Fever's Clark, Boston, Mitchell to start WNBA All-Star Game
Three members of the Indiana Fever will start the 2026 WNBA All-Star Game: center Aliyah Boston and guards Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell, the WNBA announced Thursday.
The Minnesota Lynx and Dallas Wings are the other teams with multiple starters for the July 25 game at Chicago's United Center (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC). For the Lynx, the starters are Natasha Howard and guard Olivia Miles, the only rookie of the 10. The Wings have guard Paige Bueckers and forward Jessica Shepard.
The other starters are four-time MVP center A'ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces, two-time MVP forward Breanna Stewart of the New York Libertyand forward Gabby Williams of the Golden State Valkyries.
Fans accounted for 50% of the vote, while current players and a media panel accounted for 25% each. Players and media panelists completed one ballot, featuring four guards and six frontcourt players.
In fan voting, Bueckers was first among guards and Boston was first among frontcourt players. Coming in first for both categories in media voting were Miles and Stewart, while player voting had Bueckers and Wilson first.
Among the biggest discrepancies with the starters among the voting groups were Clark (No. 2 with fans, No. 3 with media, No. 11 with players) and Boston (No. 1 with fans, No. 5 with media and No. 8 with players.)
To determine the All-Stars, players were sorted by position within the groups of fan, player and media votes. Every player's score was calculated by averaging their weighted rank from those groups. The four guards and six frontcourt players with the best scores were named starters.
Next the league's head coaches will select 12 reserves, who are expected to be announced next week. Coaches will vote for three guards, five frontcourt players and four players at either position, regardless of conference. Coaches can't vote for their own players.
The coaches for the All-Star teams will be the head coaches of the two teams with the best records following games of July 10, regardless of conference.
Since 2018 -- except for 2020, when there was no All-Star Game in the COVID-19 bubble, and the Olympic years of 2021 and 2024 -- the top two vote-getters have been named captains and selected their teams. (In Olympic years, Team USA played a group of All-Stars called Team WNBA.)
But this year, league legends Cynthia Cooper and Teresa Weatherspoon will serve as honorary general managers and select rosters from the pool of 22 All-Stars. This setup is part of the league's 30th anniversary season celebration. Cooper won four WNBA titles with the Houston Comets and is a two-time MVP. Both Cooper and Weatherspoon, who played most of her career with the Liberty, also coached in the WNBA.br/]
