In women’s basketball, there is no rest for the weary.
After a grueling and compressed 2018 season, many of the W’s elite ballers are now fulfilling their overseas commitments. Among those commitments for this year is participating in the FIBA World Cup.
Team USA are two-time defending World Cup champions and are hoping to make it a three-peat in Tenerife, Spain. Their final exhibition game before its first World Cup match resulted in an 80-70 win over Australia.
That roster includes three members of the WNBA champion Seattle Storm in Breanna Stewart, Jewell Loyd, and Sue Bird, who has become the first-ever five-time World Cup Team member.
Diana Taurasi will be playing in her fourth World Cup and is one of two Phoenix Mercury participants to make the cut. The other was Brittney Griner.
Elena Delle Donne (Washington Mystics) is the lone member of the WNBA’s runner-up to make the team. The Connecticut Sun have two of its players in Layshia Clarendon and Morgan Tuck on Dawn Staley’s 12-person roster.
Also with two participants are the Las Vegas Aces who will be represented by Kelsey Plum, and 2018 Rookie of the Year A’ja Wilson, who was on Staley’s 2017 National Championship-winning team at South Carolina.
Rounding out the squad are Tina Charles (New York Liberty) and Nneka Ogwumike (Los Angeles Sparks).
Team USA starts play in Group D against Senegal at 1 p.m. Eastern Time.
