Here's What To Know About The 2024 USA Women's Basketball Team

Women's sports across the board are on the rise, but no singular women's game has gotten as much attention in 2024 as basketball. Earlier in the summer, the 2024 Women's National Team made headlines after basketball star Caitlin Clark was left off the roster, an omission that was met with intense discourse. Whether that decision was right or not is a debate for another time, but what's not up for debate is that the 12 women who did make the roster are also incredibly talented athletes, many of whom have been part of Team USA's historic dominance in women's basketball. As of this writing the women have won seven straight gold medals at the Olympics; their overall record in Olympic play is 72 wins, 3 losses.

The athletes on Team USA women's basketball go from competitors in the WNBA to teammates representing their country within weeks, and they travel to take on the world's best teams in the sport. Team USA takes their assignment seriously, and their 2024 goal is the same as every Olympics prior. Here's what to know about the 2024 USA women's basketball team ahead of their bid for gold.

She's got more credentials than most of her peers, including NCAA champion, WNBA champion, MVP, and Olympic gold medalist, and she's widely considered the best female basketball player in the world right now, but A'ja Wilson is making an impact off the court, too. In early 2024, Wilson's first book, "Dear Black Girls: How to Be True to You" was published.

The book is a continuation and expansion of the 2021 essay "Dear Black Girls" that Wilson wrote for The Players' Tribune. In it, she talked about her experience as a Black woman in the United States. "I felt like us as Black women, we needed something for us. I think we see a lot of things for different race and other genders, but when it comes to the Black woman, it's something that you rarely see. So for me to kind of speak my truth in it and let people see me and see that I'm human was something that I was just so eager to do," Wilson said to The Washington Post on why she turned her essay into a book. Wilson's original essay was met with positivity from readers, and her book was, too: "Dear Black Girls: How to Be True to You" became a New York Times Best Seller (which certainly helped pad A'ja Wilson's impressive net worth).

A'ja Wilson may be considered the best female basketball player right now, but long before she was drafted, Diana Taurasi held that distinction. Taurasi's resume is massive, and her list of accomplishments seems never-ending. The Phoenix Mercury athlete is the only player in the WNBA to have scored 10,000 points, and she has five Olympic gold medals. Taurasi is also the oldest person on her squad, and she's one of the oldest Olympians on all of Team USA.

But as Taurasi has pointed out, while some athletes have been praised for being able to still compete in the Olympics at an age that's considered old in the sports world, she's been met with a different reaction. In recent years, the two-time WNBA Finals MVP has repeatedly been asked about retirement. "Only a woman would have 20 years of experience and it's an Achilles heel instead of something that is treasured and used as a way forward for our sport and for women," Taurasi said in an Olympic press conference, as reported by NBC Sports. "Hopefully we can change that narrative," she said, adding that her goals are to play well, be a good teammate, and win gold. Despite the chatter, Taurasi has confirmed that this Olympics will be her sixth and final. Should Team USA win gold in 2024, Taurasi will become the most decorated Olympian in basketball — male or female — in history.

Brittney Griner has been playing for Team USA for many years. The Baylor alum has two Olympic gold medals under her belt, as well as a couple of FIBA World Cup golds. But what Griner is perhaps best known for today is her nearly one-year-long stay in a Russian penal camp after being arrested on a drug charge while traveling to play a season overseas. The WNBA star's detainment in Russia, as well as the trade made to bring her home, was met with controversy as Griner had previously been branded anti-American for various reasons. "It hurt me the most, because I love this country and I value this country," Griner said on "Prisoner in Russia: The Brittney Griner Interview" about the backlash.

At Griner's first press conference for the Phoenix Mercury after her imprisonment, she touched on why she was playing in Russia to begin with, noting that she hopes the women's basketball league in the United States will grow enough so players don't have to compete professionally overseas. Griner also shared that she doesn't intend to play outside of the United States again unless she's wearing a Team USA jersey. Now, in 2024, Griner is doing just that at her third Olympics. "It means everything to me honestly. For me to now have the honor to wear it again and potentially win gold is icing on the cake for everything," Griner told the Associated Press.

