Caitlin Clark's chances of making the 2026 FIBA World Cup roster

Caitlin Clark's chances of making the 2026 FIBA World Cup roster originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Caitlin Clark is one of 18 players who will take part in her first  senior national team camp next month, as the United States women's national team gets ready to defend its FIBA World Cup title for the fifth successive tournament.

Clark's pending participation at the three-day camp in Durham, North Carolina is not particularly surprising given her talent and accomplishments to date. But it is noteworthy after the Indiana Fever All-Star missed much of the 2025 WNBA season nursing several injuries.

Moreover, Clark faces serious competition to make the roster that will head to Germany next September to defend the World Cup. Also slated to attend the camp are Olympic gold-winning guards Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young, while Paige Bueckers and Veronica Burton too have been invited to the Durham-based camp.

Clark's health, White's green light will be decisive

Last June, Clark found herself in the middle of a media firestorm after US national team coach Cheryl Reeve opted not to include her in the roster that she was taking to Paris for the Summer Olympics.

Despite Clark's popularity, Reeve opted for experience -- Clark had been in the WNBA for only a month at that time -- and the bet paid off, as the US won its eighth consecutive gold medal.

Clark has been considered a shoo-in for the 2028 Olympic Games roster, but making the FIBA World Cup in Germany is the more immediate goal for the 23-year-old.

One reason that Clark did not participate in the offseason Unrivaled league -- despite the 3-on-3 competition's huge push for her -- was to fully rehabilitate the nagging groin injury that ultimately ended her 2025 season.

Proving to national team managing director Sue Bird that she has overcome the physical problems that limited her to 13 games in 2025 will put Clark in position to debut for the senior national team next year.

And Bird, a Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, will act based on input from head coach Kara Lawson, as well as Lawson's assistants -- which include Stephanie White, Clark's head coach in Indiana.

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