Why Alyssa Thomas finally joined USA basketball — and had a ball with a World Cup title (2024)

She planned to skip the gold medal ceremony and posing with the trophy.

The champagne shower in the locker room. The McDonald’s burgers, fries and chicken nuggets on the bus from the arena to the hotel.

The championship banquet, overlooking the famous Australian harbor, with the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. The Mexican food, wine, beers, more bubbly. The dessert cart and congratulatory speech from retired Gen. Martin Dempsey.

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The party into the wee hours of an Australian Sunday morning with her Team USA teammates, and the 20-plus hours of flights back home to Connecticut.

Alyssa Thomas planned on skipping all of this, because for her entire WNBA career she’s stayed away from USA Basketball. The summer pursuits of gold at the Olympics, or the World Cup, like this one in Australia, typically fall during the one break in Thomas’ calendar, between playing in the U.S. and in the EuroLeague during the fall and winter.

But Team USA’s new coach, Cheryl Reeve, called Thomas in February and asked her to consider taking a spot on the latest iteration of the most dominant basketball program on Earth, a program in transition as pillars Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi had stepped away.

After the Americans beat China 83-61 Saturday in Sydney to win their fourth consecutive World Cup, Thomas, because she said yes to Reeve on that call, and gave up her summer space, is a champion. And she enjoyed all the spoils that came with it.

“I’m happy I was a part of this,” Thomas said in a phone interview with The Athletic before the Americans’ flight back to the U.S. “I really had no intention of playing. That call (from Reeve) is what got me back into it, and now I’m a gold medalist. I almost can’t believe it.”

Thomas, 30, is a three-time All-Star with the Connecticut Sun. Her story is similar to her counterpart on the Team USA men’s side — having played and lost in a finals and then having to board a flight the next day for trans-Pacific travel and a hurried union with her USAB teammates.

Much like Devin Booker’s experience in the summer of 2021, losing the NBA Finals and then immediately jetting to Tokyo for the Olympics, Thomas and the Sun lost Game 4 of the WNBA Finals to the Las Vegas Aces on Sept. 18. The next day, Thomas and Sun teammate Brionna Jones flew from Hartford, Conn., to Chicago to San Francisco and on to Sydney. They arrived in time for a walk-through with Team USA before its World Cup-opening win over Belgium.

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Thomas, in her first-ever game with Team USA, fighting off jet lag and the sting of the finals loss, nearly notched a triple-double in that game with 14 points, nine assists and seven rebounds in 28 minutes.

“I gave everything I had (in the finals) and played my game and did all I could do, and that’s all you can ask for,” said Thomas, who reached a triple-double in that last finals loss. “I didn’t really have time to dwell on it, anyway. I had to come here the next day.”

Thomas, who is 6-foot-2 and listed as a power forward but initiates the offense, was voted the World Cup’s top defensive player, averaging 2.4 steals per game for an American team that limited opponents to just 58 points per game. She was named to the second-team all-tournament team with averages of 9.9 points, seven rebounds, and 4.3 assists.

In the quarterfinals against Serbia, Thomas’ 13 points were bested by her 14 rebounds. Thomas’ output in the World Cup Final was modest for her, by comparison to the rest of her games in Australia. She scored five points on five shots but managed nine boards.

A’Ja Wilson (19 points) and Kelsey Plum (17 points), who were both key in the Aces’ victories to beat Thomas’ Sun in the WNBA Finals, were the Americans’ top players against China. Chelsea Gray, the third Team USA player who was on that Aces squad, chipped in 10 points to beat China. Wilson and Gray were among the five Americans who won gold at the Tokyo Olympics just one year ago.

“Of course, with teammates like them, you just want to come in and do whatever is needed,” Thomas said. “I got the sense that I needed to create and distribute. With anybody on a team like this, you know you don’t have to do as much as you’re used to doing on your regular team each year.”

Team USA has won 30 consecutive World Cup games, and by capturing another Cup title has automatically qualified for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. The Americans’ Olympic winning streak is north of 50 games.

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Thomas was non-committal when asked if she would return to Team USA for Paris. Right now, she said, she is focused on getting some sleep. What was clear in Sydney is, even when the Americans are in a period of transition, they are still leaps and bounds ahead of their competition.

Team USA beat Belgium by 15 without Wilson, Plum and Gray. There was an early round game against China that was settled by 14 points. The Americans set records by beating the Canadians by 40, and holding them to fewer than 50 points, in the semifinals.

What amounts to concern for the American women, during a game, is something like Serbia keeping things close in the first quarter of the quarterfinals, in what eventually became an 88-55 laugher in Team USA’s favor.

“The competition is always high, because everyone always wants to beat our ass,” said Wilson, the tournament MVP, with a gold medal around her neck and an open bottle of Moet next to her on the dais in Sydney. “I know Serbia came out, punched us in the mouth. And it was like not on our watch.”

As Wilson said that, she lifted her right wrist to show off her new Tissot watch, given to the MVP of the World Cup. She cackled as she made the joke. “I need to drink more water,” Wilson said through chuckles, in a nod to the bottle of champagne she’d guzzled in the locker room before the interview.

And to think, Thomas almost missed out on all the fun.

(Photo of Alyssa Thomas: Steve Christo / Corbis via Getty Images)

Why Alyssa Thomas finally joined USA basketball — and had a ball with a World Cup title (1)Why Alyssa Thomas finally joined USA basketball — and had a ball with a World Cup title (2)

Joe Vardon is a senior NBA writer for The Athletic, based in Cleveland. Follow Joe on Twitter @joevardon

Why Alyssa Thomas finally joined USA basketball — and had a ball with a World Cup title (2024)

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