2024 marks Sabrina Ionescu's Olympic debut. The New York Liberty guard has played for Team USA in the past, even winning gold multiple times, but the Paris Games are her first Olympics. Granted, the Olympics are the only place Ionescu is still considered a rookie, and she's got the connections to prove it. When asked who the most famous person in her phone is, Ionescu casually replied, "Steph Curry." And her connection with the NBA champion (and first-time Olympian in 2024) is genuine — Curry serves as a mentor for Ionescu given their similar skill set and style of play. "I love having a relationship with Curry. I remember when I was little, watching him and emulating my game after him and now I'm able to call or text him any time," Ionescu said in an interview with NBA.com.

Ionescu also had a friendship with the late Kobe Bryant. Ionescu first met Kobe, an ardent supporter of women's basketball, when he and his daughter Gianna "Gigi" Bryant attended one of her games while she was playing for the Oregon Ducks. Kobe then became a mentor to Ionescu, and Ionescu became a mentor to Gigi. Their close bond remained until Kobe and Gigi died in a helicopter accident in 2020. Ionescu has maintained a relationship with Kobe's surviving daughters and his wife, Vanessa Bryant.

WNBA athletes make significantly less than their male counterparts — so much so, many female players compete overseas in the offseason to supplement their incomes. Certain leaders in the league, like Breanna Stewart, are looking to change that. While the players don't have much influence on their WNBA earnings, they are doing what they can to earn more money in the offseason without traveling to different countries. In 2024, Stewart announced that she and her friend and Olympic teammate Napheesa Collier were launching Unrivaled, a 3x3 women's basketball league that will begin in January of 2025, take place in Miami, and feature 30 of the top current players.

As Stewart shared, multiple aspects of Unrivaled set it apart. As noted, the league will offer women's basketball players the opportunity to stay in the United States, but it's also going to offer the highest average salary in a women's league across the globe. Additionally, all 30 players will have equity in Unrivaled. Stewart sees this as a chance to grow the game as a whole. "The movement of women's sports is going to continue to grow, and we're gonna make sure it's better and better year after year," she said in an interview with "Good Morning America." As of this writing, 10 of the 30 Unrivaled players have been announced, including Stewart and Collier, as well as Kelsey Plum and Angel Reese.

The 2024 United States women's basketball team is full of veterans, but there are multiple first-time Olympians, too. One such individual is Kahleah Copper, a Rutgers alum who currently plays for the Phoenix Mercury (she joins her teammates Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner on Team USA). Copper was selected seventh overall in the 2016 WNBA Draft, and since then she's been with multiple teams in the league. In 2022, she joined Team USA for the FIBA World Cup and helped win gold. "I think about Kah four years ago, five years ago, and where she is today, and it's really a testament to her work ethic and passion. She loves the game. She's great to be around," USA women's basketball coach Cheryl Reeve said about Copper to the Chicago Sun Times.

Although Copper had the FIBA experience with Team USA, being selected for the Olympic team was special. "I haven't been super emotional since then (first announcement), but I think yesterday, we all got on the bus and just being able to see the police escort and just sitting on that bus, like going to the first practice... I'm like, 'this is real.' I think I just had a moment where I'm like, 'wow, it's real,'" Copper said to USAB at the start of the team's official Olympic run.

The 2024 USA women's basketball team is an experienced bunch. Many of them have won gold before, including Jackie Young. Young, a guard for the Las Vegas Aces and Notre Dame alum, played for the 2020 USA 3x3 National Team and helped bring home gold with a final win over the Russian Olympic Committee team at the Tokyo games. But Young wasn't originally supposed to compete in the games. The 2020 Olympics were postponed to 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the ongoing pandemic, players had to follow strict health protocols and were not allowed to compete if they tested positive for the virus.

Just before the games, USA 3x3 National Team pick Katie Lou Samuelson tested positive for COVID-19 and had to back out. Team USA officials contacted Young — who was on vacation in Florida (the WNBA takes an extended break during the Olympics so league players can compete in the Games) — and hours later she was with Stefanie Dolson, Kelsey Plum, and Allisha Gray in Tokyo ready to play basketball. "It's crazy to think about. Ten days ago, I was on vacation. My life changed like that. Now I'm a gold-medalist. It's crazy how things work out," Young told USA Today after the Games.

