WNBA All-Star 2025 what to watch: Team Clark vs. Team Collier, CBA negotiations and the game around the game

Yahoo

4 days ago

The 2025 WNBA All-Star rosters are set, teams are drafted and coaches are swapped. All that's left is to play the game itself.
The Saturday evening showcase (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC) between Team (Caitlin) Clark and Team (Napheesa) Collier is but one piece of the All-Star weekend puzzle, a fitting cap to a packed few days of events and anticipation. There's also the skills competition, the 3-point shootout, the parties, the festivals, the light-hearted trash talk and so much more.
Here's what we have our eye on this weekend:
Will Clark, Ionescu light it up … from the 4-point circle?
Clark used her second All-Star draft pick on Sabrina Ionescu, a fellow former No. 1 overall pick who made her name sinking deep 3-pointers in college. They have two of the longest shooting ranges in the game and are likely to light it up from deep in the offense-heavy exhibition. That's a large reason Clark said she wanted to trade coaches, bringing on Ionescu's New York leader, Sandy Brondello.
There could be a twist here, should we all be so lucky. The WNBA instituted a 4-point circle in 2022 and brought it back for the 2023 game, the last to use a captain-versus-captain format. The four circles — two on each end of the court — were placed 28 feet from the rim and counted if a player made any contact with the circle while attempting a shot. The teams combined for nine of them in the first half of the 2023 contest, led by Ionescu's three.
Clark is averaging a league-high five attempts per game from between 25 and 29 feet and making a league-best 1.6 per game. She's made three between 32 and 37 feet, the same as the rest of the league combined.
Ionescu is fourth at 3.9 attempts and tied for second by making, on average, 1.3. She made one between 32-37, as did All-Star teammate Aliyah Boston. And Satou Sabally, whom Clark drafted from the starters pool for size, is seventh in attempts (3.0) and makes (0.9).
Team Collier's bench features two of the top five players to attempt from that deep in Kelsey Plum (3.9) and Rhyne Howard (3.1).
Records ready to fall
A player tied or broke the All-Star Game individual scoring record each of the past three seasons. Might that trend continue?
In 2022, Plum tied the record of 30 points held by Maya Moore in the 2015 game. Plum played for Team (A'ja) Wilson against Team (Breanna) Stewart. A year later, it was Jewell Loyd scoring 31 points for Team Stewart in the same battle of captains. Plum scored 30 again for a three-way tie in second. And last year, Arike Ogunbowale dropped 34 points on USA Basketball in the Olympic year game. Breanna Stewart scored 31.
Understandably, then, the previous two captain-led All-Star games featured record-breaking offensive performances. Team Stewart scored 143 points in 2023, and Team Wilson scored 134 in 2024.
Clark is already tied for the second-most assists in the game. She had 10 a year ago, one shy of Sue Bird's 11 in 2017. Loyd holds the record for most 3s (10), and three players are tied for most rebounds at 14.
More money, more vested interest
Since players now know the cash bag in advance, and there are no Olympic Games to be mindful of, we'll see star-studded fields in the 3-point and skills competitions.
Sabrina Ionescu will return to the 3-point field two years after setting a single-round WNBA and NBA record. Sonia Citron, the Mystics rookie, will also participate, and was spotted practicing shooting off a rack by using Kiki Iriafen's back. Caitlin Clark will compete in her home All-Star Game, despite her shooting slump this year.
Allisha Gray is the reigning champion in both skills and 3-point entering her third All-Star appearance in as many seasons. She became the first to take home prize money committed by Aflac, totaling $55,000 for each winner. The WNBA awards $2,575 to each winner as outlined in the 2020 collective bargaining agreement. Aflac increased its commitment to equal that of the NBA, per its own CBA, of $60,000 for the 3-point competition and $55,000 for skills.
More than just the game
Veteran players praised the last few All-Star weekends for the increase in everything else outside of the game. Brands are hosting more parties and investing in their women's basketball athletes with activations and special fan events. The WNBA focused on its WNBA Live activation, a fan fest near the arena filled with activities and games. Players make various appearances throughout the weekend.
Indianapolis will be no different. The city was awarded the exhibition about a year ago, which is earlier than normal for WNBA All-Star. The airport set up a basketball court in the entryway to welcome fans, while businesses around the city are holding events and specials that will surely make their way onto social media platforms. Lynx guards Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman have already pledged a 72-hour stream of their 'Stud Budz' feed that regularly entertains fans online.
'The camera ain't stopping,' Williams said ahead of the July 1 Commissioner's Cup game in Minnesota. 'We got a phone, we got a battery pack, we got a wifi box. Thank ya. Camera is staying on. If there's certain rooms that they don't want us to be in, cool. We gonna sit outside with our camera and tell the people, they won't let us in that room. Just gonna vibe. It's gonna be a movie.'
And it goes beyond basketball into a cross-cultural event. Pacers Sports & Entertainment and Hartbeat, the production company founded by Kevin Hart, will host Fever Fest ahead of the All-Star Game on the other side of downtown in the White River State Park. Cedric the Entertainer, Leslie Jones, The Kid Laroi and G-Eazy will all perform. Fever guard Sydney Colson will also make her comedy set debut.
Rising tensions around CBA negotiations
All-Star weekend is an opportunity unlike many others to celebrate the league. The summer exhibition includes all 13 teams in some way, while a large portion of the league's best players take the court and even more make appearances around the city. (The Connecticut Sun are the only team to not have an All-Star on this year's roster.)
But those upbeat vibes will have an edge this year. The players' union and league will meet on Thursday to discuss the ongoing collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiations. Multiple players this week said they were not happy with the movement of those talks after opting out the day after the WNBA Finals concluded in October.
'It seems slow to me where we know this is coming and this has been building for a while,' Stewart said last week. 'We officially opted out last October. For our first response back to be now is … slow.'
The weekend's events are a microcosm of the arguments each side brings to the table. The league and team owners are touting the investments they've made in the league to support its growth, including larger All-Star events and team-built practice facilities. Players see the revenue coming from that investment, and the overall growth of the league, and want a piece of it.
The WNBPA's leadership includes Nneka Ogwumike (president), Plum (first vice president) and Stewart, Collier and Alysha Clark (VPs).
How much will Unrivaled take over the WNBA's star-studded event?
Collier sent a strong message wearing an Unrivaled T-shirt while drafting her first WNBA All-Star team as captain. She even doubled down, mentioning the league she co-founded with Stewart multiple times in the broadcast while drafting every Unrivaled teammate available to her. Her All-Star team features Unrivaled Owls teammates Allisha Gray, Skylar Diggins and Courtney Williams (also of the Lynx). Unrivaled will also have an activation in Indianapolis.
Collier also drafted Ogwumike to her squad by saying on the broadcast she wanted 'madam president,' a reference to her WNBPA role. The players elected Ogwumike to her third term in December 2022. She started at the helm in 2016, earned re-election in 2019 and oversaw the 2020 CBA the players opted out of last fall.