A'Ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart to participate in USA Women's National Training Camp

MIAMI (United States) - The WNBA’s most valuable players – league MVP A’ja Wilson and Finals MVP Breanna Stewart – are just two of the 19 players attending team USA’s Women’s national team training camp in Columbia, South Carolina from February 4-7.

Arike Ogunbowale, who led the league in scoring during the 2020 season, and 2019 Rookie of the Year Napheesa Collier are notable names attending the minicamp, as well as Las Vegas’ Kelsey Plum making her return to basketball after sitting out the 2020 season with an Achilles injury.

Jewell Lloyd, who averaged a career high 5.2 rebounds as well as 17.8 points per game in the 2020 WNBA Finals for the Seattle Storm will accompany teammate Stewart at the camp, the only two attending from the reigning championship roster.

Key members of USA Basketball’s Olympic success, Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird, will not be participating in the camp as a precautionary measure surrounding their health, although both players still aspire to play in the Summer Games to win a fifth Olympic gold medal together.

Three different WNBA teams have at least three players from their squad represented at the USA minicamp – Chicago’s Kahleah Copper, Stefanie Dolson and Diamond DeShields, Los Angeles’ Nneka Ogwumike, Chelsea Gray and Sydney Wiese, and Dallas’ Arike Ogunbowale, Alisha Gray and Katie Lou Samuelson.

Britney Griner will be attending the minicamp, despite leaving the WNBA bubble early this summer. Griner joined Stewart as well as other WNBA stars on UMMC Ekaterinburg in Russia earlier in the month, returning to play last week.

The US women’s national team has dominated at the Olympic level and will be looking to win their seventh consecutive gold medal in Tokyo. In the last three games, USA has won the gold medal game by a margin of at least 25 points.

Dawn Staley, former WNBA star player and current South Carolina Gamecocks head coach, will be leading the team in Tokyo, along with the WNBA’s 2020 coach of the year Cheryl Reeve of Minnesota, Seattle’s Dan Hughes and Dallas’ new hire Vickie Johnson.

COVID protocols in place at the minicamp include regular testing, as well as no spectators or media personnel able to attend in order to attempt to keep athletes healthy leading up to the games.

FIBA