Kelsey Plum had an incredible collegiate career. The current Las Vegas Aces guard broke records while at the University of Washington, most notably becoming the NCAA women's all-time leading scorer (a record that has since been broken by Caitlin Clark). Plum went on to be the WNBA's number one draft pick in 2017, but her rookie season wasn't nearly as successful as her time in the NCAA. "It was a hard time for me. I think that the expectations for myself and then also the outside world were very unrealistic. ... Definitely a lot of pressure. A lot of headlines, but that comes with the territory. So you just kind of had to grow tough skin," Plum told the Las Vegas Review-Journal of her first season in the WNBA.

Plum didn't want her experience as a rookie in the WNBA to continue for incoming guards, so she teamed up with Under Armour to create Dawg Class, a training camp to prepare collegiate players who've either been or are looking to be drafted into the league ahead of their transition. "When I came out of college, I was kind of on an island in terms of my understanding for the WNBA, my understanding for that transition and what it took. My idea was really to just help," Plum told The Athletic of Dawg Class.

Chelsea Gray is another experienced member of Team USA women's basketball. The guard helped the squad bring home gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, as well as the 2022 FIBA World Cup. Gray is also a starter for the Las Vegas Aces, a team she's helped win back-to-back WNBA championships. Although the Aces won over the New York Liberty in the 2023 finals, game three of the series didn't go as planned for Gray. The Duke alum suffered a foot injury that kept her from playing game four and delayed her start to the 2024 season.

In mid-June of 2024, Gray was finally healthy enough to return to the court. She didn't start, but she did get meaningful minutes of play, racking up an assist within her first 20 seconds. "It's been a long time since I've been out on that court. But the fans were amazing from the time I came out to warm up to the time I checked in the game. It was a rush and a feeling I missed a lot," Gray said to ESPN after the game.

There are several differences between men's and women's professional sports. One of the biggest is that women often have to take extended breaks from their sport either to give birth or for postpartum recovery. Napheesa Collier knows about this first-hand. The Minnesota Lynx player who won gold with Team USA at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games missed over half of the 2022 WNBA season after giving birth to her daughter. Collier delivered her child in May, and by August, she was on the court again. "Obviously, there's some nerves coming in, especially this late in the season and trying to get back here and rush to do everything. But it felt so good to hear my name called and have the fans cheer for me. It was a really good feeling. So I'm really glad I played tonight," Collier said in a post-game interview, as reported by ESPN.

To make her return to her sport even more notable, the Unrivaled cofounder posed on the cover of Slam magazine with her newborn ahead of her first game back. "Super honored to be on the cover of SLAM! Thanks for having me," the Olympian said on Instagram.

Alyssa Thomas is a bona fide baller. A forward for the Connecticut Sun, Thomas currently holds the record for the most assists in a single WNBA season. She's also making her Olympic debut after winning gold with Team USA at the 2022 FIBA World Cup. One of Thomas' Sun teammates is especially proud of her for making it to the Olympics — her fiancee, DeWanna Bonner. "I think I was more anxious than her during that waiting process," Bonner told Slam of the time she and Thomas spent waiting to find out whether Thomas would be part of the Olympic team. "I'm just so proud of her, I'm so happy for her. It's something that she really, really worked hard for."

Bonner, a talented basketball player herself (she's currently fifth on the list of all-time leading scorers in the WNBA), and Thomas first got to know each other when Bonner was traded to the Sun, the team Thomas has called home her entire career. Eventually their chemistry as teammates translated into a romantic relationship, and as of this writing, the two plan to get married some time after the Olympics.

It's no secret that NBA legend Kobe Bryant was a major supporter of women's basketball. The superstar shooting guard was a mentor to a number of WNBA powerhouses, and he coached his daughter Gigi Bryant's team up until their tragic deaths. What's more, Kobe, who was known as the Black Mamba, bestowed significant nicknames upon stars of the WNBA: Diana Taurasi became the White Mamba, and he called Jewell Loyd the Gold Mamba. "You not only gave me wisdom. You gave me the name Mamba. Mamba is not just a word, its [sic] a way of life. We don't quit and we don't cower; we endure and conquer," Loyd said in an open letter to Kobe following his death.

Loyd wasn't just given the nickname — she earned it. After a stellar collegiate career, Loyd was selected first overall in the 2015 WNBA Draft, and she won Rookie of the Year that same year. An all-star guard, Loyd has spent all of her career so far with the Seattle Storm. She made her Olympic debut at the 2020 Tokyo Games where she earned gold with Team USA.