- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,170,063
- Reaction score
- 59
You must be registered for see images attach
Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson is the leading vote-getter for All-Star Game starters after the first returns of fan voting.A four-time MVP with a chance to take home the award for a third consecutive season this year, Wilson tallied 308,249 votes in the first week of voting. Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers, last season’s Rookie of the Year, earned 298,027 votes, and three-time All-Star Aliyah Boston from the Indiana Fever rounded out the top three with 282,186 votes. Breanna Stewart and Caitlin Clark were fourth and fifth, respectively.
Fans account for 50 percent of the All-Star vote. Current players and media members will account for 25 percent of the vote each and have one ballot per voter in each category. On their ballots, they must vote for four guards and six frontcourt players.
Wings forward Jessica Shepard, Atlanta Dream forward Angel Reese, Golden State Valkyries forward Gabby Williams, Minnesota Lynx rookie guard Olivia Miles and Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell completed the top 10 in the first fan returns.
First returns on All-Star fan voting, via @WNBAComms: pic.twitter.com/R5h4ee6gAt
— Underdog WNBA (@UnderdogWNBA) June 17, 2026
Voting ends at 11:59 p.m. ET on June 27, when votes will be tallied and players will be ranked by position within the three voting categories: fan vote, media vote and player vote. Players’ scores will be calculated based on the average of their weighted rank from those three buckets of votes. Fan voting serves as the tiebreaker for players in each position group with the same score.
The 15 WNBA head coaches will determine All-Star reserves by voting for three guards, five frontcourt players and four players regardless of position. Coaches cannot vote for their own players.
The city of Chicago will host the All-Star Game on July 25.
Clark fifth in early fan voting
After leading the fan vote in 2024 and 2025, Clark’s fifth-place standing in the early returns is noteworthy. Through the Fever’s first 13 games of the season, she’s averaging a career-high 20.4 points and 8.3 assists per game, only a slight drop from her high watermark of 8.4 assists as a rookie.
Clark is still second among guards and well-positioned to be voted as a starter for the third consecutive season, but her ranking and total number of votes lag behind the massive total (1,293,526 votes) she accumulated in 2025. However, the Fever buzz is still lifting Clark’s teammates, Boston and Mitchell. Boston has been an All-Star starter each of her professional seasons, while Mitchell is chasing her first starting nod.
Wilson, who took over the top spot, was the leading vote recipient for the 2023 All-Star Game, back when the winning total was 95,860 votes.
First-time All-Stars
The early returns indicate that the league will have at least two first-time All-Stars in Shepard and Miles. There is also significant turnover from last year’s group, which featured five different starters. Wilson, Stewart, Bueckers, Clark and Boston remain from 2025.
Wings rookie guard Azzi Fudd was 11th in early returns and fifth among guards with 148,047 fan votes, keeping her in contention for a starting role. She’s averaging 12.9 points and 1.5 assists through the first month of the season.
Los Angeles Sparks center Cameron Brink and Washington Mystics center Shakira Austin were 10th and 11th in frontcourt voting, respectively. Both have had career-best seasons but seem unlikely to make the field as starters.
Potential snubs
Sparks guard Kelsey Plum is the WNBA’s leading scorer but currently sixth among guards in the fan vote. However, the voting has clearly favored winning teams. Every squad sitting above .500 in the standings has at least one player represented in the top 10. The 7-7 Sparks and every team below them have zero projected starters as of the first returns.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
New York Liberty, Los Angeles Sparks, Washington Mystics, Atlanta Dream, Indiana Fever, Dallas Wings, Las Vegas Aces, WNBA
2026 The Athletic Media Company
Continue reading...