Women’s Basketball Stars Prepare for USA Basketball National Team Camp
A select group of 18 players, including Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, Angel Reese, and JuJu Watkins, are preparing to debut at the USA Basketball women’s national team camp. The event, which will take place at Duke University from December 12th to 14th, promises to be a meeting point for emerging talent and established figures in American women’s basketball.
The camp will also feature the presence of outstanding players such as Chelsea Gray, Brittney Griner, Kelsey Plum, Jackie Young and Kahleah Copper, all of them Olympic medalists and world champions. Dearica Hamby, who represented the United States in the 3×3 Olympic Games, joins them.
Brionna Jones, a member of the team that won the World Cup in 2022, and Aliyah Boston, the number one pick in the 2023 WNBA draft, will also be present at the camp.
Cameron Brink, Lauren Betts, Sonia Citron, Kiki Iriafen, Rickea Jackson, and Veronica Burton complete the list of players who will make their debut at the senior national team camp.
Several of the players, 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 United States team in the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup. Iriafen will debut in USA Basketball.
JuJu Watkins, the USC star and last season’s player of the year, will not participate on the court due to recovery from a knee injury, but will have the opportunity to learn and integrate into the women’s national team program during the camp.
This training 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 United States will seek its fifth consecutive gold.
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.
