Joining Griner on the 12-person roster are Seimone Augustus from the Minnesota Lynx, Sue Bird from the Seattle Storm, Tameka Catchings from the Indiana Fever, Tina Charles from the New York Liberty, Elena Delle Donne from the Chicago Sky, Sylvia Fowles from the Minnesota Lynx, Angel McCoughtry from the Atlanta Dream, Maya Moore from the Minnesota Lynx, Breanna Stewart from the University of Connecticut, Diana Taurasi from the Phoenix Mercury and Lindsay Whalen from the Minnesota Lynx. The ultimate irony is that if Stewart is part of the gold-medal winning team, it will mark the first time a women’s player won the NCAA and Olympic title in the same year since Parker accomplished the feat in 2008.
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USA Basketball declined to comment on Parker not being on team, but is expected to announce the Olympic roster on Wednesday. The quarterfinals are on Aug, 16, semifinals on August 18 and the gold-medal game on August 20 in Rio de Janeiro. He had six former Huskies on the team that he coached to a gold medal in the 2012 London Games. “They will be the future of the USA Basketball Women’s National Team”. “This was an incredibly hard decision for our selection committee but also we selected what we feel will give us the best chance to win our sixth straight gold medal”. But when she congratulated me, I was speechless. The United States has won every gold medal except three since women’s basketball debuted in the 1976 Olympics. And today she has been named to the 2016 United States Women’s Olympic National Team. Five of the 12 national team players are UConn alums who played for Auriemma in college.
Bird was honored to get the Olympic call from national team director Carol Callan, informing the 35-year-old she would be a part of the team for a fourth time. As one of the most decorated and public faces of women’s basketball in recent years, it would seem to make sense to showcase Stewart on a global stage.
The U.S. has won without Parker in the past, winning both the 2010 and 2014 world championships.
While Taurasi, 33; Catchings, 36 and Bird’s US careers are winding down, the trio of first-time Olympians are just getting started.
“I’ll cross that bridge when it happens”, she said. ” ‘This is what Olympians do, the way we talk, the way we dress, the way we carry ourselves”.
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It is also expected that other Storm players, Abby Bishop (Australia) and Ramu Tokashiki (Japan) will also play in the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics for their respective countries.
