TNT Sports has finalized the on-air group that will carry its coverage of the 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup.
The tournament tips off Sept. 4 in Berlin and runs through Sept. 13, with TNT presenting all 36 games across TNT, truTV, and HBO Max as part of its multiyear rights deal with FIBA, an agreement that also covers the 2027 men’s World Cup and EuroBasket 2029. USA Basketball, fresh off a perfect run through World Cup qualifying in San Juan, enters the tournament chasing a fifth straight world title, with Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, and Angel Reese all making their senior national team World Cup debuts.
Lauren Jbara will host TNT’s studio coverage, with Renee Montgomery and eight-time WNBA All-Star Tina Charles serving as the primary analysts. Candace Parker, who serves as Prime Video’s lead WNBA game analyst and leads TNT’s Unrivaled studio coverage, will also make select appearances.
Some of those names carry over directly from TNT’s Unrivaled coverage. Jbara and Montgomery have worked alongside each other in that studio since the league’s January 2025 launch, part of a broadcast lineup that also included Lisa Leslie as game analyst and Taylor Rooks, Allie LaForce, Stephanie Ready, and Ros Gold-Onwude rotating through sideline duty, all working out of Unrivaled’s single-venue Miami facility that first season.
Montgomery’s legend has only grown since. When Kenny Smith fell ill during this past March’s NCAA Tournament, CBS turned to Montgomery to step in on the main studio desk in New York, pairing her with host Adam Zucker,Clark Kellogg, and Charles Barkley for the network’s Round of 64 coverage without so much as a hiccup in the broadcast. Given her accomplishments in basketball as a player and owner, as well as her activism and community leadership, it’s no surprise she succeeds in whatever she does.
Brendan Glasheen will handle play-by-play, joined by analyst Sarah Kustok, with Allie LaForce reporting from the sideline. Glasheen serves as the primary broadcaster for the Connecticut Sun (which finished No. 1 in AA’s 2025 WNBA announcer rankings) and Maine Celtics during their respective seasons, work that’s carried over into his role calling Unrivaled games as well. Kustok is part of the Brooklyn Nets’ YES Network booth that finished second overall in Awful Announcing’s 2025-26 local NBA announcer rankings. She’s also a game analyst on NBC and Peacock’s WNBA package, in addition to being tabbed as the lead color commentator for USA Network. She also contributes to Fox Sports’ NFL coverage as a sideline reporter and appears as a panelist on CBS Sports’ We Need to Talk.
LaForce, meanwhile, signed a multiyear contract extension earlier this year to remain TNT’s lead sideline reporter across college basketball, Unrivaled, and the network’s other properties. A northern Ohio native, she began her national career at CBS Sports covering the SEC and NCAA Tournament before joining TNT Sports in 2018, where she’s since become a regular presence across the NBA, NCAA Tournament, and now the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup.
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