Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark and Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese are All-Stars as WNBA rookies, earning berths on the WNBA’s team that will oppose Team USA in the All-Star Game on July 20 in Phoenix.
Clark ranked among the top 10 in voting by fans, players and media, giving her automatic qualification to Team WNBA. Indiana’s Aliyah Boston, the Los Angeles Sparks’ Dearica Hamby and the Dallas Wings’ Arike Ogunbowale landed their All-Star berths in the same manner.
The other six players who wound up in the top 10 of fan, player and media voting are all part of the Team USA five-on-five squad that is heading to the Paris Olympics. That group consisted of the Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier, the Phoenix Mercury’s Kahleah Copper, the New York Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart and the Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young.
Outside of the top 10 vote-getters, the next 36 players in the voting had their names submitted to the WNBA head coaches, who chose the rest of the league’s All-Star representatives. Reese was selected, as were the Connecticut Sun’s DeWanna Bonner and Brionna Jones, the Atlanta Dream’s Allisha Gray, the Liberty’s Jonquel Jones, the Lynx’s Kayla McBride, the Fever’s Kelsey Mitchell and the Seattle Storm’s Nneka Ogwumike.
Rounding out Team USA are the Aces’ Chelsea Gray and Kelsey Plum, the Mercury’s Brittney Griner and Diana Taurasi, the Storm’s Jewell Loyd and the Sun’s Alyssa Thomas.
Clark, the No. 1 overall selection in this year’s draft out of Iowa, and Reese, the No. 7 overall pick out of LSU, are the lone players making their All-Star debuts.
Entering play Tuesday night, Clark was averaging 16.2 points, 6.9 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game for Indiana.
Reese extended her WNBA record with an 11th consecutive double-double on Tuesday, putting up 12 points and 19 rebounds as the Sky beat the Dream 85-77. She is averaging 13.2 points and 11.8 rebounds.
–Field Level Media