Women’s Basketball Stars to Gather at USA Basketball National Team Camp
Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, Angel Reese, and JuJu Watkins, along with other promising women’s basketball players, will make their debut at the USA Basketball national team camp next month. The event will take place at Duke University from December 12th to 14th.
This training camp will bring together a group of 18 players, including Olympic veterans and World Cup gold medalists such as Chelsea Gray, Brittney Griner, Kelsey Plum, Jackie Young, and Kahleah Copper. Dearica Hamby, an Olympic medalist in 3×3, will also participate.
Brionna Jones, a member of the 2022 World Cup team, and Aliyah Boston, the first pick of the 2023 WNBA draft, will also be present.
Cameron Brink, Lauren Betts, Sonia Citron, Kiki Iriafen, Rickea Jackson, and Veronica Burton will complete the group of players who will make their debut at the senior camp.
Several of the participants, such as Clark, Bueckers, Watkins, Brink, Betts, Boston, and Citron, have already won gold medals with USA Basketball in youth competitions. In addition, Betts, Boston, Reese, Burton, and Jackson were part of the USA team in the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup. Iriafen will make her debut with USA Basketball.
Watkins, the USC star and National Player of the Year last season, will not participate on the court due to her recovery from a knee injury, but will have the opportunity to integrate into the women’s national team program during the camp.
This camp will serve as an evaluation opportunity for the new general manager of the USA women’s national team, Sue Bird, who will have to select the team for the 2026 FIBA World Cup, where the USA will seek its fifth consecutive gold medal.
The camp will be led by the new national team head coach, Kara Lawson, currently a coach at Duke, with WNBA coaches Natalie Nakase, Nate Tibbetts, and Stephanie White as court coaches.
