Why World Cup stage might be even bigger for Bueckers, Clark, Reese and young Team USA

A picture from 2017 resurfaces occasionally on social media. In it, a younger Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers and Aliyah Boston wear USA Basketball gear, huddling somewhere at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and flashing thumbs up and peace signs. They had been in the cold tubs amid preparations for the FIBA Americas U16 Championship, Bueckers recently recalled to ESPN, probably after a dreaded two-a-day session. The photo also features Azzi Fudd -- who like the other three would later become a No. 1 WNBA draft pick -- and former Stanford standout Fran Belibi. "We were all down bad hurting at such a young age," Bueckers said. "I don't think any of us probably would have guessed we would have all made it [to this level], and that the WNBA is what it is now with the amount of attention that's on us," Clark told ESPN. "But at the same time, I think we would all say it's pretty cool. It's kind of like a pinch me moment." Over the next 10 days, Clark, Bueckers and Boston will again share the court representing the United States with a slew of younger WNBA stars in Angel Reese, Kiki Iriafen and Sonia Citron at the FIBA World Cup in Berlin. The group of transcendent players, with their on-court talent and off-court relevance, catapulted the WNBA into a new era of popularity. Now they are tasked with helping Team USA secure its 12th World Cup gold medal and fifth straight. "There's always pride when you wear USA," Boston told ESPN. "I think it's kind of a full circle moment for us to be in the big girl jerseys now." The future -- or as Bueckers quipped in December, the "Young and Turnt" crew -- is here. And they're perhaps even younger, and being thrown into the fire, even more than anticipated. USA Basketball announced Monday that Team USA stalwarts A'ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum will not compete in Berlin due to health reasons. Those decisions led to Iriafen and Citron getting called up to join the group. The U.S. women's team has six players under the age of 25, tied for the most on a USA World Cup or Olympic roster since 1994. With Rhyne Howard, 26, also on the squad, seven of the 12 players have never represented the senior national team in either major international 5-on-5 tournament, tied for the second-most such players on a USA roster since 1994. But none of that matters when a gold medal is on the line. The standard for USA Basketball, which has lost one game at the World Cup or Olympics since 1994, remains the same -- even as it has become more difficult than ever to win on the international stage, as the United States' one-point win over France at the Paris Olympics' gold medal game illustrated. "There's no question that the world is improving at a rapid rate," U.S. coach Kara Lawson said Tuesday. "I think it's going to be the most difficult World Cup to win that we've had because of that." THE ORIGINS OF the "Young and Turnt" generation for USA Basketball might have come from that 2017 U16 team, but the players' arrival onto one of the sport's biggest stages was far from guaranteed. Clark, Bueckers, Boston, Howard and Citron have all won multiple gold medals with USA Basketball at the youth level, from 2017 U16 gold in Argentina to finishing atop the podium at the 2019 U19 World Cup in Thailand, among others. But as former USA Basketball national team director Carol Callan -- who oversaw all of the women's programs from 1996 to 2021 -- used to explain to players, those U17 and U19 World Cup teams would produce, on average, only one Olympian. The World Cup is different from the Olympics, but "I think you could tell with those three specifically, they were all about basketball," Callan said of Clark, Bueckers and Boston. "Those three started at the top and they've maintained that. That's credit to them for not only their ability, but their drive, their mentality and the people that support them." Azzi Fudd getting picked No. 1 in the draft reminded me of this now GOATed youth Team USA photo with Aliyah Boston (2023), Caitlin Clark (2024), Paige Bueckers (2025), Azzi Fudd (2026), with former Stanford player Fran Belibi. #WNBA #WNBAdraft pic.twitter.com/HszKqqhoOZ — T Fare (@TFare1) April 13, 2026 Howard has also been a mainstay for USA Basketball, featured on the Olympic qualifying team ahead of the Paris Games before ultimately being named to the 3x3 squad. Reese and Iriafen took less obvious paths: Iriafen first linked up with USA Basketball at December's training camp; Reese tried out for various youth national teams before making her first USA Basketball roster for the 2023 AmeriCup. Callan said she ran into Reese at the event and "she just was so happy to be on a team, and I thought that was really great." "You have two different ways to react to not making a team," Callan said. "One way is to just get angry and be done with it. And Angel persevered and made a team, and I can't say enough about her and how she's progressed to where she is today." The sometimes-roundabout routes -- which for someone like Bueckers included missing significant time in college due to injury and falling out of the USA circuit -- makes being part of the senior national team now even sweeter. "We all had different paths. We worked hard, had