LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Aces A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young, Dearica Hamby and Kelsey Plum are among the 29 players invited to tryouts for the U.S. women’s team that will play in the FIBA World Cup next month in Australia.
The Aces’ standouts are candidates to replace some of the team’s key performers over the years, like the retired Sue Bird and Sylvia Fowles, as the American women dominated international play.
The Americans also might get a chance to add Diana Taurasi, who was not on the team’s training camp roster. She has been sidelined by a quad injury and missed Wednesday’s opening game of the Phoenix Mercury’s WNBA playoff series against the Aces.
She told The Associated Press that she was a “maybe” to make the tryouts for the team that will compete in Sydney starting Sept. 22 and continuing to Oct. 1.
The final roster will be whittled down to 12 players. Nine players from the Tokyo Olympics team have been invited; Wilson and Gray were on the gold-medal team.
Plum and Young were members of the USA team that won gold in the first 3-on-3 Olympic basketball tournament for women in Tokyo.
Training camp in Las Vegas is Sept. 6-12, with an intrasquad scrimmage on Sept. 10
Only one college player — Aliyah Boston of South Carolina — was invited to the camp. She helped her school to the NCAA championship and was selected by The AP as player of the year.