Paige Bueckers got the most fan votes. Caitlin Clark finished second with her own Indiana teammate in first. Olivia Miles became the first rookie to start an All-Star Game since Candace Parker in 2008. And Cynthia Cooper and Teresa Weatherspoon drafted the teams in a format change designed to honor the league's 30th season. The weekend at United Center has everything.

The 2026 AT&T WNBA All-Star Game arrives at United Center in Chicago on Saturday, July 25 at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC, and the full week of events surrounding it represents the most complete celebration of a league milestone the WNBA has put together in its 30-year history. The rosters are set. The format is new. The talent on display is at the deepest it has ever been at this event. And the guard positions alone, between the four starting guards selected by the combined fan, player, and media vote, contain enough storyline to sustain an entire postseason's worth of coverage. This is everything you need to know about All-Star Week 2026.

The New Format: Legends Draft the Teams

The most significant structural change to the 2026 All-Star Game is the elimination of the player captain format in favor of two WNBA legends serving as honorary general managers. As part of the league's 30th season celebration, Cynthia Cooper and Teresa Weatherspoon have taken center stage to draft their respective rosters from the pool of 22 All-Stars, making selections without regard to conference affiliation or position.

Prior to the draft, a coin flip determined which legend would receive the highest vote-getter. Cooper won the flip and was assigned Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers, who led all players with 1,045,051 fan votes during WNBA All-Star voting. Weatherspoon received Caitlin Clark and built her team from there. The teams are named Team Cooper and Team Weatherspoon, and both legends drafted with the specific personality of their own playing careers reflected in the selections they made. Cooper, the two-time champion and two-time Finals MVP who averaged 25 points per game in her WNBA career, drafted for scoring balance. Weatherspoon, one of the most defensively competitive point guards in league history, drafted for toughness and energy.

The Starters: Ten Players, Six Historic Storylines

The 10 All-Star starters for 2026 were determined by a weighted vote combining 50 percent fan votes, 25 percent player votes, and 25 percent media panel votes. The four guards and six frontcourt players with the highest combined scores earned starting nods. The result is a roster that reflects both the continuity of the league's established stars and the most rapid infusion of new star talent the starting lineup has ever absorbed simultaneously.

Paige Bueckers led all vote-getters with over one million fan votes, the first player in WNBA history to cross that threshold. Her second professional season has validated every expectation placed on the 2025 Rookie of the Year, and her partnership with Azzi Fudd in Dallas has made the Wings one of the most watched teams in the league. Caitlin Clark finished second overall, making her third consecutive All-Star starting appearance and producing what coaches and analysts have uniformly described as the best individual season of her career. Clark is averaging numbers that no WNBA guard has averaged in the history of the league across points, assists, and three-point production simultaneously.

Olivia Miles, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2026 draft, became the first rookie to start an All-Star Game since Candace Parker was named a starter in 2008. The TCU product, who joined Minnesota and immediately elevated the Lynx's offense alongside Napheesa Collier, has spent the first half of the season breaking every rookie pace record the league had previously set for scoring and assists. Miles is the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 300 points and 100 assists, doing so in just 18 games. She is 19 years old and is starting an All-Star Game in her first professional season. Kelsey Mitchell rounds out the four-guard starting lineup, representing the Indiana Fever's three-starter haul alongside Clark and frontcourt player Aliyah Boston.

On the frontcourt side, A'ja Wilson makes her eight-time All-Star starting appearance, continuing a career that has produced more individual hardware than any player in league history. Breanna Stewart earns her eighth selection as well, giving the United Center starting lineup two of the most accomplished frontcourt players the WNBA has ever produced. Natasha Howard of Minnesota and Jessica Shepard of Dallas both earn first-time All-Star starting nods, while Gabby Williams of the Golden State Valkyries becomes the first All-Star starter in the franchise's two-year history.

The Reserves: Depth That Reflects the League's Full Health

The 12 reserves were selected by the WNBA's 15 head coaches, who each voted for three guards, five frontcourt players, and four players at either position, without being allowed to vote for their own team's players. Nneka Ogwumike of the Los Angeles Sparks headlines the reserve list with her 11th career All-Star selection, tying Diana Taurasi for the second most in league history behind Sue Bird's record 13. Marina Mabrey of the Toronto Tempo earns her first career selection in the expansion franchise's inaugural season, a direct product of her extraordinary hot streak that produced 113 points in three games on 56.5 percent shooting. Dominique Malonga of the Seattle Storm earns her first career selection as well. Jackie Young of Las Vegas earns her fifth consecutive selection. The full 22-player field represents every competitive tier of the current league landscape and includes multiple players from expansion and rebuilding franchises alongside the established names from contending rosters.

All-Star Friday: Skills and Shooting at Wintrust Arena

The weekend officially begins Friday, July 24 at Wintrust Arena with the Kia WNBA Shooting Stars and State Farm WNBA 3-Point Contest airing on ESPN at 8 p.m. ET. The 3-Point Contest has generated particular anticipation given the volume of elite shooters in the league this season. Mabrey leads the WNBA in three-pointers per game this season at 3.6 per contest. Clark is fifth in three-point percentage among qualified shooters. Azzi Fudd, who set collegiate records at UConn before carrying them to her professional debut, brings the most decorated shooting resume of any freshman in the contest's history. WNBA Live presented by AWS runs Thursday through Saturday at McCormick Place, giving fans access to players, interactive programming, and league activities beyond the games themselves.

Saturday's main event at United Center tips at 8:30 p.m. ET. The broadcast on ABC will be preceded by a special edition of WNBA Countdown at 8 p.m. and followed by WNBA Postgame at 10:30 p.m. The United Center, which previously hosted WNBA All-Star activities in 2006, holds 20,917 fans for basketball and is the largest venue in All-Star Game history by capacity. The Chicago Sky are the host franchise for the second time in franchise history, and the partnership with the city and the league has produced one of the week's most elaborate activations of fan programming and community engagement.

Thirty seasons of basketball are being celebrated at the United Center on Saturday. Every player on the floor has contributed to what those 30 seasons now represent. The game starts at 8:30. Everything else starts now.

2026 AT&T WNBA All-Star Game: Saturday, July 25, 8:30 PM ET, ABC. Location: United Center, Chicago. Format: WNBA legends Cynthia Cooper (Team Coop) and Teresa Weatherspoon (Team Spoon) draft rosters. All-Star starters: PG Paige Bueckers (DAL, 1,045,051 votes, first overall), PG Caitlin Clark (IND), PG Olivia Miles (MIN, first rookie starter since Candace Parker 2008), PG Kelsey Mitchell (IND), C A'ja Wilson (LV, 8th selection), F Breanna Stewart (NY, 8th selection), C Aliyah Boston (IND), F Natasha Howard (MIN, first selection), F Jessica Shepard (DAL, first selection), F Gabby Williams (GSV, first selection, first Valkyries All-Star). All-Star Friday events: Kia Shooting Stars + State Farm 3-Point Contest, ESPN, July 24, 8 PM ET. Reserve headline: Nneka Ogwumike's 11th selection, tied with Diana Taurasi for second-most in league history.