US expands women’s basketball training and will pay players

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The U.S. women’s national basketball team is expanding its training leading up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and paying a group of star players to participate.

Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, who have led the U.S. to gold in the last four Olympics, headline the eight players who will be paid $2,000 a day at each of the training camps and games leading up to the Olympics.

USA Basketball announced the expanded training on Saturday before the WNBA All-Star Game. USA Basketball CEO Jim Tooley says the players will be paid for the training windows that aren’t directly before the Olympics or the FIBA World Cup. The players can also earn bonuses as well. In the past, USA basketball gave its players a daily stipend for coming to training camps.

Joining Bird and Taurasi for the five training segments are Sylvia Fowles, Elena Delle Donne, Nneka Ogwumike, A’ja Wilson, Skylar Diggins-Smith and Chelsea Gray.

The Americans will train and play over the next year, taking advantage of FIBA’s new Olympic qualifying process by playing in tournaments in November and February. They also will play in a series of exhibition games against college teams in the fall and winter.