When the voting results for the 2026 WNBA All-Star starting lineups were released, there were some numbers that jumped out of the page. For instance, high-profile court generals like Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Plum ranked outside of the top 10 in the player vote, which accounted for 25% of the overall vote. Clark and Plum ranked 11th and 12th, respectively, when the player votes were tabulated.
Shortly after the voting breakdown was made public, ESPN’s Alexa Philippou came out with a piece that explained some circumstances behind the player vote. According to Philippou, there were dozens of WNBA players who didn’t submit a vote to begin with.
“Only about 85 of the WNBA’s roughly 180 players — a little less than half — submitted ballots for starters ahead of this month’s WNBA All-Star Game in Chicago, sources told ESPN on Thursday…Some of the participation issues among players were operational. Some Los Angeles Sparks players, for example, did not receive their ballots, which teams are responsible for distributing.”
Ironically, it appears that a number of Plum’s own teammates in LA didn’t even have the chance to cast a vote for her as a starter. All in all, 52.8% of the 180 players in the league today did not submit a vote for the All-Star starting lineups.
Plum, who has earned four All-Star appearances along with All-Star Game MVP honors in 2022, can still make it to the July 25 event if the league’s head coaches vote her as one of 12 reserves.
Meanwhile, the guards who did get a starting nod these year were Clark, Paige Bueckers, Olivia Miles, and Kelsey Mitchell. They’ll be joined by frontcourt starters A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Jessica Shepard, Aliyah Boston, Gabby Williams, and Natasha Howard.
Aside from the players’ ballots, the media vote accounted for 25% and the fan vote was worth 50% of the overall vote for the starting lineups.
Monica McNutt Wonders Why Atlanta Dream Did Not Get Enough “Representation” in All-Star Starting Lineup
Though the Atlanta Dream are currently at the top of the Eastern Conference standings (and fourth overall across the league), not a single player on their roster made it to the 2026 All-Star starting lineup.
On Thursday, ESPN’s Monica McNutt wondered why this was the case.
“I do wonder if there should’ve been some representation out of Atlanta. Whether you wanna go with the league’s leading rebounder Angel Reese…you’ve got Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard, who both are averaging around 18 points this year.”
McNutt, though, admitted that she wasn’t “jumping up and down” at the thought of taking out one of the recently voted starters, just to make way for a Dream player in the starting lineup.
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