Three days before the USA faces China in its 2026 FIBA World Cup opener, USA senior national team coach Kara Lawson called the upcoming tournament perhaps the most challenging iteration of the event that's ever been held.
"I think there's no question that the world is improving at a rapid rate. It's so exciting to see, and I see it at every level," Lawson said over Zoom on Tuesday. "There's more depth to the teams at the World Cup. Now when you look at rosters, there's a number of just high-quality players. ... I think it's going to be the most difficult World Cup to win that we've had because of that."
A perennial gold-medal favorite, Team USA enters the tournament winners of 30-straight World Cup contests, having lost just once since 1994 in a major international competition.
But as the influx of international talent in the WNBA -- and the USA's narrow win over France for gold at the 2024 Olympics -- have crystalized, the rest of the world is catching up.
"It should be hard to win. It's a World Cup," said Lawson, who last year was tabbed head coach of the senior team. "It's the best teams, and it's a tough schedule, and it's short. ... Every team's job is to try and win this, and so we're hungry and we're focused on trying to put our best performances on display and see if we can get the job done."
The USA is looking to win a fifth consecutive World Cup gold and 12th overall, but its task will be tougher after four-time WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson and five-time All-Star Kelsey Plum pulled out of the tournament due to health reasons, moves that were announced Monday.
Lawson said that she didn't have a conversation with Wilson -- reigning MVP of both the Olympics and World Cup -- about the decision, something that was primarily left to USA Basketball program managing director Sue Bird.
"Both of them obviously have been great players for us, and I'll miss being around them, but ultimately, we've kind of moved on," Lawson said. "We wish them both a speedy recovery with what they're dealing with, but we don't have time to be worried about who's not here. We've got to really focus on ourselves and how we're going to develop our chemistry in the short lead-up and trying to win."
With Kiki Iriafen and Sonia Citron taking Wilson's and Plum's spots, the team now has seven players under 27 who will be appearing in their first major international competition, and nine overall who have never played at a World Cup.
One of those seven newcomers is Caitlin Clark, who had a strong debut with the senior national team in March, when she won MVP at the World Cup Qualifying Tournament in Puerto Rico.
Lawson praised Clark's campaign with the Indiana Fever this season as well as how she can change games by creating pace, space the floor and both play-make and score.
Asked whether Clark's role recently as a sort of "political football," as NBA commissioner Adam Silver put it, has come up within USA Basketball circles, Lawson said it hasn't been a topic.
"There's always a lot of distractions. These players have gotten used to that, especially this year in the WNBA, and a lot of that, most of that, doesn't penetrate our team hotel and our team bubble," the coach said. "We just focus on the games, and she's doing a great job of that. And I haven't noticed a different Caitlin this stretch these couple days we've been together than I did in March or than I did [at training camp] in December."
Clark and the rest of the 12-player squad arrived in Berlin over the past few days, trickling in as their respective WNBA teams wrapped up play as the league breaks for FIBA competition.
Lawson said the team was able to hold a light practice on Tuesday as it ramps up to Friday's tournament opener, a tough matchup versus China, the silver medalists from the 2022 World Cup. The squad then completes group phase play with contests against Italy on Sunday and Czechia on Monday, followed by the knockout rounds running from Sept. 8-13.
With so little prep time going into the tournament and a lot of newness, Lawson said it's more critical than ever for everyone to maintain a high level of attention.
"It's just more of being really focused and locked in when we do have our time together, and we know that there's a lot of information to install," Lawson said. "I don't think it's changed the way I would normally coach. It's just being very direct with what we want done, and they were great today in practice at picking up a lot in a short period of time."
