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DURHAM, N.C. — Caitlin Clark bound up the practice court at the K-Center (named after legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski), immediately drove left after crossing half court, and elevated from the wing. Swish.
It’s a sequence most haven’t seen much of since July, when Clark played her last games of the 2025 WNBA season. About seven weeks later, on Sept. 4, Clark announced she would be out for the remainder of the season due to injury.
Under Duke’s five national championship banners, Clark made her return to the basketball court wearing a USA senior national team practice jersey for the first time.
“I’m at 100%,” Clark told the media. “Obviously I need to knock off a little bit of rust and get my lungs back, but my body feels really good. I feel like I’m in a really good spot. So, my main goal is just staying that way.”
Clark was limited to just 13 games in 2025 after missing time early in the season due to left quad and left groin injuries. Ultimately she played her last game on July 15, when she sustained a right groin injury in the final minute of the Indiana Fever’s win over the Connecticut Sun. She averaged 16.5 points, 8.8 assists, and 5 rebounds in 2025. The Fever were eliminated by the Las Vegas Aces in the best-of-five semifinals series that went the distance.
On Friday, 17 players from the WNBA and collegiate ranks were in attendance for USA Basketball Women’s National Team training camp as the federation’s new managing director, Sue Bird, begins evaluating talent for the 2026 FIBA World Cup in September. Clark was among a class of senior national team first-timers that included Paige Bueckers, Angel Reese, Veronica Burton, Lauren Betts, and JuJu Watkins.
“I was thinking about it last night, and my main goal for today was to smile and have fun,” Clark said. “You take for granted getting to play basketball. You always say that you don’t want to, but then when you get hurt you realize you probably did. For myself, obviously the year was pretty challenging. I missed being on the court and playing. I would have taken 10 bad games in a row just to be out there playing because that’s how much I love it and how much I love competing with my teammates.”
Among the veteran stars were 2024 Olympic gold medalists Kahleah Copper, Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young, and Kelsey Plum.
Brittney Griner was absent after initially being listed as a camp attendee back in November. A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier, Alyssa Thomas, and Jewell Loyd were among the Olympic gold medal winners also missing from camp.
The Bigger Picture
“We sent out a lot of invites,” Bird said. “These were the players that were able to come. I understand in the landscape of women’s basketball which is ever-changing, you have to be a little more strategic when you have camps, best practice, best timing. I don’t think any player that you might think would have been here not being here has a larger meaning.”
Bird added that she doesn’t foresee the women’s national team having the same issue as the men’s when it comes to getting the team’s best players to attend camp.
“That hasn’t been my experience in the past,” Bird said. “It’s not my experience right now.”
Team USA will play for its fifth consecutive World Cup gold medal in Berlin this fall and its ninth consecutive Olympic gold medal in 2028 at the Los Angeles Olympic Games. The women’s national team has collectively won 10 Olympic gold medals, which includes its historic run from 1996 to 2024 during which the team won a record-breaking eight straight. Bird was there for five of them.
Now she shoulders the weight of putting a roster together that can uphold the same winning standard, which will require finding the right balance between the old guard and the new.
“One big difference is the lack of control that I now have,” Bird said. “When you’re a player, of course, there’s pressure, but you’re doing it. So there’s some sense of control. You’re the one out there …
“Even though I don’t have the control that I had as a player, the carryover—in terms of how I feel, handle, operate pressure—that, so far, has felt similar.”
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