This story appears in SLAM Presents USA Basketball. Shop now.
Do you know the first basketball players ever to win five Olympic Gold medals? Here’s a hint: they’re former college teammates, NCAA champions, best friends and, at one point during their careers, were super competitive rivals. But when they suited up alongside each other in the red, white and blue, they were magic. Did you figure out who it is yet? Nah, they’re not men. Think again.
“Sue joined the national team at the 2002 World Championship, and I joined in 2004. We were the young kids in Athens,” Diana Taurasi told USA Basketball. “It’s very special to have gone through it together, because we went through the same experiences at the same time.”
While Sue Bird retired from the game just two years ago, DT is still out there dropping buckets and taking names against any and every opponent in the WNBA as the League’s all-time leading scorer. She’s been hailed as the GOAT, a moniker that not only encompasses her career thus far on the Phoenix Mercury, but on the international stage, too: throughout the past 23 years she’s spent suiting up for USA Basketball, aside from Bird, she has the largest collection of Gold hardware, including five Olympic Golds, three FIBA World Cup Golds and a FIBA World Cup Bronze medal. It’s an honor she doesn’t take lightly, and in her own words, representing USA Basketball is a commitment that she holds to the highest regard.
“I just think we take this really seriously,” Taurasi told The Athletic. “We don’t look at it as a four-year thing. We look at it as a career.”
Taurasi is part of a illustrious legacy that the USA Basketball Women’s National Team has always embodied. Dating all the way back to 1984, when the women’s team won their first-ever Olympic Gold medal, they’ve consistently put together the most dominant and successful squads ever assembled. Look no further than the past seven consecutive Olympic Gold medals they’ve won, or the fact that the United States is already the favorite in Paris, currently ranked No. 1 in the 5×5 tournament and No. 2 going into the 3×3 tournament.
This year’s roster is full of champions, MVPs, All-Stars, Rookies of the Year and legends. DT will suit up alongside fellow Olympic teammates and Gold medalists, including Chelsea Gray, Brittney Griner, Jewell Loyd, Napheesa Collier, Breanna Stewart and A’ja Wilson, as well as Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young (both of whom won Gold in the 3×3 tournament in 2021). The roster also includes a handful of standouts who will be making their Olympic debut: Alyssa Thomas, Kahleah Copper and Sabrina Ionescu. Led by a coaching staff that features some of the most brilliant minds in the game—head coach Cheryl Reeve, assistant coaches Kara Lawson, Joni Taylor, Mike Thibault, scouts Curt Miller and Tanisha Wright—the 2024 USA Women’s National Team is locked in and ready to run it back. Three years ago in Tokyo, the U.S. cooked the competition and defeated Japan, 90-75, to win Gold. DT was on that squad, as were Loyd, BG, Chelsea, Stewie and A’ja. Now, add Alyssa, Kahleah and Sab in the mix. That’s a whole lot of bucket-getters on one team.
How did all of these stars come together? The obvious answer is a multi-year selection process that includes training camps and games. But, in the words of Taurasi, there’s more to the roster than just names on a list. It’s about chemistry, problem solving and bringing together a group of competitors who can, and will, execute.
“Once you get to the second training camp, you kind of can see the Olympics from afar,” DT said in an episode of USA Basketball’s “The National Team” series, which is accurately titled, How the Sauce Gets Made. “At least, training camp has become that much more important. Trying to find groups that play well together, that figure out problems pretty quickly together. I think the one thing from all these Olympics that I’ve learned is it’s the best combination of players who can get to a certain place pretty quickly.”
Players are competing for a spot on the 12-person roster, which means setting aside egos and simply showing that you’ve got what it takes.
Taurasi elaborated: “You have to put your best foot forward, that’s the only way you can make an impact—by being here and by buying into what we’re trying to do as a team. Every person who’s put that jersey on so far has made that commitment, and I think that means a lot to the selection committee, to the coaches.”
The selection process is ultra competitive, and while there’s an abundance of talent in the WNBA, Taurasi is spot on. As selection committee chair Jennifer Rizzotti told the Associated Press in April: “We stick to our principles of talent, obviously, positional fit, loyalty and experience. It’s got to be a combination of an entire body of work.”
