EDD, A’ja Wilson Named WNBA All-Star Captains

The Washington Mystics’ Elena Delle Donne and the Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson lead the list of 10 players – four guards and six frontcourt players from across the WNBA  – who were selected by fans, current WNBA players and media to start in AT&T WNBA All-Star 2019.

AT&T WNBA All-Star 2019, featuring Team Delle Donne vs. Team Wilson, will be played on Saturday, July 27 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, home of the Aces.  The 16^th WNBA All-Star Game will be televised live by ABC at 3:30 p.m. ET.

As the two All-Star starters who finished with the most fan votes during WNBA All-Star Voting 2019 presented by Google, Delle Donne and Wilson will serve as team captains and draft the All-Star Game rosters from the pool of players voted as starters and reserves.

Joining Delle Donne and Wilson as All-Star Game starters in the frontcourt are Las Vegas’ Liz Cambage, the Phoenix Mercury’s Brittney Griner, the Seattle Storm’s Natasha Howard and the Connecticut Sun’s Jonquel Jones.  The four starting guards are the Los Angeles Sparks’ Chelsea Gray, Seattle’s Jewell Loyd, Las Vegas’ Kayla McBride and the New York Liberty’s Kia Nurse.  The captains and starters for AT&T WNBA All-Star 2019 were revealed today on ESPN’s The Jump.

Delle Donne and Griner have been named All-Stars for the sixth time each.  Cambage, McBride and Gray have made it for the third time.  Jones, Loyd and Wilson are now two-time All-Star selections.  Howard and Nurse are each making their All-Star debut.

The 12 reserves for AT&T WNBA All-Star 2019, as selected by the league’s head coaches, will be announced on Monday, July 15.  Coaches will vote for three guards, five frontcourt players and four players at either position regardless of conference.  They may not vote for their own players.

Delle Donne and Wilson will select their respective rosters in the WNBA All-Star Draft by choosing first from the remaining pool of eight starters and then from the pool of 12 reserves.  By virtue of finishing with the most fan votes, Delle Donne will make the first pick in the First Round (Starters).  Wilson will have the first pick in the Second Round (Reserves).  Additional details about the All-Star Draft will be announced at a later date.

AT&T WNBA All-Star 2019 Starter Pool

• Liz Cambage, Aces (3^rd All-Star selection): After a four-year absence from the WNBA (2014-17), the Australian native returned in 2018 and is now an All-Star for the second consecutive season.  The league’s 2018 scoring leader made her WNBA All-Star debut as a rookie in 2011.
• Elena Delle Donne, Mystics (6^th All-Star selection): The 2015 WNBA MVP has been voted to each All-Star Game played in her career, including three selections with the Chicago Sky and three with the Mystics.  She led Washington to the WNBA Finals last season and Chicago to the Finals in 2014.  Delle Donne was the Eastern Conference Player of the Month for June.
• Chelsea Gray, Sparks (3^rd All-Star selection): Gray, who helped the Sparks to a WNBA title in 2016 and a Finals berth in 2017, is an All-Star for the third year in a row.  On July 7, she recorded the eighth regular-season triple-double in WNBA history.
• Brittney Griner, Mercury (6^th All-Star selection): The WNBA’s leading scorer (20.0 ppg) and third-leading shot-blocker (2.15 bpg) has been named to each All-Star Game that has been played during her career.  Griner recently became only the third player in league history with 600 career blocks, joining Margo Dydek and Lisa Leslie.
• Natasha Howard, Storm (1^st All-Star selection): Howard was the WNBA Most Improved Player in 2018, when she helped lead Seattle to a championship in her first season with the team.  She was named the Western Conference Player of the Month for June.
• Jonquel Jones, Sun (2^nd All-Star selection): Jones is the reigning Sixth Woman of the Year.  In 2017, she made her All-Star debut and earned WNBA Most Improved Player honors.
• Jewell Loyd, Storm (2^nd All-Star selection): The 2015 WNBA Rookie of the Year and champion with Seattle last season is one of seven 2019 starters who participated in the All-Star Game last year, along with Cambage, Delle Donne, Gray, Griner, McBride and Wilson.
• Kayla McBride, Aces (3^rd All-Star selection): McBride is an All-Star for the second year in a row.  She will join Las Vegas teammates Cambage and Wilson in playing in front of their home crowd.
• Kia Nurse, Liberty (1^st All-Star selection): The 10^th pick in the 2018 WNBA Draft is averaging 16.0 points per game (seventh in the WNBA), up from 9.1 points as a rookie last season.
• A‘ja Wilson, Aces (2^nd All-Star selection): The 2018 WNBA Rookie of the Year and top pick in the 2018 WNBA Draft is one of three No. 1 overall picks selected as starters for AT&T WNBA All-Star 2019, along with Griner (2013) and Loyd (2015).

WNBA All-Star Voting 2019 Results

Fans accounted for 50 percent of the vote to determine the starters for AT&T WNBA All-Star 2019, while current WNBA players and a media panel accounted for 25 percent each.  Delle Donne finished with a WNBA-high 32,460 fan votes, followed by Wilson with 26,475 fan votes.  For more results from fan voting, click here.

After all votes were tallied, players were ranked by position (guard and frontcourt) within each of the three voting groups – fan votes, player votes and media votes.  Each player’s score was calculated by averaging her weighted rank from the fan votes, the player votes and the media votes.  The four guards and six frontcourt players across the WNBA with the best scores were named All-Star Game starters.

Fan voting served as the tiebreaker for players in a position group with the same score.  Griner (17,217 fan votes) won the tiebreaker with Mercury teammate DeWanna Bonner (17,138) for a starting frontcourt spot.

Below are the overall scores – based on results from all three voting groups – for the top finishers at each position.  Each player’s score is weighted based on 50 percent for fan vote, 25 percent for player vote and 25 percent for media vote.  The formula to determine a player’s score is (Fan Rank * 2 + Player Rank + Media Rank)/4.

GUARDS

FRONTCOURT

*–Voted to start
^–Tiebreaker for starting spot is highest fan vote

Source: WNBA.com