Candace Parker will headline a WNBA All-Star team that will face the U.S. Olympic squad July 14 in Las Vegas.
Parker, who was not chosen for the 2016 Olympic team after helping the U.S. win gold medals in 2008 and 2012, was selected for her sixth All-Star appearance.
“It means a lot, you never take for granted the opportunity to be an All-Star,” said Parker, who will be announcing the basketball medal rounds for NBC at the Tokyo Games and will be representing her hometown city for the first time in her career.
Joining the Chicago Sky forward are her teammates Courtney Vandersloot and Kahleah Copper, who is one of eight players making their All-Star debuts.
“I saw Sloot this morning and she was like: ‘You deserve it. I’m so proud of you,’ ” Copper said. “That was basically it. Talked to Candace a little bit about it.”
Other All-Stars announced Wednesday include Las Vegas Aces players Liz Cambage and Dearica Hamby, who will be playing in their home arena at Mandalay Bay. The Connecticut Sun have three players headed to the game: DeWanna Bonner, Jonquel Jones and Brionna Jones.
The New York Liberty’s Betnijah Laney, the Dallas Wings’ Arike Ogunbowale and Satou Sabally and the Atlanta Dream’s Courtney Williams round out the WNBA team. All four are first-time All-Stars.
The WNBA team will be co-coached by Lisa Leslie and Tina Thompson.
That team will face a U.S. squad led by Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, who will be making their fifth Olympic appearances. It’s a record 12th All-Star Game for Bird and the 10th for Taurasi — tying her with Tamika Catchings for second all time.
Fans, media and players voted in 36 players as part of a pool that the league’s 12 head coaches chose from to compile the WNBA team. Elena Delle Donne, who hasn’t played all season while she recovers from back surgery, was part of that pool thanks to strong fan support. Nneka Ogwumike, who was surprisingly left off the U.S. Olympic team, was also in the 36-player pool but wasn’t chosen by the coaches. She has been sidelined by a sprained knee since early June.
The game, sponsored by AT&T, is another way the league is celebrating its 25th season. This is the first time the league has held an All-Star Game in an Olympic year since 2000. The WNBA played an exhibition in New York in 2004 at Radio City Music Hall, but it wasn’t considered an All-Star Game.