Team USA Coach Reacts to Unfortunate WNBA News

Kara Lawson said that losing A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum is a big blow for Team USA’s 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup campaign.

Before Team USA headed to Berlin, Germany, for the quadrennial basketball tournament, Wilson and Plum withdrew from the roster due to injury.

Addressing the unfortunate WNBA news, Lawson revealed in a recent interview that she hadn’t had a chance to speak with either player.

“I didn’t have any conversation with A’ja, I think that was more with [USA Basketball managing director Sue Bird], so I don’t have a timeline,” Lawson said. “Both of them have obviously been great players for us. I’ll miss being around them, but ultimately, we’ve kind of moved on.”

Wilson and Plum were both playing well in the WNBA this season, with the former leading the league in scoring average at 26.0 points and the latter racking up 21.5 points per game.

Wilson and Plum were replaced by the Washington Mystics duo of Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen.

Lawson is now fully focused on the task at hand and on the players that are on the roster.

“We’ve got to focus and prepare for this tournament with the 12 players that are here, so we wish them both a speedy recovery with what they’re dealing with,” Lawson continued.

“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.”