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player ready...INDIANAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark is out but most of the WNBA’s best are in for the league’s All-Star Game.
The Indiana Fever’s injured superstar won’t be able to play Saturday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse when the team she drafted, Team Clark, faces Team Collier, picked by opposing captain Napheesa Collier.
The events start Friday night with the 3-point contest, headlined by event record holder Sabrina Ionescu, and the skills challenge. Clark also had been scheduled to compete in the 3-point contest.
Here are a few things to note heading into the busy weekend.
Injuries bog down Team Clark
Clark, the reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year, will sit out after sustaining a groin injury in the Fever’s game against the Connecticut Sun on Tuesday.
As the player who received the most fan votes and the captain of Team Clark, she said in Thursday’s announcement of her withdrawal that she’s “looking forward to helping (New York Liberty coach Sandy Brondello) coach our team to a win.”
“I will give the coaching hat to her as much as she wants, to be quite honest,” Brondello said. “You’ve seen it with the Fever, she’s been very active on the sideline when she wasn’t playing.”
The Phoenix Mercury’s Satou Sabally, a fellow starter on Team Clark, also is sidelined. She announced Wednesday she will sit out this weekend with an ankle injury. The Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson, a third Team Clark starter, said Friday afternoon it’s still to be determined if she will play Saturday after sustaining a wrist injury against the Liberty last week.
The absence of Clark and Sabally led the league to appoint two replacements for the All-Star Game: the Washington Mystics’ Brittney Sykes and Atlanta Dream’s Brionna Jones. The Fever’s Lexie Hull will replace Clark in the 3-point contest.
Angel Reese, the Chicago Sky’s lone All-Star, sat out the team’s last game Wednesday with a leg injury, but it appears she’ll be available to play Saturday as a reserve on Team Collier.
Rookies on the roster
It’s a young All-Star Game this year with rookies Paige Bueckers, Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen making up the largest rookie contingent since 2011. Citron and Iriafen are on Team Clark, and Bueckers is a starter for Team Collier.
“It’s amazing,” Citron said. “This rookie class is really talented, and I’m just happy that I’m one of the ones here. It’s really cool.”
Before the recent three-year string of rookie starters — Aliyah Boston in 2023, Clark in 2024 and Bueckers — only seven rookies had been selected as All-Star starters in the game’s 26-year history.
A fun format
This year’s All-Star format is different from last year’s, when the U.S. Olympic team played Team WNBA. This time, each team is headed by a captain (Clark and Collier) who drafted players from a pool of selected All-Stars.
It’s a return to a more traditional format after the 2024 Olympic year shook things up.
“It’s a little more loose, has that fun element to it,” Team Collier coach Cheryl Reeve said of this year’s game. “It’s obviously very player-centric, and you just want to have fun and enjoy the experience. It’s for the fans, so it’s a fun year.”