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Things to know about EuroBasket, Part 1: Who’s going and how they’ll handle changing teams mid-season

By Jenn Hatfield

LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 24: Amanda Zahui B #17 of the New York Liberty and Maria Vadeeva #10 of the Los Angeles Sparks reach for the ball during the game at Staples Center on June 24, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 24: Amanda Zahui B #17 of the New York Liberty and Maria Vadeeva #10 of the Los Angeles Sparks reach for the ball during the game at Staples Center on June 24, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images) /
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A complete rundown of who is headed to Eurobasket

From June 27 to July 7, 16 European teams will compete in FIBA’s 2019 EuroBasket tournament, which will take place in Latvia and Serbia. The top six teams will earn spots in one of four qualifying tournaments for the 2020 Olympics.

Last week, the EuroBasket website released its predicted order of finish: France is the favorite, followed by Spain and Russia. Those three teams each have players who will be familiar to WNBA fans: New York’s Bria Hartley and Marine Johannes will play for France, Chicago’s Astou Ndour will suit up for Spain, and Los Angeles’ Maria Vadeeva will compete for Russia. In fact, 10 of the 16 EuroBasket teams feature at least one current WNBA player on their rosters.

Through conversations with WNBA coaches and team representatives, High Post Hoops confirmed the following list of players who will miss WNBA games this season to compete in EuroBasket, along with their departure date if known:

Information collected by High Post Hoops; graphic by Kimberly Geswein.
Information collected by High Post Hoops; graphic by Kimberly Geswein. /

Note: Cecilia Zandalasini played for Minnesota last year and is playing for Italy at EuroBasket, but she is not included because, unlike Fagbenle, she is not on the Lynx’s 2019 roster. Rather, Zandalasini is considered one of several former WNBA players or draft picks on EuroBasket rosters.

In total, eight of the WNBA’s 12 teams are losing at least one player to EuroBasket this season. Washington (two) and New York (four) are the only teams that are losing multiple players.

Dallas Wings head coach Brian Agler shed some light on why players’ departure dates vary so widely, ranging from Vadeeva’s late May departure to Zahui B’s June 20 departure.

“For the American players, it’s a negotiation,” he told High Post Hoops. “So for Glory [Johnson], she’s American, [but] she’s got a passport for Montenegro. … But then you got somebody like Vadeeva, [Russia is] her team, you know, she’s gonna leave earlier … because she’s playing for her [country of birth]. … the Americans are probably going to stay [with their WNBA teams] a tad bit longer.”

Atlanta’s Alex Bentley, who like Johnson is American-born, said she got a Belarus passport primarily because of the opportunities it affords her to play overseas during the WNBA offseason. (European leagues often limit the number of Americans that can be on a roster, and Bentley counts as a European player by virtue of having a Belarus passport.) But the opportunity to compete in EuroBasket, and potentially in the Olympics, is also exciting.

“We’re playing for something big,” Bentley said. “[Qualifying for the Olympics] would be an awesome experience and accomplishment.”

Johnson voiced excitement about heading overseas, but noted the difficulty of joining a new team midway through the WNBA season.

“It’s tough,” she said. “It’s tough even when in the offseason because … I’m learning different plays, I’m learning different players, I’m learning my teammates’ names.” Bentley agreed, citing the differences in playing styles overseas and in the WNBA: “European basketball is completely different from the WNBA for sure. It’s a lot more team-oriented basketball.” But those differences may end up benefiting the players’ WNBA teams upon their return.

As Johnson explained, “It’s good to see how different people play and also take some of the things from Montenegro and bring them back here.”

Washington’s Emma Meesseman, a native of Belgium, had a similar outlook on leaving the Mystics mid-season. In May, she told High Post Hoops, “Me being [in Washington] now is going to make me better and my national team better. And me being with the national team is going to make me and then this [Mystics] team better.” Meesseman has missed parts of previous WNBA seasons before due to Belgian national team commitments, so she says she knows what to expect.

This time around, though, a Mystics teammate joined Meesseman for the cross-continental flight. Kim Mestdagh, a fellow Belgian whom Meesseman has known since childhood, made her first WNBA roster this season at 29 years old. Mestdagh expects that playing with Meesseman on both teams will make the mid-season transition easier.

“Emma said it’s a little bit challenging in the beginning to go from one system to another system,” Mestdagh said in late May. “But now we’ve been playing for a couple years together and I think it will go smoothly.”

While Mestdagh and Meesseman know their roles on the Belgian national team after competing together in last year’s World Cup, Johnson doesn’t know exactly what role she will play for Montenegro.

“We have a new coach and we also have new players. So I am trying to figure [my role] out,” she explained. “I [will] definitely rebound. And I’ll definitely play defense and do my best to be a defensive stopper. But if it’s necessary, [if they] need me to score on offense, I’ll try to do my best to do that, too. … it’s really whatever my coaches and my teammates need me to do.”

Throughout the competition, Johnson expects to stay connected to her Dallas Wings team. “I will probably keep in touch with them every day,” she said. Johnson even paid for an access code to allow her to watch Wings games while she’s overseas. The Wings have a code she could have used, she said, but buying her own allows her to watch the games sooner, and that was important to her.

Johnson will also work hard to keep in touch with her family, who will not be joining her in Europe. Her 3-year-old daughter Ava—the more extroverted of Johnson’s twin girls—wanted to come, Johnson said, but the travel was a lot to ask of her family. “They live in Knoxville; WNBA season is in Dallas,” she explained.

“Most of the time they pick up and come to Dallas over the summer, but picking up and coming to Montenegro and then coming back to Dallas is probably not going to happen.” As her children get older, though, Johnson said she is open to bringing them overseas during the offseason or for tournaments.

With the EuroBasket championship game set for July 7, all players should return to their WNBA teams by mid-July. Each player will differ in how quickly she reacclimates to the WNBA, and WNBA teams will also vary in how well they adjust to players leaving and then returning. As the 12 WNBA teams battle this season for eight playoff spots and for home-court advantage during the postseason, watch for the EuroBasket tournament to have a big impact.

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