Opinion: US women's basketball team, a model of continuity, won't be caught napping

TOKYO – The most mind-blowing statistic about the U.S. women’s basketball team is not necessarily its 63 consecutive wins in FIBA competition, its 49-game winning streak at the Olympics or its 37.3-point average margin of victory five years ago in Rio.

Instead, it’s a number that speaks to the unrivaled stability and continuity of its program: 26. That’s how many players have donned the red, white and blue at the last four Olympics, a span that now covers 17 years and at least a couple of basketball generations. Just 26 – nearly a full roster fewer than their male counterparts, who’ve brought 37 players to the Games over the same span.

But with such tremendous continuity eventually comes transition, which Team USA will try to pull off both gracefully and effectively in Tokyo.

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