Seattle Storm wing Gabby Williams and rookie center Dominique Malonga will not play for the French national team during this summer's EuroBasket tournament, they announced Sunday on social media.
Williams and Malonga were both part of the French team that reached the gold medal game of the Paris Olympics before losing to the United States 67-66. Williams, who was named to the tournament's All-Star Five and Best Defensive Player, had 19 points and seven rebounds against Team USA. She made a shot at the buzzer with her foot on the 3-point line, leaving France one point shy of sending the final to overtime.
The Olympics were Malonga's first major international tournament at age 18. She averaged 2.8 points and 2.0 rebounds off the bench, but Malonga -- taken No. 2 overall by the Storm in last month's WNBA draft -- is considered a future building block for France.
"It was a difficult decision because the French jersey is very important for me," Malonga said Monday. "I decided to stay here [with the Storm] because I think my rookie season is really important and I wanted to leave it all with the team."
For Williams, this will be her first full WNBA season since 2022. She missed the first two months of 2023 while recovering from a severe concussion and re-signed with Seattle after the Olympics. In 12 WNBA games, she averaged a career-high 10.3 points. She also led the team with 17 points per game in the first-round playoff series loss to the Las Vegas Aces.
The French national team is scheduled to begin preparation for EuroBasket on Sunday, Le Parisien reported. The tournament begins June 18. Due to the WNBA's prioritization rule, players with more than two years of qualifying experience cannot join their national teams until two weeks before the start of EuroBasket.
France was drawn in Group A with host Greece, Switzerland and Turkey. The EuroBasket final will be played June 29 in Greece.
Retaining Malonga and Williams throughout the month of June is important for the Storm, who anticipate opening the season with 11 players on their roster due to the WNBA's hard salary cap. Barring a trade, one of those spots will go to forward Katie Lou Samuelson, who suffered an ACL tear during training camp and is expected to miss the entire 2025 season. That leaves Seattle with just 10 active players until the team has sufficient cap space to fill its 12th roster spot midseason.