great faith. We just maintained our love and passion for the game," Bueckers said. "We're just grateful to be able to play at the national team level. Not everybody gets there. Not everybody has the same journey." Added Clark: "I feel like there was just so much talent around my age group, and it's been fun to watch everybody kind of come into their own and have their own college careers and now live their dream at the professional level. ... It's just really cool, and feels like yesterday, honestly." THE CHANGING OF the guard for USA Basketball started well before Berlin. The 2022 World Cup in Sydney was the USA's first major international competition since 2002 without Sue Bird or Diana Taurasi. Bird had announced her retirement, while Taurasi was injured. Taurasi and Brittney Griner, who missed the 2022 World Cup while detained in Russia, were the most experienced members in Paris two years ago, though controversially neither saw much if any playing time in the final. Breanna Stewart and Wilson had become the face of the USA Basketball dynasty, combining to win the past two MVPs at each of the Olympics and World Cup. The duo also accounted for 41% of the scoring at the Paris Games. "We don't have that vet person; we are those people now," Stewart said recently. Already a three-time Olympic gold medalist, Stewart, who recently turned 32, has a chance to join Bird as the only players to win four World Cup gold medals. She made her World Cup debut in 2014 at age 20. "We are the ones who have been around the block a few times," Stewart told ESPN, "and it's exciting to help lead and guide them." While a relatively inexperienced group, the United States is considered the favorite in Berlin, its roster loaded with young talent. Of the seven newcomers making their debut in a major international 5-on-5 competition, four were No. 1 picks in the WNBA draft and recent rookies of the year: Howard (2022), Boston (2023), Clark (2024) and Bueckers (2025). Clark, Reese and Howard are leading the WNBA in assists (8.4), rebounds (12.4), and steals (2.4) per game, respectively. Clark and Bueckers are two of six players averaging at least 20 points. Citron and Iriafen are already multitime All-Stars despite being second-year players. Clark, Bueckers, Reese, Howard and Iriafen already got a taste of what it's like to play for the senior national team, and Lawson, in March at the World Cup Qualifying tournament. In all, eight USA players who were in Puerto Rico -- including Chelsea Gray, Kahleah Copper and Jackie Young -- will also compete in Berlin. Clark and Bueckers were two of three players (alongside Plum) to play over 100 minutes in Puerto Rico and two of the top-four scorers for Team USA. Clark's 6.4 assists per game led the entire field, propelling her to earn MVP of the event. Lawson has lauded Clark's play for the Indiana Fever this season, while the guard has said she hopes to be an extension of Lawson on the floor. "They're both terrific," Lawson said while calling a WNBA game last month between Bueckers and Clark for Prime Video. "They're both about winning, which I think is the most important attribute in a player, in a great player." While Clark and Bueckers might be the backcourt of the future, the ball is still expected to be primarily in the hands of Gray, the eldest player on the team at 33 and a two-time Olympic and 2022 World Cup gold medalist. But the younger guards will be watching closely to learn from her -- "I'll probably be annoying, I'll be asking so many questions," Bueckers said recently. Stewart will anchor the effort in the frontcourt, but Reese, Boston and Iriafen will undoubtedly have even more responsibility now with Wilson out. Lawson has praised Reese for her impact on the glass -- her 8.0 boards in 16.7 minutes per game in Puerto Rico were second most in the tournament -- but has also said she sees the Dream star's physicality and competitive fire as translating well onto the FIBA stage. "I just enjoy how she raises the level of a practice or of a game with her presence and with her intensity," Lawson said. "She plays with an aggression and a physicality, which I think is really important in FIBA play because there's a little more aggression and physicality that's typically allowed relative to the WNBA, and you need to have players that embrace that, and I think she's definitely one of the players on the roster that embraces that." The combination of so much newness -- even Lawson was tabbed coach about a year ago -- and so little prep time is never ideal going into a major tournament, but that is typically how USA Basketball is forced to operate. The players and staff will lean on their time together in Puerto Rico or at training camps sprinkled across the past 10 months. But they can also lean on the qualities that got them to Berlin. Lawson said her message to the younger players is to be themselves, and keep their mindset, confidence and belief in who they are intact no matter their role or experience. "While they are kind of rookies, in my mind they're veterans," Callan said. "They infuse a competitiveness and an appreciation for the game that I think matches most those wily old veterans. You want some young ones that have this sort of really fun outlook on it, and I think they do [at the right times]. ... I think they'll bring a really nice mix to this team."