The final roster is the epitome of just that. Aside from DT, Griner is one of the most experienced Olympians on the team. A two-time Olympic Gold medalist, BG’s USA Basketball résumé also includes being named 2018 World Cup Gold medal game Player of the Game and named a 2014 FIBA World Cup All-Tournament Team honoree. A powerhouse in the paint and a shot blocker, BG’s presence on the team will also bring a sense of resiliency and strength that extends well beyond the hardwood. Then there’s Gray, who was drafted into the WNBA just a year after Griner, and has been a vocal leader. The three-time WNBA champion is the go-to voice on the Las Vegas Aces, even over head coach Becky Hammon. “I’m her assistant,” Hammon once told the media. “I tell them [the Aces] all the time, if Chelsea calls something and I call something, you listen to Chelsea.”
As for her game, Gray brings an unmatched versatility: she’s a scorer who can hit clutch shots, a playmaker with crazy court vision and a savant with a high basketball IQ who can make reads and set her teammates up. Oh, and she knows how to perform under pressure, as the world saw when the Aces went back-to-back and won another WNBA championship last year. What’s even scarier is that Gray will be suiting up alongside the very teammates she just won the ’chip with, including two-time MVP Wilson and All-Stars Young and Plum. If you think the Aces have slowed down at all since they dominated in 2023, think again. Wilson’s star power has only continued to ascend to another level this season and, as we went to press, she set a WNBA record against the Dallas Wings as the first player, ever, to have at least 35 points, 10 rebounds and 5 steals. Which, might we add, is her 10th career game with at least 30/10. She’s also the first to post at least 35 points and 5 steals in multiple games. Wilson is competitive, fearless and true to herself and what she’s about, on and off the court. Hammon said it best. Wilson is “the best in the world.” As for KP and Young, both are lethal guards who know what it takes to hold their own on the international stage. Back in 2021, they both won Gold in the U.S. Olympic 3×3 Women’s tournament. So, yeah, good luck to other countries that gotta go up against part of the Aces’ core.
The other most experienced Olympian is the reigning WNBA MVP. Stewie is a certified winner, so much so that she’s just one of the 11 players, ever, to have won an Olympic Gold medal, FIBA World Cup Gold medal, WNBA title and NCAA title in her career thus far (Griner and DT are also part of that list). Stewie’s been showing out for USA Basketball since high school—in 2011, she was the youngest member and only high school athlete to compete in the Pan American Games, where she started all four games and led the team in scoring (15.3 ppg), rebounds (11.3) and blocks (1.1). Poised and primed for greatness since the beginning, Stewart is coming off a WNBA career-high scoring average last season (23.0 ppg) and the momentum of helping lead the New York Liberty to the WNBA Finals for the first time since ’02. With her suiting up alongside the same players she faced in the Finals, the U.S. team has got to be a scary sight for opponents this summer.
The rest of the roster is stacked with scorers and playmakers. Napheesa Collier was part of that 2020 Olympic Gold medal-winning team, and since then has only leveled up her game. Phee is currently dominating on the Lynx and averaging a double-double (a second-career best 20.0 points and a career-high 10.2 rebounds). Then there’s Loyd, who led the League in scoring last season with a career-high 24.7 points and is an Olympic and three-time FIBA World Cup/3×3 Gold medalist. Another member of that 2022 FIBA World Cup squad is Thomas, a consistent and crazy efficient walking triple-double who will be making her Olympic debut. She’s also the first former Maryland Terrapin to play on the U.S. Women’s National Team since Vicky Bullett, who won Gold in ’88 and Bronze in ’92.
AT brings a decade of WNBA experience and veteran leadership, and she’ll fit right in with her USA Olympic teammates. Then there’s Kahleah Copper, who brings a dynamic scoring prowess and tough Philly mentality that makes her certified. After winning a ’chip with the Chicago Sky in 2021, she elevated her game, too. The three-time WNBA All-Star, who has been dropping 30-plus point games on any given night this season, will bring that same energy on the international stage in her first-ever Olympics, too.
Last, but certainly never least, is Sabrina Ionescu. It doesn’t matter whether she’s going up against opponents in the W or the greatest shooter of all time, Sab, with one furrow of her brow and space at the three-point line, is guaranteed to shoot the lights out of the gym, no matter what gym it is. Oh, and she’s also averaging a career-high this year, her fourth season with the New York Liberty. Experience is one thing, but game always speaks for itself.
And there you have it. If they win it all, the 2024 USA Women’s National Team will make history by bringing the eighth consecutive Gold medal, and lucky No. 10 overall, back to the States. Legends of the past instilled greatness, but this squad has what it takes to carry that legacy and more.
SLAM PRESENTS USA BASKETBALL IS AVAILABLE NOW
Photos via Getty Images.
