All about June Eurobasket and the huge changes it brings for the Valkyries
everything we know so far
Note: Let’s post comments at the last thread.
Table of Contents
What is Eurobasket?
Which Valkyries players are leaving the team to play Eurobasket?
Which games will they miss?
How will this affect the team?
Who will replace them?
Why can’t GSV stop players from abandoning their contracts?
What is Eurobasket?
It’s the European championship for national teams of women’s basketball, taking place Jun 18 - 29, 2025.
EuroBasket Women is a biennial international women's basketball competition held between the nations of FIBA Europe for women's national teams. EuroBasket Women is also used as a qualifying tournament for the FIBA Women's World Cup and also the Olympic Games.
So we’ll have to do this all again in two years.
Which Valkyries players are leaving the team to play Eurobasket?
Players on the roster or with rights held by GSV, with player’s country:
Probably will play Eurobasket
Julie Vanloo, Belgium
Janelle Salaün, France
Cecilia Zandalasini, Italy
Temi Fágbénlé, United Kingdom
Reportedly will not play Eurobasket
Kyara Linskens, Belgium
Carla Leite, France
Not European
Stephanie Talbot, Australia
Kayla Thornton, United States
Tiffany Hayes, United States
Kate Martin, United States
Veronica Burton, United States
Monique Billings, United States
Skipped training camp to prepare for Eurobasket
Juste Jocyte, Lithuania
the #5 draft pick will not join team until 2026
Iliana Rupert, France
I’ve seen reports that Rupert wants to join GSV after Eurobasket. If true, I don’t know who would be waived or suspended to make roster room.
Which games will they miss?
Expect players to be gone two weeks before (Jun 4) and back 48 hours after their team finishes play which would be either after:
Group Stage ends Jun 21, 22 (return Jun 23, 24)
Knockout Stage ends Jun 29 (return Jul 1)
Here is the relevant GSV schedule:
June 5 at Phoenix
June 7 Las Vegas
June 9 at Los Angeles
June 14 Seattle
June 17 at Dallas
June 19 Indiana
June 22 Connecticut
June 25 New York
June 27 Chicago
June 29 Seattle
July 5 at Minnesota
So Group Stage losers will miss at least 6 games. Group Stage winners will miss 10 games.
Into the weeds
There are some technical fine points to this answer. By current WNBA prioritization rules (which will change with the next CBA), players with 3+ years of WNBA service are restricted to leaving two weeks before through 48 hours after national team service. There are intense consequences for players who break prioritization rules (e.g. getting banned from the WNBA). [WNBA CBA, Article XIV, Section 9(d)]
Valhalla.Basketball is on top of this issue and they say
the only seven players who meet the criteria are Kayla Thornton, Stephanie Talbot, Temi Fagbenle, Tiffany Hayes, Veronica Burton, Cecilia Zandalasini, and Monique Billings.
So technically, Fagbenle and Zandalasini are the only ones constrained by this rule. Vanloo and Salaun don’t have enough service to count and thus have no restrictions about when to leave and return from national service. (Linskens and Leite are also unrestricted but they already declined playing.) In reality, they stayed through Jun 1 anyway. We’ll see if anything unusual happens on their return.
How will this affect the team?
No one knows but it will likely be a big downgrade to team performance. The players leaving have all been key players in crunch time for Coach Nakase:
Julie Vanloo, Belgium
Janelle Salaün, France
Cecilia Zandalasini, Italy
Temi Fágbénlé, United Kingdom
A shooting-starved team is losing their #1, #2, and #4 in threes per game. Fagbenle is their starting center. This is a huge disruption to a team that has only been together about 1 month.
On the other hand, it will be a big opportunity for the remaining.
Carla Leite will have to step up as backup point guard, or even starter depending on Tip Hayes’s recovery calendar.
Kyara Linskens will get a lot more minutes at center, and perhaps even start.
That’s a lot of shots to leave, and everyone will need to step up, particularly Billings and Talbot who have the most WNBA scoring experience.
Some replacement contract players will get a chance to show off their talents.
Who will replace them?
We don’t know. Some number of players will be signed to short term contracts for the duration of the player absences. If 4 leave, that would leave 8 available players on the roster. By WNBA rules, a team can sign emergency hardship contracts to have 10 available players.
I’ve heard nothing about who might be signed. GM Nyanin has managed to avoid commenting in any way on this situation.
