdrew for health reasons the week before the tournament, and two Washington Mystics teammates were called in to replace them.
| Player | WNBA team | What she brings |
|---|---|---|
| Breanna Stewart | New York Liberty | The captain. Becomes one of only three American women to play in four World Cups, after Sue Bird with five and Diana Taurasi with four |
| Chelsea Gray | Las Vegas Aces | Starting point guard and the oldest player here at 33. Took over from Bird and led the team in assists at both the 2022 World Cup and the 2024 Olympics |
| Napheesa Collier | Minnesota Lynx | WNBA MVP runner up in both 2024 and 2025. Was third in minutes on the Paris Olympic team |
| Jackie Young | Las Vegas Aces | Started three games in Paris after taking the shooting guard job from Taurasi in the knockout rounds |
| Kahleah Copper | Phoenix Mercury | Came off the bench in Paris, then led the Americans in scoring at the March qualifying tournament |
| Rhyne Howard | Atlanta Dream | An Olympian already, with a 3×3 bronze medal from Paris, but this is her first senior five on five tournament |
| Caitlin Clark | Indiana Fever | MVP of the March qualifying tournament at 11.6 points and 6.4 assists a game. Coming off the bench behind Gray in Berlin |
| Paige Bueckers | Dallas Wings | First global championship. Paired with Clark in the second unit |
| Angel Reese | Atlanta Dream | First global championship |
| Aliyah Boston | Indiana Fever | First global championship, with Fever teammate Clark |
| Sonia Citron | Washington Mystics | Added the week before the tournament to replace Wilson or Plum |
| Kiki Iriafen | Washington Mystics | Added the week before the tournament alongside her Mystics teammate Citron |
Highlighted rows are the six players making their first senior global championship appearance.
The Coaching Staff
| Head coach | Kara Lawson, Duke |
| Assistants | Natalie Nakase (Golden State Valkyries), Nate Tibbetts (Phoenix Mercury), Stephanie White (Indiana Fever) |
| Scout coaches | Jose Fernandez (Dallas Wings), Tia Jackson (Duke) |
| Managing director | Sue Bird, who selected the roster |
This is Lawson’s first major tournament in charge, and she is the head coach for the whole cycle through the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Three of her four staff coaches are current WNBA head coaches.
The Wilson and Plum Withdrawals Changed the Team
The roster Bird announced on the Today show in August had A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum on it. Wilson is the reigning Olympic, World Cup, WNBA and WNBA Finals MVP, and she was the MVP of the 2022 World Cup after leading the Americans at 17.2 points and 7.5 rebounds a game. Plum was second on that team in scoring at 15.8.
Both pulled out for health reasons in the week before the tournament, and Citron and Iriafen came in. Losing the reigning MVP of the event you are defending is a significant subtraction, and it goes a long way toward explaining why the United States needed a last second Sunday escape to beat Italy 55-52.
Six Debutants, Six Veterans
Half of this roster had never played a senior Olympics or World Cup before Berlin: Clark, Bueckers, Reese, Boston, Citron and Iriafen. Howard sits in between, an Olympic medalist from the 3×3 event in Paris but new to the five on five team.
That is unusual for a program that has won every gold medal on offer since 2006, and it is the reason the margins have been tighter than expected. The experience is concentrated in Stewart, Gray, Collier, Young and Copper, all of whom were in Paris.
Six of the twelve have won gold with USA Basketball at FIBA junior competitions: Boston, Bueckers, Clark, Collier, Howard and Stewart.
Who Did Not Make It
The selections that drew the most argument were the omissions of Sabrina Ionescu, Alyssa Thomas and Olivia Miles. Bird acknowledged the difficulty directly, saying she knew when she took the job that she would eventually be answering questions about whoever did not get picked.
How the Rest of the Field Compares
Seventy current and former WNBA players are at this World Cup. The United States has the most current WNBA players of any team with all twelve, followed by France with ten, Australia with nine, Spain with seven and Germany with six. The WNBA paused its season on August 31 so players could go, and it resumes on September 17.
WNBA coaches are all over the tournament too. Sandy Brondello coaches Australia, Mike Thibault has Belgium, Olaf Lange has Germany, Corey Gaines has Japan and Rena Wakama has Nigeria.
The Bottom Line
Twelve current WNBA players, six of them at a first global championship, coached by Kara Lawson in her first major tournament, and without the reigning MVP of the event. The Americans entered Berlin having won 66 straight games across the Olympics and the World Cup, a run going back to a 2006 semifinal loss to Russia, and are chasing a fifth consecutive World Cup title.