Injuries hit Team Clark, rookies prepare for the WNBA 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 started Friday night with 3-point contest, headlined by event record-holder Sabrina Ionescu, and skills challenge. Clark had also 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 be sitting 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, Clark said she is 'looking forward to helping (coach Sandy Brondello) coach our team to a win' in Thursday's announcement of her withdrawal.
'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.'
Phoenix's Satou Sabally, a fellow starter on Team Clark, will also be sidelined. She announced Wednesday that she will be sitting out this weekend with an injured ankle. A'ja Wilson, a third Team Clark starter, said Friday afternoon that it's still to be determined if she will play in Saturday's game, after sustaining a wrist injury against the New York Liberty last week.
The absence of two members of Team Clark led the league to appoint two replacements for the All-Star Game, bringing Washington's Brittney Sykes and Atlanta's Brionna Jones onto the roster Thursday afternoon. The Fever's Lexie Hull will be replacing Clark in the 3-point contest.
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 at the game 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 now Bueckers — only seven rookies had ever 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. women's Olympic team played against Team WNBA. This time, each team is headed up 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.'
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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
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