With fifth straight FIBA World Cup title, Team USA bridges past, present and future to uphold gold standard

· Yahoo Sports

And so the standard strengthens once more. 

In what was rightfully billed as their toughest challenge, and after falling behind by as many as 14 in the gold medal match to France, Team USA looked every bit as worthy of the world domination title they’ve maintained for more than three decades. Even if, through much of the tournament, they clung perilously to the claim. 

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They nearly lost to Italy in the group stage. They struggled against bronze medalist Spain in the semifinals. The rematch of the 2024 Olympic gold medal game against France proved difficult in a disjointed start that could have spiraled. 

That’s not the Team USA standard. No matter the increasing strength of international talent, or the experience on their own bench, they level up to the moment. Only gold will do. 

To fall short is not simply about a different medal color. It’s a failure to the crest, and to oneself, as the names who allowed the program to falter. That goes for newly minted four-time champion Breanna Stewart to burgeoning stars Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers on down to late additions Kiki Iriafen and Sonia Citron. All lived up to the assignment in a 97-79 statement on the international stage.

Stewart steadied the squad again on Sunday, playing the increasingly necessary role of bridge between Team USA of rosters past and the glutton of talent poised to take charge by the next World Cup cycle. She is undefeated in NCAA, Olympic and World Cup championship games. She lost only one of her four WNBA Finals appearances. 

The future Hall of Famer earned a record-setting second World Cup MVP honor after 22 points and 10 rebounds. She was the first U.S. player this tournament to crack 20 points and averaged a team-high 12.8 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. 

Jackie Young added to a uniquely deep trophy case by adding 18 in the gold medal game. Veterans Kahleah Copper (15 points, 5 of 9) and Chelsesa Gray (12 points, 5 of 9) cracked double digits, with Gray adding 4 rebounds and 5 assists in primary point guard duties. Clark scored 12 on an efficient 4 of 5 in 13 minutes. 

It took a little from everyone to turn a 14-point deficit into a 27-point lead. Head coach Kara Lawson put her veteran starters back in at 8:08 of the second to avoid the collapse, and with Aliyah Boston inserted into the lineup as the team’s center, they came within five with 29 seconds until half. 

Lawson, whose lineup decisions were suspect at times, put in Reese for Boston to get a stop. The Dream forward pressured Liberty guard Pauline Astier, forcing the turnover. Lawson swapped out Reese for Clark, who drained the buzzer-beating 3-pointer to make it a one-possession game. Clark hit another quarter-ending jumper at the third. They were Team USA’s 30th points, capping a 30-12 frame that all but officially slammed the door on revenge-hungry France. 

And by extension, the rest of the world. 

No one is going to feel sorry for the powerhouse that won all but one World Cup or Olympic gold medal since 1996 (they lost the 2006 World Cup). They entered this tournament having won four consecutive World Cup golds since that loss, and came into the final on a 36-game World Cup winning streak. 

Make that 37 and still counting. 

The history doesn’t discredit how much was stacked against Team USA in the present. Those who looked at the final score or watched the second half will insist France was never a true threat. Hindsight is 20/20. There was plenty of reason to believe this was the competition that could finally trip up the Americans. 

More than any previous senior tournament in recent memory, this cycle’s team was composed of two distinct and separate parts compiled by first-ever managing director and four-time World Cup medalist Sue Bird. 

In one camp were the five veterans of senior-level competition — only three from the previous World Cup gold after A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum were unavailable on the eve of the tournament. In another, a crop of young headline talent inexperienced at the senior level. 

They played two distinct styles for a collegiate head coach in Duke’s Lawson, who specifically took a WNBA color analyst job to see her players throughout the summer. No matchup showcased this better than Spain, as the veterans struggled a step behind and the young crew dug out of the hole by keeping and setting pace. 

It was hard to meld those two versions together. The team did not have a proper training camp, an aspect that will change come 2030 when the tournament is held in November/December after the WNBA season concludes. Instead, it fell to a FIBA World Cup qualifying tournament roster in March. The time gave the young stars runway to develop on the international level, but not time to build chemistry with the key standard-bearing veterans. 

Stewart joined the team for a pre-competition training camp, but did not compete. Wilson also did not attend. The co-face of Team USA’s current iteration alongside Stewart, she backed out of the World Cup to get healthy back home for a WNBA championship run with the Las Vegas Aces. Plum helmed the backcourt as the third-leading scorer in Puerto Rico, but also could not head to Germany with lingering leg injuries. 

Napheesa Collier was sidelined after surgeries on both of her ankles after last season, and only returned to basketball action in July. She mishandled a few of Clark’s dagger passes while cutting in the paint, eliciting memories of how Iowa players learned to keep their heads on a swivel early in Clark’s collegiate career. Those are the slight misses that strengthen with time the team didn’t have. 

Not to mention the world is no longer star-struck by the mighty Americans, whose armor is melting with each national team that stays close late and every star who signs with the WNBA. The World Cup field featured 70 current and former WNBA players, including 58 rostered outside of Team USA. Puerto Rico was the only team without an active WNBA player. 

Eight of France’s 12 players are on WNBA rosters, and another two played previously in the best league in the world. They carried experience with one another, established understandings of Team USA’s looming threats, and a healthy hunger from falling a few inches short of overtime in the 2024 Paris Olympic gold medal game. 

None of that ended up mattering. Gabby Williams, the third-highest scorer in the tournament, didn’t score in the second half until 1:45 left in the game. She finished with 20 and Dominique Malonga with 21 as the only double-digit French players. They couldn’t capitalize on Team USA’s early turnovers and collapsed once Team USA gritted its way to the proper footing. 

Stewart, 32, emphatically told the broadcast to expect her at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics in what would be her fourth appearance. The roster will look similar to this one, with a heavy emphasis on the young crew, though the hurdles it faced will be a thing of the past. 

If the acclaimed “Young and Turnt” crew learned anything at all in Berlin, it’s the heavy first-hand burden that Team USA finds a way. To reach the final game is what matters. To stand atop the podium above everyone else is not the goal. It’s the expectation. 

That standard is a skill they had yet to add to a formidable Team USA bag. Now, the standard continues.

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