Breanna Stewart Leads Team USA Amidst Key Absences at World Cup
Kara Lawson barely paused when the news dropped.
No A’ja Wilson. No Kelsey Plum. No reigning World Cup MVP. No Olympic tournament MVP or late-game closer from Paris. For most national teams, that kind of loss would trigger hand-wringing and lowered expectations.
Lawson shut that door before it opened.
“We don't have time to be worried about who's not here,” she said, framing Berlin not as a crisis, but as a reckoning. The gap has closed. The rest of the world is coming fast. And this World Cup, she knows, will be the hardest one yet for the United States to win.
Wilson powered the U.S. to a fourth straight World Cup crown in 2022 and then dominated the 2024 Paris Olympics, where Plum’s 12 clutch points in the final helped secure gold. Both are staying home for health reasons. Their absence leaves a vacuum at the top of the American hierarchy.
It also clears the stage.
Across 16 teams and a field loaded with established stars and rising forces, the tournament that starts Sept. 4 in Berlin will not revolve solely around the U.S. It rarely has felt more open, more dangerous, or more dependent on who can seize the moment.
Here are 10 players ready to shape it.
10. Han Xu, China – A towering problem in the paint
At 6-foot-9, Han Xu doesn’t just change shots. She changes scouting reports.
The Chinese center arrives for her third World Cup with form and confidence. She earned Player of the Game honors against Brazil and averaged 12.4 points and 5.6 rebounds at the qualifier in Wuhan in March, a reminder that China’s interior presence is no longer a one-woman job for any opponent to solve.
Her shooting touch at that size is rare. She can step out, stretch the floor, and still punish smaller lineups inside. And she’s not alone. Li Yueru, the 6-7 Dallas Wings center, returns as a bruising complement, while 19-year-old 7-2 prodigy Zhang Ziyu looms as the next terrifying chapter.
Team USA opens against China. Han won’t be their only problem. She might be the first one.
9. Megan DiLeo, Spain – Spain’s new centerpiece
Spain sits at No. 3 in FIBA’s latest power rankings for a reason, and Megan DiLeo is at the heart of it.
The 6-4 center dominated the 2024 Paris Olympics for Spain, leading the team with 18.0 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. She’s also in the middle of the best WNBA season of her career with the Portland Fire, bringing a polished inside-out game that translates seamlessly to the international stage.
This will be her World Cup debut, but she won’t be treated like a newcomer. DiLeo is the anchor of a younger Spanish core featuring Awa Fam and Maria Conde, the stabilizing force who has to keep Spain on medal pace.
If Spain lives up to that No. 3 billing, it starts with DiLeo owning the paint and the glass.
8. Julie Allemand, Belgium – The engine of the Cats
Emma Meesseman draws the headlines. Julie Allemand drives the machine.
The 5-10 Toronto Tempo guard enters Berlin as one of the premier point guards in the tournament, fresh off being named MVP of the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2026 Qualifying Tournament in Wuhan. Her numbers there tell the story: 9.4 points, 5.6 assists, 3.4 steals per game.
She doesn’t just organize; she disrupts. Allemand set an all-time single-game World Cup Qualifiers record with seven steals against South Sudan, a performance that underlined how Belgium’s defense feeds off her hands and instincts.
At club level, she guided Fenerbahçe to the 2025-26 EuroLeague Women title and claimed Final Six MVP. With Belgium, she’s been central to EuroBasket golds in 2023 and 2025, earning All-Star Five honors both times.
Meesseman may be the legend. Allemand is the tempo, the tone, and the pressure that never lets up.
7. Mai Yamamoto, Japan – The smallest player, the loudest threat
At 5-4, Mai Yamamoto shouldn’t be able to bend games to her will. She does it anyway.
Now a fan favorite with the Las Vegas Aces, Yamamoto is already a seasoned international operator with seven senior FIBA competitions behind her, including the 2022 World Cup and 2024 Olympics. In Paris, she dropped 17 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists in Japan’s 102-76 loss to Team USA, fearlessly attacking the best defense in the world.
Her calling card is the jumper. That two-handed release is unorthodox, but the numbers silence any critique. She shot 64% from three in the 2024 Olympic qualifying tournament and 50% from deep at the World Cup qualifier in San Juan.
Japan took gold at the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup and silver in 2023 with Yamamoto as a key piece. If she catches fire in Berlin, no lead is safe.
6. Ezi Magbegor, Australia – A bronze-game eruption, and more to come
Australia’s quest for a third straight podium finish runs straight through Ezi Magbegor.
The 6-4 Seattle Storm center closed the Paris Olympics with a performance that stamped her as one of the most dangerous bigs in the world. In the bronze medal game, she set the all-time women’s Olympic single-game efficiency record, exploding for 30 points on 12-of-17 shooting and adding 13 rebounds.
