An Allstar Wrap up

WHAT AN ALL-STAR WEEKEND!!!!!

This past weekend the WNBA celebrated 20 years of the Allstar games. thousands of fans flocked to the desert city of Phoenix, AZ with high anticipations for the skills challenge games and the Allstar VS Olympic team game. Friday was the start to the festivities with the WNBA live event where fans got the chance to do meet and greets with their favorite basketball stars like Sabrina Inescoue, A’ja Wilson, Shakira Austin, and Chiney Ogumike to name a few. Friday night was the first night of the WNBA ALL-STAR games where the leagues best got to put their skills to the test in the skills challenge the 3-point shooting contest, and new this year the 3v3 basketball exhibition game between the Olympic-bound team and the U23 National team.

The WNBA skills challenge had a diverse lineup featuring Mercury teammates Brittney Griner and Sophie Cunningham, Erica Wheeler (Fever), Allisha Gray (Dream) and new Connecticut Suns guard Marina Mabrey. With the competition only having two rounds it was Allisha Gray vs Erica Wheeler with Alisha Gray coming out on top completing the course with a time of 31.2 seconds. Next was the 3v3 exhibition game where the Olympic-bound team played the U23 National team. This game was played to help Team USA players Hailey Van Lith (TCU), Derica Hamby (Los Angeles), Rhyne Howard (Atlanta), and Cierra Burdick former WNBA player prepare for the Olympics. The game was great, and it was down to the wire. Rhyne Howard had 12 of the team USA's 19 points in their 19-16 win over the U23 national team. To cap off the first night of All-Star weekend Starry held the 3-point contest where players had the chance to win 55k. This year’s participants included Allisha Gray (Atlanta), Marina Mabrey (Connecticut), Jonquel Jones (New York), Stefanie Dolson (Washington), and Kayla Mcbride (Minnesota). To some people’s surprise Sabrina and Caitlin did not participate in this year’s contest but that did not stop things from getting interesting. The final match-up was between Allisha Gray and Jonquel who was putting on a show for the bigs of the league. things came down to the wire with it coming down to Jonquil needing to hit her last money ball to win it all. In the end, her final shot fell just short giving the crown to Allisha Gray. With that win, Allisha Gray became the first player in the WNBA to win both the skills challenge and the 3-point contest at the same All-Star game. Saturday night was headlined with the official WNBA all-star game with Team Allstar vs Team USA.

Where for the first time, rookies Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark wore the same jersey representing Team All-Star. Team USA used this game as their official send-off game prior to Olympic play. Team Allstar took that to heart and made this game a battle to remember. While Team USA struggled to find their rhythm, Team All-Star played with a chip on their shoulder. The game was full of record-setting play with Angel Reese recording the first-ever double-double by a rookie in an Allstar game, Caitlin Clark set the rookie assist with 10 just two shy from beating legendary Sue Birds’ record of 12 assists in an Allstar game. But the true Star of the night was Arike Ogunbowale having 34 points pushing Team- Allstar to the 117-109 victory over Team USA.

Arike set the record for most points scored in a WNBA All-Star game and was named the 2024 AT&T All-Star MVP award. After the loss Diana Taurus had a few choice words to say to her fellow teammates; she told her team, “This Sh*t F***ing sucks. It’s a good reminder, we gotta come play no matter who we are.”. Team USA are on their way to Paris in search of a 6th straight Gold medal. Some question if this is the best team but many are confident that this team will find their groove and come back with the gold. That’s a Wrap on the 2024 WNBA All-Star games, many of the league’s players will be enjoying a month off since the league will take a break from the Olympic Games. So while the high of the all-star weekend comes to an end make sure to tune in and support Team USA at the Paris Olympics as they open tournament play against Japan on July 29th. Continue to tune in to our X page for full-time coverage of women’s soccer and basketball during the Olympic Games.

NWSL X Summer League

The NWSL X LIGA MX Femenil Summer Cup officially kicked off on July 19^th and it was an amazing weekend of games. Here are the scores: