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ESPN Senior Writer- Michael Voepel is a senior writer who covers the WNBA, women's college basketball and other college sports. Voepel began covering women's basketball in 1984, and has been with ESPN since 1996.
It's a tight game at Barclays Center on Memorial Day. With 14 seconds to play, Carla Leite nails a long 3-pointer for the Portland Fire. Three seconds later, Marine Johannes gets a pass from New York Liberty teammate Pauline Astier and answers with her own big trey. Three players from France are taking center stage at crunch time in Brooklyn.
Two hours later on the opposite coast, Lithuanian guard Juste Jocyte makes her WNBA debut to a standing ovation in San Francisco. She was the No. 5 pick in the 2025 draft but didn't play in the WNBA last season. Golden State Valkyries fans were eager to welcome her.
"To be honest," Jocyte told ESPN about the greeting, "I was waiting for that day my whole life."
Monday provided a quick snapshot of a noticeable WNBA trend this season: an influx of European players making the league's talent pool even deeper. Through Monday, 32 Europeans from 15 countries had played at least one WNBA game this season.
That represents 14.8% of the total number of player appearances across the league. If that remains steady throughout 2026, it will be the most in WNBA history. Europeans made up more than 10% of player appearances in just two previous seasons, in 1998 (12.3%) and 1999 (12%). It's been below 7% for the majority (19) of the WNBA's previous 29 seasons, with a low of 2% in 2013.
The combination of higher salaries under the new collective bargaining agreement finalized in March and more jobs as two WNBA expansion teams joined the league have helped boost the European presence. Sources around the league also said there's a greater appreciation for the Europeans' playing style, which has meant more time spent scouting Europe.
The Minnesota Lynx's Cheryl Reeve, the longest-tenured coach in the WNBA, told ESPN it is a "natural evolution."
"Same thing you saw in the NBA," said Reeve, who is also Minnesota's president of basketball operations. "Won't be long before Europeans and other internationals are some of the best players in the league, just like in the NBA."
The WNBA has been a global league since it launched in 1997, with a large international presence particularly from Australia, which produced three-time MVP Lauren Jackson. European players have always been a part of the WNBA, including No. 1 draft picks Margo Dydek (1998) of Poland and Ann Wauters (2000) of Belgium. No European has won the MVP award, but Belgium's Emma Meesseman was WNBA Finals MVP in 2019.
Because the WNBA's season is mostly in the summer months, players of all nationalities could play year-round between the WNBA and overseas leagues held in the late fall to spring. However, European players didn't always feel it was in their best interest financially to come to the WNBA. They often competed in the European season and used the summer to rest or to practice and compete with their national teams, which is a huge priority.
And WNBA teams didn't always seek them out as much as they do now, when players who are more "positionless" and offensively skilled have increased value.
"Stylistically, there's much more of an appetite for the European player in the WNBA," agent Mike Cound, who has represented women's basketball players for more than 30 years, told ESPN. "Look how much of an emphasis is being put on shooting now.
"I think there's always been a place for these types of players in the WNBA. But there's been a stereotype that's hurt them a little bit, that they were more 'finesse' players and not as physical. What we're seeing now is part that the money is better but also that the WNBA teams are saying to them, 'Hey, we want you here.'"
The money is definitely a game-changer. The WNBA salary cap per team is now $7 million, compared to $1.5 million last season. The minimum salary is $270,000, compared to $66,079 in 2025, and the supermax is $1.4 million vs. $249,244. Other major perks, such as charter air travel and many teams having their own training facilities, also add to the WNBA's appeal.
Phoenix Mercury guard Jovana Nogic, who is from Serbia, played collegiately in the United States at Providence from 2015-19 and made 323 3-pointers while shooting 40.8% from behind the arc. But she didn't get selected in the WNBA draft. Now after success overseas, she is a WNBA rookie at age 28. Nogic made a splash in the Mercury's opening game May 9 with 19 points in a victory over the defending champion Las Vegas Aces. She called it a "boom" moment.
"It's been something that I didn't know I wanted," Nogic told ESPN of playing in the WNBA. "It was always my dream, since I was a little girl, to play in EuroLeague. I didn't think (the) W was possible for me, so I guess I didn't even let myself dream of it.
"My favorite players were in EuroLeague, and of course I could watch them live at home. Then with more media coverage and attention to the W, at some point I was like, 'Damn, maybe, I do want to try the W.' But it was never rewarding enough to make us come. We always had better contracts in Europe. Until this point it was like, there's no point of going [financially]. Now, it just makes sense."
Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon spent 16 seasons playing in the WNBA but also competed for many years in Europe. Hammon even got expedited citizenship to play for Russia in two Olympics. She said European leagues used to have the upper hand with salaries, but that has changed.
"Back in the day, we all went over there because they paid us more," Hammon said. "So now that we're the highest bidders and payers in women's basketball -- which is great -- we're going to start to see more of the [Europeans]. It's worth it to come over.
"Most of them have a lot of pressure and obligations to their national teams and to the teams that they play for in their home country. But now it's enticing enough, I think, financially, that it's worth coming over here in the summertime for them, knowing that they add a lot of great basketball players to the best league in the world."
Phoenix general manager Nick U'Ren, who previously worked in the NBA, said WNBA franchises are investing more in scouting European players. And he added the Mercury also have the personnel and infrastructure needed to help those players with anything they might need, like setting up bank accounts.
"Last year, we had two players who had never set foot in the United States before," U'Ren said. "That's a lot of responsibility to have as an organization.
"There's so much talent all around the world, and Europe especially. You've seen it in the NBA; you're seeing it in our game. They've played for their national teams, they've been exposed to big competition. I just like that well-roundedness."
Team officials like U'Ren and Reeve said they expected the new CBA, which also added two developmental spots for teams, would have the effect it's having on European interest in the WNBA. The Mercury used their draft picks in April to take two 19-year-old European players despite knowing they wouldn't play in the WNBA this season. Phoenix wanted to secure the rights to the players for the future.
International players who don't compete collegiately in the United States are automatically eligible for the WNBA draft during the year they turn 20, then become unrestricted free agents if they are not drafted. Those players are now more sought-after in the WNBA after they've proven themselves in Europe.
"Different ways to build your roster are going to be necessary," Reeve said.
Before this season, the Lynx lost three key players to free agency and the expansion draft and looked to European players as part of the replacement. Emma Cechova, a 21-year-old from the Czech Republic, was off to a strong start before tearing her right ACL in Minnesota's third game.
Belgium's Antonia Delaere, a 31-year-old free agent, and Anastasiia Olairi Kosu, a 21-year-old from Russia whom the Lynx drafted in 2025, are two other Europeans playing for the Lynx.
Delaere, like Nogic, said she had to overcome some doubts about her own skill level to play in the WNBA. She said she received encouragement from countrywoman Meesseman, a second-round draft pick in 2013 who has played nine seasons in the WNBA but currently isn't in the league. Delaere said she sees now that the more prevalent European style of play can fit in the WNBA.
"We really try to play together, to give the extra passes, which is not always the case in the WNBA," Delaere said. "But I can see, also now, there are more and more Europeans coming."
But money remains the bottom line. Belgian guard Julie Allemand, 29, is now in her fourth season in the WNBA as part of the expansion Toronto Tempo. She acknowledges there are sacrifices all players make -- including wear and tear on their bodies and time away from family -- to play in both the United States and Europe.
Before the salary increases, Europeans more often skipped the WNBA, even if they considered it the ultimate league in which to test themselves.
"We know that when you get the chance to come here, it's something special," Allemand told ESPN. "And, of course, you're proud of it. Now, with the new CBA, everybody was like, 'I'm already seeing a lot of international players coming here, so why not me?'"
And because of prioritization rules in the WNBA, Europe might end up losing some of its talent in those leagues where schedules end after the WNBA has already started its training camps.
In the 2020 CBA, the WNBA instituted rules to try to mandate players reporting by the start of training camp or a set date, whichever was the latest. For 2027, that date is April 15, and players face a season-long suspension if they don't make it. There are exceptions, such as for obligations to national teams, and for players after their rookie and second years in the WNBA. But once they are three-year WNBA vets, kicks in.
"[European] leagues are going to have to adapt," Nogic said. "Because, one, Americans are not going to want to go to Europe [as much] anymore, and two, now Europeans are not going to want to come back.
"Or let's say they will, but for shorter-period contracts. If they want to have top players and to maintain the level of the game overseas, then I think they will need to make some adjustments."
There already has been a change to a major international event to account for the later end to the expanded WNBA season. The upcoming FIBA World Cup will be Sept. 4-13 in Germany, necessitating a break in the WNBA schedule. But the following World Cup in 2030 in Tokyo will be held Nov. 26-Dec. 8.
Sandy Brondello coached the Liberty to their first WNBA title in 2024 and had European players on that team who made big contributions. Now coach of the expansion Toronto Tempo, the Australian Brondello was part of the first wave of international players when the WNBA started three decades ago. Brondello, whose Tempo signed French guard Tima Pouye on Thursday, sees the increase in Europeans as one more step forward for the WNBA.
"I think it's exciting," she said. "There's opportunities, and everyone wants to play in the best league in the world. And it truly is showing how international or global basketball is. It always has been, but now it's more prevalent because more players are coming in."
Kendra Andrews and Alexa Philippou contributed to this report.
