Caitlin Clark will be an All-Star starter for the third consecutive season, but the vote wasn’t without controversy. Clark finished second in fan voting, third in media voting, and eleventh in player voting.Â
Clark ranks fourth in points and second in assists per game across the league with 21.2 and 8.2, respectively. Those are not numbers put up by the eleventh-best guard in the W. Even if you want to nitpick her below-average defense and high turnover numbers, Clark is one of the best guards in the league and one of the top players on a winning team. There aren’t many guards you can reasonably put ahead of her when it comes to individual success as well as team success.Â
Seven-time All-Star Candace Parker wasn’t thrilled with the result and called out players for not giving Clark the respect she deserves on the latest episode of Post Moves, her podcast with Aliyah Boston.Â
“When I sat down, as much as I did not like Diana Taurasi, there ain’t no way I’m not going to write her as an All-Star,” Parker said. “As much as I did not like anyone on the Lynx because they used to whoop our a—, I’m not going to not put Maya Moore or Sylvia Fowles. I think people need to look at themselves in the mirror and realize, like, man, you’ve got some insecurities if you’re sitting down and putting Caitlin Clark as the eleventh best guard.”
She also called out Kelsey Plum’s low ranking, saying, “Kelsey Plum finished twelfth in player rank, but she be percolating all over your defense.”
Plum is out with an injury right now, but she still ranks second in points per game behind A’ja Wilson.Â
Do players even need to have a vote?
The player vote wasn’t just a point of discussion because of how they voted. It was also about who voted. Not even half of the players in the WNBA submitted their vote—although some Sparks players have an excuse since they never received the ballots from their organization. But even so, many of the players who received a ballot didn’t vote. It doesn’t seem like players take the vote particularly seriously.Â
Moreover, there are no rules that forbid players from voting for their own teammates. Coaches, for example, cannot vote for their own players when they select reserves, but there’s nothing that stops players from just voting for their friends and favorite teammates.Â
However, a rule change that stops players from voting for their teammates does nothing about the low participation. If that continues, the WNBA may be better off splitting the vote for the starters just between fans and media or giving the coaches a say in that area, on top of their responsibility to pick the reserves.Â
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