How Bueckers, Clark, Reese will impact Team USA at World Cup - ESPN

A picture from 2017 resurfaces occasionally on social media. In it, a younger Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers and Aliyah Boston wear USA Basketball gear, huddling somewhere at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and flashing thumbs up and peace signs.

They had been in the cold tubs amid preparations for the FIBA Americas U16 Championship, Bueckers recently recalled to ESPN, probably after a dreaded two-a-day session. The photo also features Azzi Fudd — who like the other three would later become a No. 1 WNBA draft pick — and former Stanford standout Fran Belibi.

«We were all down bad hurting at such a young age,» Bueckers said.

«I don't think any of us probably would have guessed we would have all made it [to this level], and that the WNBA is what it is now with the amount of attention that's on us,» Clark told ESPN. «But at the same time, I think we would all say it's pretty cool. It's kind of like a pinch me moment.»

Over the next 10 days, Clark, Bueckers and Boston will again share the court representing the United States with a slew of younger WNBA stars in Angel Reese, Kiki Iriafen and Sonia Citron at the FIBA World Cup in Berlin.

The group of transcendent players, with their on-court talent and off-court relevance, catapulted the WNBA into a new era of popularity. Now they are tasked with helping Team USA secure its 12th World Cup gold medal and fifth straight.

«There's always pride when you wear USA,» Boston told ESPN. «I think it's kind of a full circle moment for us to be in the big girl jerseys now.»

The future — or as Bueckers quipped in December, the «Young and Turnt» crew — is here. And they're perhaps even younger, and being thrown into the fire, even more than anticipated.

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