The starters for the 2026 AT&T WNBA All-Star Game are set, and the marquee names read like a who’s who of the league’s current era: Paige Bueckers, A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart and Caitlin Clark lead a group of 10 players picked by fans, current players and media members to open the league’s 30th-season showcase.
The game tips off Saturday, July 25, at United Center in Chicago, airing on ABC at 8:30 p.m. ET, with a special edition of WNBA Countdown preceding it at 8 p.m. and WNBA Postgame following at 10:30 p.m.
The Starting Lineups
Wilson and Stewart each earned their eighth All-Star selections, the most among this year’s starters. The four-time MVP Wilson enters the break leading the league in scoring at 25.7 points per game, to go with 9.4 rebounds and a share of the league lead in blocks. She’s already recorded 14 games of at least 20 points this season. Stewart, a two-time MVP and three-time champion, is averaging 19.2 points and 8.5 rebounds for a New York squad that continues to lean on her as a focal point.
They’ll be joined in the frontcourt by four-time All-Star Aliyah Boston of Indiana, three-time selection Natasha Howard of Minnesota, and first-time All-Stars Jessica Shepard of Dallas and Gabby Williams of Golden State. Shepard’s case built itself over the course of the season — she ranks second in the league in rebounding at 11.5 per game and leads all players with two triple-doubles, to go with 11 double-doubles. Williams, in her first year with the expansion Valkyries, leads the WNBA in steals at 2.6 per game while posting a career-high 15.9 points per game.
In the backcourt, Bueckers led all players in fan voting with over 1.04 million votes, backing up her Rookie of the Year campaign with an All-Star nod in just her second trip through a WNBA season. She’s averaging 19.9 points and 5.9 assists for Dallas. Clark, the reigning 2024 Rookie of the Year, checks in with career highs across the board — 21.2 points and 8.2 assists per game — and became the fastest player in league history to reach 1,000 points, 250 rebounds and 250 assists, doing it in 54 games and beating Diana Taurasi’s old mark of 62. She’s joined by Indiana teammate Kelsey Mitchell, a four-time All-Star and the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, who is putting up 21.6 points per game and has been voted into the starting five for the first time in her career. Rounding out the backcourt is Minnesota rookie Olivia Miles, the No. 2 overall pick, who leads all rookies in both scoring (18.2 ppg) and assists (5.7 apg) and has helped push the Lynx to the league’s best record.
Atlanta Watches From Just Outside the Starting Five
For Dream fans, the headline isn’t just who made it — it’s how close Atlanta came to putting multiple players in the starting lineup. Three Dream players finished inside the top 10 in their position group without cracking the starting five, a reflection of just how competitive this year’s voting was.
Guard Rhyne Howard placed fifth among backcourt vote-getters, finishing behind only the four players who were ultimately voted in as starters. Teammate Allisha Gray wasn’t far behind her at sixth. Up front, Angel Reese — in her first season in Atlanta after an offseason trade from Chicago — finished seventh among frontcourt players, just outside the group of six that earned starting nods. Reese has been a steady double-double threat for the Dream this season, averaging 14.8 points and 11.7 rebounds, the latter figure tops in the league entering the break.
All three now shift their attention to the reserve announcement. The league’s 12 head coaches will vote on the 12 reserve spots — three guards, five frontcourt players and four at-large selections — with results announced Tuesday, July 7. Coaches aren’t permitted to vote for their own players, and the coaches doing the voting will be determined by whichever two teams own the best records following games on July 10, regardless of conference. Given Atlanta’s position in the standings and the trio’s individual seasons, all three represent realistic reserve candidates when that list comes out.
How the Vote Broke Down
Fan balloting accounted for half of each player’s overall score, with the league’s players and a media panel each contributing 25 percent. Players were ranked separately by position within all three groups, and a weighted average determined the final order; fan votes served as the tiebreaker in the rare event of a tie. Bueckers and Wilson posted the strongest overall scores at their respective positions, while several of the closest races — including Atlanta’s near-misses — came down to fractional differences between media and player rankings.
What’s Next
As part of the WNBA’s 30th-season celebration, Hall of Famers Cynthia Cooper and Teresa Weatherspoon will serve as honorary general managers, drafting their rosters — Team Cooper and Team Weatherspoon — from the full pool of 22 All-Stars once reserves are finalized. More details on how those rosters will be built are expected in the coming days.
All-Star weekend in Chicago will also include the Kia WNBA Shooting Stars competition and the State Farm WNBA 3-Point Contest on Friday, July 24, along with three days of fan programming at McCormick Place.
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