That was more than a hot night. It was a glimpse of what she looks like when fully unleashed.
Australia knows what it has now: a modern big who can protect the rim, run the floor and punish mismatches. If Magbegor brings that same authority to Berlin, the Opals won’t just be chasing bronze.
5. Leonie Fiebich, Germany – The face of the hosts
Every host nation needs a star who can carry both a team and a mood. For Germany, that’s Leonie Fiebich.
The 6-4 New York Liberty forward is an elite two-way presence, long and disruptive defensively, and ruthless from deep when she gets her feet set. Germany leaned on her heavily just to get to this stage. In the Olympic qualifying tournament, she averaged 18.0 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, powering the nation to its historic 2024 Olympic debut.
She followed that by making a statement in Paris. Now the World Cup comes to Berlin, and with it, the pressure of a home tournament.
Fiebich is built for it. If she shoots well early, the German crowd will swell around her, and the hosts instantly become a problem for every heavyweight in their path.
4. Caitlin Clark, USA – The phenomenon steps onto the world stage
Caitlin Clark arrives in Berlin as the most famous player in the tournament. The spotlight is not the question. The fit is.
Her answer in qualifying was emphatic.
The 6-0 Indiana Fever guard took MVP honors at the World Cup Qualifying Tournament in San Juan, despite starting just one of Team USA’s five games. She led the team with 58 points and 32 assists, bending defenses with her range and vision in the same way she’s done at every level so far.
For a U.S. squad missing Wilson and Plum, Clark’s ability to generate offense out of nothing becomes even more valuable. Her pull-up threes stretch the floor, her passing unlocks lineups, and her fearlessness in big moments is already proven.
Berlin is her World Cup debut. It doesn’t feel like a warm-up. It feels like the next escalation.
3. Gabby Williams, France – Playing with a scar
Gabby Williams walked out of Paris with a silver medal and a moment she will not forget.
In the Olympic final, the Golden State Valkyries star led all scorers with 19 points against Team USA. She had the ball with a chance to force overtime at the buzzer. The shot went in. The review ruled it a two, not a three. France lost 67-66.
That’s the kind of ending that lingers.
Williams didn’t exactly need extra fuel. In 2024 she claimed the Alain Gilles Trophy as the best French player, male or female, and took FIBA Europe SuperCup MVP honors while leading Fenerbahçe to the FIBA Europe title. Her résumé already includes two Turkish Presidential Cup championships, a EuroLeague title, a EuroLeague Final Four MVP and two EuroLeague Defensive Player of the Year awards.
At 5-11, she can guard up, initiate offense, and close games. Now she brings that full package to Berlin with a sharper edge and unfinished business.
France has a contender. Williams is the reason no one will want to see them in a knockout game.
2. Emma Meesseman, Belgium – A legend chasing the missing piece
Emma Meesseman has won almost everything there is to win.
The New York Liberty forward is the beating heart of the Belgian Cats’ rise, with multiple EuroBasket titles and back-to-back Women’s EuroBasket MVPs to her name. Most recently, she led Belgium to the 2025 FIBA Women’s EuroBasket crown and again took tournament MVP.
Her success travels. In the WNBA, she was the 2019 Finals MVP with the Washington Mystics, delivering on the biggest stage in the sport.
What she doesn’t have is a World Cup gold.
At 33, Meesseman arrives in Berlin with a complete game: poised mid-range scoring, sharp passing from the elbows, and the kind of calm that settles a team in tense minutes. Belgium will lean on her in every high-leverage possession.
For a player with this résumé, the World Cup offers something rare: a chance to add the one line that’s still missing.
1. Breanna Stewart, USA – The anchor in a different kind of storm
No A’ja Wilson. No problem? Not exactly. But if any player can steady the U.S. in her absence, it’s Breanna Stewart.
The New York Liberty forward has lived at the top of the sport for so long that Berlin offers her a slice of history. If Team USA wins it all, she will join Sue Bird as the only women’s player with four World Cup titles. Bird, now Team USA’s managing director, stands alone at the moment. Stewart is one tournament away from joining her.
Her World Cup pedigree is already elite. Stewart took MVP honors at the 2018 FIBA World Cup and could become the first player ever to win multiple World Cup MVPs. She was the FIBA MVP of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, then made the All-Star Five at both the 2022 World Cup and the 2024 Paris Olympics.
At 6-3, she offers everything Lawson needs: scoring from all three levels, length on defense, leadership in the huddle. She doesn’t just fill gaps left by Wilson. She reorganizes the team around her presence.
The rest of the world has caught up. The field is deeper, the margins thinner. But as Berlin awaits, one question hangs over the tournament:
With stars like Meesseman, Williams, DiLeo, Han, and a surging Clark on the rise, can Breanna Stewart and a reshaped Team USA still hold the summit?
