The WNBA has finalized its 2026 All-Star Game roster, and the 22 names selected read like a snapshot of a league in the middle of a talent boom. Fans, players and a media panel picked the 10 starters, while the league’s head coaches filled out the 12 reserve spots on Tuesday. The game tips off Saturday, July 25 at the United Center in Chicago and airs on ABC.
Bueckers Sets the Pace in Year Two
Paige Bueckers was the top vote-getter among fans, pulling in 1,045,051 votes to edge Caitlin Clark’s 1,023,321. That is a notable jump in stature for a player who is only in her second WNBA season. Bueckers won Rookie of the Year in 2025, and she has followed that debut with an even more efficient sophomore campaign for the Dallas Wings, pairing her scoring with a playmaking load that has kept Dallas competitive despite a young roster. Frontcourt teammate Jessica Shepard also earned a starting nod, giving the rebuilding Wings two starters in the same backcourt-to-frontcourt pipeline.
Indiana and Minnesota Flood the Starting Five
No team placed more starters than the Indiana Fever, who saw Clark, Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston all voted in, a reflection of how thoroughly that trio has driven Indiana’s rise up the standings. The Minnesota Lynx were close behind, landing two starters in guard Olivia Miles and forward Natasha Howard, then adding guard Courtney Williams among the reserves for a three-player haul. A’ja Wilson, now a four-time MVP, and Breanna Stewart, a two-time MVP, anchor the frontcourt as the game’s most decorated returning stars, with Wilson representing the Las Vegas Aces (joined by reserve guard Jackie Young) and Stewart the New York Liberty (joined by reserve center Jonquel Jones). Golden State’s Gabby Williams also cracked the starting group, a sign that the expansion Valkyries are already producing All-Star-caliber talent just one year after their historic inaugural playoff run.
Atlanta’s Split Roster Tells Its Own Story
The oddest wrinkle in this year’s selections belongs to the Atlanta Dream. Not a single Dream player cracked the starting five, yet the team placed three players on the reserve list: Allisha Gray, Rhyne Howard and Angel Reese. That split exposes the mechanics of All-Star voting itself. Fans, players and media combine to pick the starters, while it is the head coaches alone who fill out the reserves, and this year those two groups clearly valued Atlanta’s roster differently. It is the clearest evidence yet that a team can be excellent by midseason and still get overlooked in a popularity-driven starting vote.
The Snubs That Will Follow Players Into the Break
Every All-Star announcement produces omissions that spark debate, and this year’s list is no exception. Reigning Most Improved Player Veronica Burton missed the cut entirely, as did veterans Chelsea Gray, Brittney Sykes, Kahleah Copper and Alyssa Thomas, along with Portland’s Carla Leite. Several of those names have been fixtures on past All-Star rosters, and their absence underlines just how deep the league’s guard and wing rotations have become. When a former Defensive Player of the Year caliber wing like Thomas can be left home, it says as much about the strength of the league in 2026 as anything on the actual roster.
Expansion Teams Get Their First All-Stars
Two of the more meaningful selections belong to the WNBA’s newest markets. Marina Mabrey became the first All-Star in Toronto Tempo history, the first Canadian franchise in league history, after a season that included a 53-point outburst that tied the league’s single-game scoring record. Seattle’s Dominique Malonga, who battled through a concussion absence earlier this season, earned her first All-Star nod as well. Add in Los Angeles Sparks reserves Kelsey Plum and Nneka Ogwumike, and the 2026 class stretches across nearly every corner of the league rather than clustering around a handful of contenders.
What the Roster Says About the Season
Taken together, the 2026 selections point to a league that keeps expanding both its footprint and its depth chart at the same time. That growth mirrors what has shown up across the basketball world this year, including the record attendance numbers the WNBA has posted this season. A roster with three Fever starters, three Dream reserves, a Washington Mystics duo in sophomores Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen, and first-time honorees from two of the league’s three newest franchises is not the product of one dominant team. It is the product of a talent base broad enough that coaches, players, media and fans could not fully agree on who deserved to start, which is exactly the kind of debate a healthy league wants heading into its showcase weekend in Chicago. For more on how that growth is reshaping coverage and investment in the sport, see this look at the new media opportunity around women’s basketball.
