Top rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are headed to Phoenix — as teammates. That’s one of the key takeaways from the 2024 WNBA All-Star roster announcement Tuesday.
Clark, the Indiana Fever guard who was the No. 1 overall pick in April, and Reese, the Chicago Sky forward who holds a WNBA record 11 consecutive double-doubles, will represent Team WNBA when it faces Team USA in the league’s All-Star Game in Phoenix on July 20 (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC).
Clark and Reese, both contenders for Rookie of the Year, have brought a lot of energy to their teams and the WNBA, but have become somewhat reluctant antagonists since the 2023 NCAA Finals. Both downplay the other as a major rival, but their fans have talked about them a lot. Now, they’ll be on the same side, which has the potential to “break the internet” on game day.
Clark is one of three Fever players to make the WNBA team, along with Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell. The Connecticut Sun also have multiple players on the WNBA team: DeWanna Bonner and Brionna Jones.
While the U.S. 5-on-5 Olympians will make up Team USA, the WNBA team also features a 2024 Olympian: Dearica Hamby of the Los Angeles Sparks will compete on Team USA 3×3.
In the 2021 All-Star Game before the Tokyo Olympics, Team WNBA faced Team USA. The WNBA stars defeated the Olympians 93-85, led by MVP Arike Ogunbowale. The Dallas Wings guard is also returning to Team WNBA this year.
Were the right players selected? Were there any All-Star snubs? Which matchups are we most looking forward to? Michael Voepel, Alexa Philippou and Kevin Pelton analyze the All-Star roster.
What was the biggest disavowal of the WNBA team?
Pelton: Ezi Magbegor. In fact, you could argue that the Seattle Storm center is the most glaring omission ever from the WNBA All-Star Game. She’s on pace to record more wins above replacement by my WARP metric than any player not selected in a year the league played an All-Star Game.
What makes this situation particularly odd is that Magbegor was an All-Star last year, when the Storm were one of the worst teams in the WNBA. Playing with more talent after the Storm added Skylar Diggins-Smith and Nneka Ogwumike, Magbegor has seen her scoring average dip slightly, but she is averaging career highs in rebounds (8.8, good for seventh in the WNBA) and blocks (2.2, third) per game.
As the anchor of a top-three defense, Magbegor is a prime candidate for Defensive Player of the Year. I had her among my six forward picks in my official media vote, which also included members of Team USA. The fact that the coaches didn’t pick her among the 12 spots on Team WNBA is baffling.
Philip: Magbegor also earned my vote for all the reasons Pelton mentioned. Otherwise, there aren’t many obvious snubs. Fellow Australian Alanna Smith had good reason to be a front-row recruit, and there were a bunch of guards (including Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, Diggins-Smith, DiJonai Carrington, Marina Mabrey, Chennedy Carter) who were also in contention, but I wouldn’t class any of those second-row omissions as snubs.
Rhyne Howard (a U.S. 3×3 Olympian) was also in the conversation for a spot on the team before a recent ankle injury sidelined her indefinitely.
Is it any surprise that the Fever have three players on the WNBA team despite their position in the standings?
Vocabulary: Not really, all things considered. There was no doubt that Clark and Boston were going to be voted in by the fans. They finished in the top 10 in voting, as did Hamby and Ogunbowale, along with six Olympians. Boston and Kelsey Mitchell were also both All-Stars last season. With fan votes counting for 50 percent, the WNBA All-Star Game should be viewed the same way it is in other sports. It’s as much about which players the fans want to see as it is about who is perceived to play the best. The excitement of the fever pitch has carried through every WNBA city they’ve visited, and that energy will carry over to the All-Star Game as well.
And good for the Fever. In recent years, they haven’t been a winning franchise, let alone a cool and popular one. Right now, there’s an undeniable buzz around them that longtime Fever fans are excited to finally experience again.
Philip: That’s not necessarily surprising, especially in a format where fan voting carries a lot of weight. (That said, Mitchell was selected by the league’s head coaches.) Still, in a vacuum, it’s a bit puzzling that a 13-6 Seattle team, for example, or the Commissioner’s Cup champion Minnesota Lynx each have just one WNBA representative while the Fever, who are still well below .500, have three.
Who will be the most interesting teammate or opponent duos at the All-Star Game?
Vocabulary: The most obvious case is Clark and Reese, whose teams have already met three times during the regular season, in addition to the two high-profile meetings they had in the NCAA Tournament in 2023 and 2024. Clark or Reese lead all rookies in most statistical categories, and having them on the same side will be must-see TV.
The Aces (four players) and Mercury (three) make up more than half of Team USA and have no players on Team WNBA. But Team WNBA will see Jones and Bonner face off against Connecticut teammate Alyssa Thomas for Team USA.
WNBA’s Jonquel Jones, who plays in the same Liberty frontcourt as Breanna Stewart, will play against her and New York point guard Sabrina Ionescu in the All-Star Game. The Lynx’s top two players, forward Napheesa Collier (Team USA) and point guard Kayla McBride (Team WNBA), are also on opposite sides. The same goes for Seattle forward Nneka Ogwumike (Team WNBA) and point guard Jewell Loyd (Team USA).
Philip: It’s also worth noting that Connecticut’s Bonner and Thomas are engaged to be married in Phoenix. They were both All-Stars in 2023 — when Thomas proposed to Bonner in Las Vegas — as well as in 2019 (before their relationship and before Bonner joined the Sun), but in those instances, they were on the same team.
Which team seems to be the favorite?
Vocabulary: The mood in 2021 was leaning in favor of the WNBA team, as the players had a bit of a grudge against the Olympians.
But speaking of “vibes,” Ogunbowale said last month that she withdrew from Olympic swimming because she believed “politics” played a role in team selection.
“If I know they’re not going to pick me, I’m not going to keep going to these (camps) when I know the vibe,” Ogunbowale said on the “Nightcap” podcast. “I’m not going to give you my time if I know the vibe.”
Not being selected for such a difficult team to get into is not an insult, but athletes always look for motivation. The WNBA team has it, while Team USA doesn’t want to lose an All-Star game again.
As good as the Olympic team is, is there any concern that it features three players from the Mercury, a team currently below .500? Expect a lot of energy from the WNBA team. Team USA needs to do the same to win.
Philip: The Paris roster is better than the Tokyo roster and there is a lot of chemistry between the players, whether it was in the previous Olympics or even the 2022 World Cup. Even newcomers like Kahleah Copper and Ionescu are playing the best basketball of their careers right now. The WNBA team will make things interesting like they did in 2021, but it’s hard for me to bet against Team USA this time around.
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