2024 WNBA All-Star Game
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| Date | July 20, 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Arena | Footprint Center | ||||||||||||||||||
| City | Phoenix, Arizona, United States | ||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | Arike Ogunbowale | ||||||||||||||||||
| Halftime show | Pitbull | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 16,407 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Network | United States: ABC Canada: TSN5/SN1 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Ryan Ruocco, Rebecca Lobo, Holly Rowe, LaChina Robinson, Carolyn Peck | ||||||||||||||||||
| WNBA All-Star Game | |||||||||||||||||||
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The 2024 WNBA All-Star Game was an exhibition women's basketball game played on July 20, 2024, at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona, United States as part of the 2024 WNBA season. The Phoenix Mercury hosted the game and related events for the third time, having previously hosted the 2000 All-Star Game and 2014 All-Star Game.
On July 19, 2024, Allisha Gray of the Atlanta Dream won both the Starry 3-Point Contest and Skills Challenge. She became the first player in WNBA history to win both events.
Team WNBA defeated Team USA 117–109. Team WNBA's Arike Ogunbowale broke the All-Star game scoring record, registering a total of 34 points (all in the second half) and earning her a second All-Star MVP Award.[1] Caitlin Clark, the starting point guard for Team WNBA, also set a new All-Star game record, recording 10 assists the most by a rookie in an All-Star game.[2] The game also featured the most former WNBA first overall draft picks since the 2018 WNBA All-Star Game, with a total of 11 (Diana Taurasi, Nneka Ogwumike, Brittney Griner, Jewell Loyd, Breanna Stewart, Kelsey Plum, A'ja Wilson, Jackie Young, Sabrina Ionescu, Aliyah Boston, and Caitlin Clark).
The 2024 All-Star Game drew 3.44 million viewers on ABC, per Nielsen and peaked at 4.054 million, shattering the previous viewership record from the 2003 WNBA All-Star Game of 1.441 million.[3]
All-Star Game
[edit]Rosters
[edit]On March 20, the WNBA announced that 2024 would feature a matchup between the WNBA All-Stars who make up the US Women's National Team versus the remaining WNBA All-Stars. Fans, WNBA players, head coaches, sports writers, and broadcasters would all be able to vote for All-Stars. All groups could fill out a ballot of four guards and six front-court players. Players and coaches could not vote for members of their own team. Voting began on Thursday, June 13 at 2 p.m. ET and concluded on Saturday, June 29 at 11:59 p.m. ET.[4]
The voting was weighted as follows:
| Voting group | Vote weight |
|---|---|
| Fans | 50% |
| WNBA players | 25% |
| Sports media | 25% |
Players were not allowed to vote for their own teammates. The top 10 players receiving votes based on this weighting would be selected to the All-Star Game. Any top 10 vote-getter who has not already been named to the USA Women’s National Team 5-on-5 roster will automatically be assigned to Team WNBA. The names of the next 36 highest vote-getters, consisting of at least nine backcourt and 15 frontcourt players, will then be provided to the 12 WNBA head coaches, who will vote to fill the remaining spots for the 12-player Team WNBA roster. Coaches will not be able to vote for their own players.
Fan vote results
[edit]The following table lists the top five players based on fan voting alone.[5]
| † | Denotes player named to Team WNBA after first rounds of voting |
| * | Denotes player named to Team USA for 2024 Summer Olympics |
| Rank | Player | Number of Votes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Caitlin Clark † | 700,735 |
| 2 | Aliyah Boston † | 618,680 |
| 3 | A'ja Wilson * | 607,300 |
| 4 | Breanna Stewart * | 424,135 |
| 5 | Angel Reese | 381,518 |
Team WNBA pool
[edit]The following tables list the 36 next-highest vote-getters provided to the 12 WNBA head coaches to fill the remaining eight spots for the 12-player Team WNBA roster.[6]
| ° | Denotes player named to Team WNBA after head coach voting |
Coaches
[edit]The head coach for Team USA was Cheryl Reeve, the current Minnesota Lynx head coach, [7] and for Team WNBA was basketball legend and former Phoenix Mercury head coach, Cheryl Miller.[8]
Final rosters
[edit]| † | Denotes player named to Team WNBA after first rounds of voting |
| ° | Denotes player named to Team WNBA after head coach voting |
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Game
[edit]July 20, 2024
8:30 p.m. ET |
| Team USA 109, Team WNBA 117 | ||
| Scoring by quarter: 23-24, 31-28, 25–36, 30-29 | ||
| Pts: Breanna Stewart (31) Rebs: Breanna Stewart (10) Asts: Kelsey Plum (6) |
Pts: Arike Ogunbowale (34) Rebs: Angel Reese (11) Asts: Caitlin Clark (10) | |
Footprint Center, Phoenix, Arizona
Attendance: 16,407 Referees: Fatou Cissoko-Stephens, Jeff Wooten, Kevin Fahy |
All-Star Weekend
[edit]On March 20, 2024, it was announced that there would be a Three-Point Contest and Skills Challenge on July 19, the night before the All-Star game. It will be televised on ESPN in the US and on TSN2 in Canada. The Three-Point Contest is presented by Starry, while the WNBA Skills Challenge is presented by Kia.
