As USA Basketball decisionmakers like women’s managing director Sue Bird and head coach Kara Lawson worked to create the roster that will represent the Stars-and-Stripes next month in Germany at the 2026 FIBA World Cup, they knew they needed a few specific things.
Of course, they had to have the impactful MVP-level play of A’ja Wilson, the efficiency and versatility of Napheesa Collier, the experience of Breanna Stewart, the highlight-worthy guard skills brought by Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark, and the veteran leadership of Chelsea Gray.
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“Chelsea brings a lot to the table for our group. Just her confidence, her ability in big moments to play really well. Her intelligence is something that I think everyone leans on, how she sees the game,” Lawson told reporters this week. “She’s a great leader for the group.”
But as Lawson has studied the international game and the rules of FIBA — having been on-board with Team USA in varying capacities for nearly three decades now — she also knew she would need toughness, a player who wouldn’t shy away from contact and wouldn’t back down from a battle.
After watching her over the past several months, Lawson knew this team needed Angel Reese.
“She plays with an aggression and a physicality, which I think is really important in FIBA play because there’s a little more aggression and physicality that’s typically allowed relative to the WNBA,” Lawson said of the Atlanta Dream forward. “You need to have players that embrace that. I think she’s definitely one of the players on the roster that embraces that.”
Along with Clark, Bueckers, Rhyne Howard and Aliyah Boston, this FIBA World Cup will be the first time Reese has featured for the senior U.S. national team in a major tournament. For Reese, her World Cup debut comes at a time when she’s enjoying the best season of her three-year career in the WNBA so far.
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Traded from the Chicago Sky to the Dream this past offseason, Reese made her third All-Star team and is averaging a career-high 15.6 points per game on an Atlanta team on-track to make the playoffs. She also leads the WNBA in rebounding this season with 12.1 per game, is sixth in steals per game (1.7), third in defensive win shares (2.1) and eighth in defensive rating (98.6).
On Tuesday night, in the Dream’s first win in Las Vegas since 2024, Reese stuffed the stat sheet with 21 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and four steals.
Lawson said she hadn’t met Reese until she held her first camp as Team USA’s head coach back in December 2025 on the campus of Duke University where she’s the Blue Devils head coach. Both Lawson and Reese hail from the DMV, with Reese growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, and Lawson in northern Virginia.
“We connected pretty early. We’ve got a lot in common and she’s an incredible competitor. I just enjoy how she raises the level of a practice or a game with her presence and with her intensity,” Lawson said. “She’s very effective on both ends. And you know, obviously, the statistical category that stands out about her is her rebounding. Her ability to dominate on the glass is something that’s really valuable, to be able to limit teams to one shot.”
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Lawson has since been able to watch Reese all season long as she’s been an analyst for WNBA games on Amazon Prime.
However, the team Lawson has covered the most while doing that gig is Clark’s Indiana Fever. Lawson said she’s seen Clark make some strides on the defensive side of the floor from when she first had her in Team USA camp at Duke.
“I think she’s improved in every area. She’s playing really well at this time, as is their whole team,” Lawson said of Clark and the Fever. “I’ve been up-close to see their growth. And yeah, she plays at a high level. She’s doing that now and she’s continuing to look better and better.”
Clark leads the WNBA in assists this season with 8.3 per game and is fourth in scoring with 22.1 points per game.
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Team USA begins group stage play at the World Cup on Sept. 4, opening with a game against China. The WNBA season will take a pause while the World Cup is played in Berlin, Germany. The gold medal game is set for Sept. 13 and WNBA games will resume on Sept. 17.
Lawson will coach Team USA through the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. The last time the Summer Games were held in Los Angeles, Lawson’s college coach — the late Pat Summitt of Tennessee — led the Americans to their first gold medal.
As a player, Lawson helped the Americans win a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics. She then coached the Team USA 3×3 squad to a gold medal in the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo and was an assistant under Cheryl Reeve with the 5×5 team that won the Olympics in 2024 in Paris.
“It’s, in my opinion, the No. 1 job in the sport, to be the national team head coach for your own country,” Lawson said. “I mean, think about that. Like, you grow up in a country, you play the sport, you play on the national team, and you’re assistant coach for the national team, and you get an opportunity to be the head coach. There’s not anything better than that. So, how it feels is amazing, and I’m just excited about the opportunity.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kara Lawson explains why Angel Reese is a perfect fit for Team USA
