Pau Gasol and Sue Bird used their time in Berlin on 12 Sep to press for one thing: keep investing in women's basketball. Speaking during the Copa del Mundo de Berlín weekend, the two ambassadors said the sport has momentum, but that growth will not sustain itself without more support, more media exposure and smarter planning.
The search for Raquel Carrera lands in that broader moment because the message was not abstract. Gasol said women's basketball has shown its potential in this World Cup and that people should be bold enough to keep building on the current moment. Bird went further, arguing that economic decisions should be based on the players, because they are the ones creating the product. For her, the path forward depends on time, exposure and a calendar that lets the sport keep expanding.
Bird also pointed to the practical problem behind that ambition. She said collaboration matters when coordinating the schedules of the WNBA and Europe, a reminder that growth in women's basketball is tied not just to interest, but to timing. In her view, if the calendar is organized well and players are encouraged to take part, the sport can keep drawing talent from across countries rather than forcing it to choose between competing obligations.
Gasol framed the same idea in terms of identity as much as economics. He said authenticity matters and that athletes need to be real people, while also naming new generations of players including Awa Fam and Iyana Martín. That matters because the sport's argument for more investment is now being made alongside the players who are supposed to benefit from it, and those players are already visible enough to be part of the conversation.
The friction is simple. Women's basketball is being described as growing and full of potential, yet both ambassadors still say it needs continued investment, better scheduling and more exposure to get where it says it can go. Bird's view of the 2030 World Cup in Tokyo was the clearest sign of how that next step might look: a tournament that could last longer than the usual 10 days, if the sport decides to build around the players instead of around old habits. The final in Berlin was scheduled for Sunday, but the bigger question is whether the sport will turn this weekend's message into a calendar and funding plan that actually changes how women's basketball is staged.