So you are all free to speculate about who will be signed, or whether a training camp invitee will be back. I have no idea at all. But for the record:
Kaitlyn Chen is signed to a 3-on-3 basketball league, 3XBA, and will be prepping for a tournament Jun 25 - 28, so even if she wanted to, her availability in June is partial at best.
Migna Toure is at training camp for… wait for it… Eurobasket France. So is Iliana Rupert.
I don’t know what Laeticia Amihere, Chloe Bibby, and Elissa Cunane are up to
Marie Conde is rehabbing from Achilles surgery in early January. Even if she were healthy, she would be playing for Spain in Eurobasket.
For some context, there have already been 3 hardship contracts signed in 2025:
Aari McDonald (Indiana Fever, June 2 2025)
4 year vet, #3 pick in 2021, waived by LA Sparks last month.
Haley Jones (Phoenix Mercury, June 2 2025)
2 year vet, #6 pick in 2023, waived by ATL last month.
Liatu King (Los Angeles Sparks, May 19 2025)
#28 pick in 2025 by LAS, waived last month
King joined the Sparks on a rest‐of‐season hardship contract when they fell below 10 available players.
Into the weeds
The WNBA CBA Article VII, Section 4(b) says
b) Emergency Hardship.
If a Team during the Regular Season, as a result of injuries, illnesses, other conditions or other extenuating circumstances that have affected its players, has fewer than ten (10) players on its roster who are able to play, it may apply to the WNBA to obtain an Exception to sign one or more Replacement Player(s) to Replacement Contract(s) to replace one or more of the Team’s unavailable Players. Any such Replacement Contract shall be terminated immediately once ten (10) other players on the Team’s roster are again able to play.
These Replacement Contracts are different in the CBA from 7-Day Contracts, which are short-term minimum contracts. 7-Day Contracts are only available after the midpoint of the regular season, which is roughly in the second half of July. [WNBA CBA, Article V, Section 9].
Why can’t GSV stop players from abandoning their contracts?
WNBA teams can’t officially stop the players, since the WNBA prioritization rules (WNBA CBA, Article XIV, Section 9) make an exception for national team play in “the FIBA World Cup or a FIBA continental championship”.
Teams can in theory
waive players to free up a roster spot. But this would be drastic and all four Eurobasket players are crucial to the GSV team; or
suspend the player contracts for Eurobasket or for the rest of the season
I believe before the 2020 CBA, teams would suspend the contracts of the departing players for the duration of Eurobasket. This would result in the players not getting paid for that time.
This would save a small amount of money (a microscopic rounding error in the books of the Golden State corporation), temporarily open up roster spots, and would discourage players from playing Eurobasket or punish them for choosing to do so.
I assume that GSV will do neither, as they want to preserve a reputation for being a great destination for European players.
Julie Vanloo was reported saying:
Vanloo admitted to the outlet that she isn't sure what decision she will make this year. The decision will "be different for everyone," she explained, and will be impacted by "our WNBA schedule, our role on the team, our fitness, and the club's flexibility." The decision is a difficult one to make, she continued, and "the Valkyries aren't very keen on letting us go."
The players can't be banned from playing for their countries, but "they can threaten to trade us if we go with the national team," Vanloo also said. And the Valkyries aren't the only team facing this problem: Vanloo added that the Seattle Storm's Gabby Williams and Dominique Malonga have already committed to missing EuroBasket to stay in the US.
"I'm afraid I'll have to face that ordeal myself," she added.
“I meant that no WNBA teams love it when we go to EuroBasket,” she said. “I think it’s normal because it falls at the same time as the (WNBA season), and that it’s not easy that players have to leave for EuroBasket. I think that not one team is like, ‘Oh, yeah, we love it when everybody goes.’”
“It’s not something that is easy, because we miss a lot of games,” she said. “That’s all I said. The (Valkyries) are very open to whatever choice you make.”
Update: Above I mentioned that waiving players is an option that I did not think GSV would take. While that remains to be seen, other WNBA teams have waived players going to Eurobasket as detailed at SB Nation.
Players who have bigger roles on championship-contending teams, like Gabby Williams of Seattle and Marine Johannes of New York, who both represent France, or Satou Sabally in Phoenix, who represents Germany, have already opted out of Eurobasket. …
Sevgi Uzun was waived the other day from the Phoenix Mercury for this purpose, and now, on Wednesday, the Minnesota Lynx have done the same. Marieme Badiane, who plays for the French National team, has been waived. Badiane had only played 11 minutes total over three games this season in the WNBA, not scoring any points.