The Indiana Fever rookie currently ranks second in votes from fans, trailing only two-time MVP, and reigning two-time Defensive Player of the Year, A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces.
Wilson just edges out Clark in the narrowest of margins, as announced by the league on Friday. Wilson has accumulated 217,773 votes, with Clark at 216,427, meaning the veteran has a margin of just 1,346 votes. Clark’s Fever teammate in Aliyah Boston, who, herself, was the top overall pick from 2023 and is the reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year—ranks third in fan votes at 171,864.
Wilson was named WNBA Player of the Month for May, with Clark receiving the Rookie of the Month award. The latter has experienced the typical ups and downs that rookies go through but is making her presence felt.
She ranks fourth in the league in both assists (6.2 per game) and made 3-point field goals (42), while her 16.3 points per game rank 16th but is first among rookies. She’s also playing some of her best ball as of late, as she had a career-high of 12 rebounds in her last outing on Wednesday and tied a career-high of nine assists in her previous game on Sunday.
Outside of the top three, the rest of the top 10 features names very familiar to both diehard and casual WNBA fans. Two-time MVP Breanna Stewart of the New York Liberty is fourth, while the Dallas Wings’ Arike Ogunbowale, who ranks second to Wilson in scoring, is fifth. New York’s Sabrina Ionescu, who ranks in the top three in both 3-pointers made and assists per game, is sixth in fan voting, while Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese, who is second to Wilson in rebounds, ranks seventh.
The 2022 WNBA All-Star Game MVP in Vegas’ Kelsey Plum is eighth, with the Minnesota Lynx’ Napheesa Collier, who ranks fourth in both points and rebounds, is ninth. Rounding out the top 10 is the Los Angeles Sparks’ Dearica Hamby, who is averaging career-highs in points, rebounds, and assists.
This fan vote accounts for just half of the overall voting for the WNBA All-Star Game, as the other half comes from voting by current WNBA players (25 percent) and voting by the media (25 percent). Once the final voting is tabulated, with input from both the player vote and the media vote, the top 10 vote-getters will automatically be included in the All-Star Game rosters.
However, with this being an Olympic year, the WNBA is doing something a bit different than the traditional format of players from the Eastern Conference versus players from the Western Conference. The USA Basketball Olympic 5-on-5 team that will head to Paris later this summer will be one of the All-Star squads, with the other being comprised of traditional All-Stars, regardless of conference.
As it stands, five of the top 10 in Wilson, Stewart, Ionescu, Plum, and Collier are part of the Olympic team and will suit up for Team USA, along with their Olympic teammates, at the All-Star Game. Thus, only the other five of the top 10 —Clark, Boston, Ogunbowale, Reese, and Hamby—would be guaranteed to play for Team WNBA. The league doesn’t simply go to whoever is 11th in voting, and so on, to fill out the rest of the Team WNBA roster as it utilizes a different process in which head coaches pick the remainder of that squad.
The names of the next 36 highest vote-getters—comprised of at least nine guards and 15 frontcourt players—will be provided to coaches, who will vote to fill the remaining spots for the 12-player Team WNBA roster. Coaches can’t vote for their own players.
The 2024 WNBA All-Star Game will be the second edition to feature WNBA All-Stars versus Olympians, following the 2021 version, which saw the Olympics postponed to that year due to the pandemic. Team WNBA prevailed in that matchup, 93-85, with Ogunbowale named MVP. The league did not hold an All-Star Game in previous Olympic years 0f 2016, 2012, 2008, and 2004.
