The 2025 FIBA Women’s EuroBasket tournament begins next week, and you may have heard about it in the context of key WNBA players temporarily leaving their pro teams to play for their home countries.
9 WNBA players are (temporarily) leaving the league — here’s why
Liberty forward Leonie Fiebich, Valkyries forward Janelle Salaün, and Wings guard Luisa Geiselsöder are just a few of the WNBA players who are headed to EuroBasket for the next few weeks.
Photo by Stephen Gosling/NBAE via Getty Images
Noa Dalzell is a senior writer covering the WNBA and all of women’s basketball for Breakaway, SB Nation’s women’s sports vertical, as well as the Celtics for CelticsBlog.
16 European countries will participate in the tournament: Czechia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Sweden, Turkey, France, Spain, Serbia, Belgium, Britain, Lithuania, Montenegro, Portugal, Slovenia, and Switzerland. The winner will be crowned European Champions.
The tournament also serves as a qualifer; the top six teams will qualify for the 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, which takes place next summer. Germany, the host country for the 2026 World Cup, will automatically qualify.
Games will be played in Greece, Italy, Czechia, and Germany, with the final phase taking place entirely in Greece.
Which WNBA players are participating in EuroBasket?
As it currently stands, 9 players are leaving the WNBA for two weeks to participate in Eurobasket. The Golden State Valkyries, who have 4 of these players on their roster, will be most impacted.
Here’s the full list of player temporarily heading overseas:
- Leonie Fiebich, New York Liberty — playing for Germany
- Janelle Salaün, Golden State Valkyries — playing for France
- Julie Vanloo, Golden State Valkyries — playing for Belgium
- Julie Allemand, Los Angeles Sparks — playing for Belgium
- Jessica Shepard, Minnesota Lynx — playing for Slovenia
- Teaira McCowan, Dallas Wings — playing for Turkey
- Temi Fágbénlé, Golden State Valkyries — playing for Great Britain
- Cecilia Zandalasini, Golden State Valkyries — playing for Italy
- Luisa Geiselsöder, Dallas Wings — playing for Germany
Several European players will not be competing in EuroBasket this summer
New York Liberty center Nyara Sabally is not playing for Germany this summer as she deals with a knee injury. Minnesota Lynx forward Karlie Samuelson has opted not to play for Great Britain.
Several French WNBA players — Gabby Williams (Storm), Marine Johannès (Liberty), Carla Leite (Valkyries), Dominique Malonga (Storm), Bria Hartley (Sun) — are not playing for France.
The tournament concludes on June 29th, so all participating players will return to their WNBA teams shortly after. In the meantime, teams can sign players to temporary contracts to deal with roster shortages.
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