A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum will no longer compete for Team USA at FIBA World Cup
Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz react to the recent news that A'ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum will no longer compete for Team USA at the FIBA World Cup. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV .
Video Transcript
A'ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum both bowed out due to health reasons from the FIBA World Cup, that according to Alexa Philippou.
The really surprising news on A'ja, who's only missed three games this season, doesn't have- Mm-hmm a substantial injury that we know of, but Kelsey and A'ja both citing injuries as reason they're out of this thing.
I just think you have to You just said something about how two weeks off is really gonna help some of these teams.
I think some of these players are looking around saying, "What do I need right now?
Two weeks off or two weeks of FIBA?"
Mm-hmm.
'Cause that's only gonna continue to be wear and tear on some of these bodies in a long season.
The Kelsey news is not surprising to me.
Right.
We probably could have seen that coming.
She's s- ruled out for the rest of the season, with a lower- with a leg injury, I believe.
A'ja is the surprising one, and this to me is A'ja's way of saying, "I'd rather win another WNBA championship than do anything with Team USA.
I'm prioritizing the W over global competition."
And now you don't have to necessarily agree with that or not, but that i- it feels to me like that's what A'ja is doing.
And maybe if it's not a, a, you know, a clear injury that we can see or we saw, you know, on, on full display on the court, but maybe there are just some things, some nagging things, some soft tissue things, just some wear and tear that A'ja's been dealing with that hasn't kept her off the court in the regular season.
But she's looking at it like, "You know what?
If I'm gonna go, you know, i- in two weeks, go a- across the globe," which is, you know, tough on your body, go, you know, to Berlin, play these high level, high physicality games.
Or I can rest my body for the next two weeks and come back refreshed and ready to make a run for another championship.
Maybe that's just her priority.
And look, if that's her priority, then more power to you.
I've seen also a lot of discourse about why Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen were the two reserves that are coming in.
I think it's really easy to say, well, Kelsey Mitchell's averaging 25 points per game.
Olivia Miles is having an MVP caliber season.
Yes, fair.
But also Kelsey Mitchell does not have any Team USA experience, neither does Olivia Miles.
Now, that's not to say that Olivia won't be on Team USA moving forward, but we also didn't see Caitlin Clark get selected for the Olympic team after her rookie season.
So I think Olivia Miles is gonna start to get some more Team USA reps.
But Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen both have experience with Team USA, whether it's in training camps.
I believe, Sonia was with Team USA in Puerto Rico this past summer, so, or maybe two summers ago.
So both of these players have experience, obviously playing with each other.
They're teammates in Washington, and they have Team USA experience.
