Chicago hosts All-Star weekend for the second time in franchise history, and the marquee ticket is a picked-not-drawn draft between two legends of the game. Cynthia Cooper takes the top overall All-Star onto Team Cooper. Teresa Weatherspoon builds around the leading fan vote-getter on Team Spoon. A coin flip decided which of Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers went where. The result is exactly the kind of juiced-up matchup a league leaning into star power needed.
When and where
Tip-off is Saturday, July 25, at 8:30 p.m. Eastern from the United Center in Chicago. ABC has the U.S. broadcast, with the WNBA app and ESPN+ carrying replays. The rest of All-Star Weekend โ the Skills Challenge, the 3-Point Contest and the WNBA/USA vs. World-style exhibition โ runs from Friday afternoon through Saturday morning at the same building. Doors for the main game open two hours before tip-off, and the pregame concert has become an event of its own.
How the rosters got here
Twenty-two All-Stars in total. Ten starters were chosen by a weighted blend of fan, media and current-player votes. Twelve reserves were picked by the league's 15 head coaches. From there, Cynthia Cooper and Teresa Weatherspoon โ both Basketball Hall of Famers serving as honorary GMs โ drafted their squads without regard for conference or position.
The wrinkle worth flagging: Cooper's team is assigned the coach of the regular-season leader entering the break, and Weatherspoon draws Minnesota's Cheryl Reeve. That gives Team Spoon a coaching pairing that already knows how to weaponise pace, spacing and the corner three. Cooper's staff will lean on whichever franchise sits atop the standings when the whistle blows.
The Clark-Bueckers subplot
These two shared covers, magazines and marketing panels before either of them played a pro minute. Tonight is the first time they meet on opposing sides in a nationally televised showcase. Bueckers ended up on Team Spoon after finishing atop the fan vote โ Weatherspoon had first crack โ while a coin flip sent Clark to Team Cooper. Expect both to start, both to log heavy minutes in the first and third quarters when the game still has some competitive edge, and both to spend the fourth trading three-point pull-ups.
The subplot underneath the subplot: neither is the reigning MVP of this league. The best current player is still probably Napheesa Collier, and All-Star night is where MVP-of-the-second-half narratives get built. A 35-point burst under bright lights sticks in voter memory.
What to actually watch for
- First-quarter intensity. The All-Star Game is always defence-optional, but the opening exchanges are the closest thing to real basketball. That is where you get a proper look at line-ups you would never see in a regulation game โ say, Clark, A'ja Wilson and Napheesa Collier on the floor together.
- The 3-Point Contest carryover. Whichever shooter walked out of Friday night's contest hottest tends to start the game with green light empty; expect at least one player to launch a rack from the logo in the first five minutes.
- Rookies making a statement. Every year one first-year All-Star uses the stage to announce the second half of their season. Watch the reserve minutes.
- The coaches' scripting. Reeve and the Cooper-side coach have both said in the past they treat the first substitution as a proper coaching decision, not a rotation exercise. It signals the plan.
The format, briefly
Four ten-minute quarters. Regular-season rules with light enforcement on isolation defence, moving screens and hand-checking. The MVP is voted on by media at the arena and typically goes to a scoring headliner from the winning team โ although the last two years both MVPs came from the losing side, a nudge toward whoever put on the biggest individual show.
The Skills Challenge and 3-Point Contest are the traditional Friday undercard. This year both include a rookie division for the first time, giving the league a formal way to feature first-year players without shoehorning them into the main event.
Storylines to bring up at halftime
Two off-court threads are running under the game and will get plenty of broadcast airtime. The first is the collective bargaining agreement โ this is the last All-Star Weekend before the current deal expires, and players have used every appearance this season to push for revenue-share reform. The second is expansion: Chicago, Toronto and Portland's new markets are all represented in some form this weekend, and the league is running its own recruiting event alongside the main show.
Neither will change how the actual game plays out, but if you watch with the sound on you will hear both mentioned inside the first quarter.
FAQ
What time does it start and where can I watch? Tip-off is 8:30 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, July 25. ABC in the U.S., the WNBA app and ESPN+ for replay and international. Radio via WNBA Radio on SiriusXM.
Are Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers actually on different teams? Yes. Bueckers finished atop the fan vote and went to Team Spoon; a coin flip sent Clark to Team Cooper.
Who is favoured to win? Sportsbooks opened Team Cooper as a narrow favourite, mostly on roster depth at the reserve spots. Nobody should bet an All-Star Game.
Where can I follow the score in real time? Check tonight's basketball fixtures on Scorelisto for the live scoreboard, or head back to the blog for the postgame recap once the buzzer sounds.