On July 18, 2024, Nneka Ogwumike, the current president of Women's National Basketball Players Association, announced that Aflac would be giving both winners of the 2024 skills challenge and three-point contest a $55,000 bonus.[9]
Three-Point Contest
[edit]The contestants for the three-point contest were announced on July 17, 2024.[10]
Sabrina Ionescu, the reigning Three-Point Contest winner, and Caitlin Clark, the NCAA-W Division I all-time leader in three-pointers made, were both invited to participate in the 2024 contest; however, both declined.[11]
| Position | Player | Team | 2024 Season 3-point statistics | 1st Round | Final Round | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Made | Attempted | Percent | |||||
| G | Allisha Gray[12] | Atlanta | 40 | 111 | 36.0 | 23 | 22 |
| C | Jonquel Jones | New York | 40 | 101 | 39.6 | 25 | 20 |
| G | Kayla McBride[13] | Minnesota | 76 | 178 | 42.7 | 21 | DNQ |
| C | Stefanie Dolson | Washington | 49 | 101 | 48.5 | 20 | |
| G | Marina Mabrey | Connecticut | 56 | 161 | 34.8 | 19 | |
Skills Challenge
[edit]The contestants for the skills challenge were announced on July 17, 2024.[10]
Erica Wheeler of the Indiana Fever was originally named as a contestant of the 2024 skills challenge but was unable to attend due to the global computer outages delaying her travel.[14] Wheeler was replaced by fellow Fever teammate, Kelsey Mitchell.[14]
| Position | Player | Team | 1st Round | Final Round |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | Allisha Gray[12] | Atlanta | 31.2 | 32.1 |
| G | Sophie Cunningham | Phoenix | 35.5 | 34.5 |
| G | Marina Mabrey | Connecticut | 35.7 | DNQ |
| G | Kelsey Mitchell | Indiana | >35.7[a] | |
| C | Brittney Griner | Phoenix | 46.3 |
- ^ Mitchell was not able to beat Mabrey's time of 35.7 seconds to move onto the final round
3x3 Exhibition Game
[edit]On July 17, 2024, it was announced that the USA 3x3 Olympic team would face the Under-23 3x3 national team in exhibition on July 19, 2024.[10][15]
3x3 rosters
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Game
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Feinberg, Doug (July 20, 2024). "Arike Ogunbowale and Caitlin Clark lead WNBA All-Stars to 117-109 win over U.S. Olympic team". Associated Press.
- ^ @StatMamba (July 20, 2024). "Caitlin Clark has the most assists in an All-Star game by a rookie in WNBA history" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Deitsch, Richard (July 23, 2024). "WNBA All-Star Game shatters previous ratings mark, draws 3.44 million viewers". The Athletic. The New York Times. Retrieved July 25, 2024.
- ^ "Voting for AT&T WNBA All-Star 2024 Tips Off Thursday, June 13". pr.nba.com. WNBA. June 10, 2024. Retrieved June 12, 2024.
- ^ "Rosters Set for AT&T WNBA All-Star 2024 on July 20". WNBA (Press release). July 2, 2024.
- ^ "2024 Team WNBA Roster Selection" (PDF). WNBA. Retrieved July 3, 2024.
- ^ "2024 USA Basketball Women's National Team Announced". usab.com. Retrieved June 11, 2024.
- ^ Philippou, Alexa (July 17, 2024). "Cheryl Miller, Cheryl Reeve to coach WNBA All-Star Game". ESPN. Retrieved July 17, 2024.
- ^ @nnekaogwumike (July 18, 2024). "As President of @TheWNBPA, I am thrilled to announce that..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ a b c "10-Time WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner, 2021 KIA WNBA MVP Jonquel Jones Headline Participants for Friday Night Events at AT&T WNBA All-Star 2024". WNBA. July 17, 2024. Retrieved July 17, 2024.
- ^ Schilken, Chuck (July 18, 2024). "Caitlin Clark, Sabrina Ionescu hit lots of threes. But they aren't in All-Star shooting contest". Yahoo Sports. Retrieved July 18, 2024.
- ^ a b Henderson, Cydney (July 19, 2024). "Allisha Gray cashes in at WNBA All-Star weekend, wins skills and 3-point contests". USA Today. Retrieved July 25, 2024.
- ^ "Lynx All-Star Kayla McBride breaks news about participation in 3-point contest, talks Wednesday game vs. Atlanta". KSTP Sports. July 16, 2024.
- ^ a b Peterson, Chloe (July 19, 2024). "CrowdStrike outage grounds Erica Wheeler; Kelsey Mitchell to step in WNBA Skills Challenge". Indianapolis Star.
- ^ Horos, Emily (July 17, 2024). "Brittney Griner in for WNBA skill competition; Caitlin Clark not in 3-point contest". Arizona Republic. Retrieved July 17, 2024.