{"id":6267,"date":"2025-07-18T19:48:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T19:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/6267\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T19:48:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T19:48:16","slug":"injuries-hit-team-clark-rookies-prepare-for-the-wnba-all-star-game-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/6267\/","title":{"rendered":"Injuries hit Team Clark, rookies prepare for the WNBA All-Star Game \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 Caitlin Clark is out but most of the WNBA\u2019s best are in for the league\u2019s All-Star Game.<\/p>\n

The Indiana Fever\u2019s injured superstar won\u2019t be able to play Saturday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse when the team she drafted, Team Clark, faces Team Collier, picked by opposing captain Napheesa Collier.<\/p>\n

The events started Friday night with 3-point contest, headlined by event record-holder Sabrina Ionescu, and skills challenge. Clark had also been scheduled to compete in the 3-point contest.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFILE – Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark watches as players warm up before a WNBA basketball game between the New York Liberty and the Fever Wednesday, July 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo\/Frank Franklin II, File)<\/p>\n

Here are a few things to note heading into the busy weekend.<\/p>\n

Injuries bog down Team Clark<\/p>\n

Clark, the reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year, will be sitting out after sustaining a groin injury in the Fever\u2019s game against the Connecticut Sun on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

As the player who received the most fan votes and the captain of Team Clark, Clark said she is \u201clooking forward to helping (coach Sandy Brondello) coach our team to a win\u201d in Thursday\u2019s announcement of her withdrawal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will give the coaching hat to her as much as she wants, to be quite honest,\u201d Brondello said. \u201cYou\u2019ve seen it with the Fever, she\u2019s been very active on the sideline when she wasn\u2019t playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phoenix\u2019s Satou Sabally, a fellow starter on Team Clark, will also be sidelined. She announced Wednesday that she will be sitting out this weekend with an injured ankle. A\u2019ja Wilson, a third Team Clark starter, said Friday afternoon that it\u2019s still to be determined if she will play in Saturday\u2019s game, after sustaining a wrist injury against the New York Liberty last week.<\/p>\n

The absence of two members of Team Clark led the league to appoint two replacements for the All-Star Game, bringing Washington\u2019s Brittney Sykes and Atlanta\u2019s Brionna Jones onto the roster Thursday afternoon. The Fever\u2019s Lexie Hull will be replacing Clark in the 3-point contest.<\/p>\n

Rookies on the roster<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a young All-Star Game this year, with rookies Paige Bueckers, Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen making up the largest rookie contingent at the game since 2011. Citron and Iriafen are on Team Clark, and Bueckers is a starter for Team Collier.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing,\u201d Citron said. \u201cThis rookie class is really talented, and I\u2019m just happy that I\u2019m one of the ones here. It\u2019s really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the recent three-year string of rookie starters \u2014 Aliyah Boston in 2023, Clark in 2024 and now Bueckers \u2014 only seven rookies had ever been selected as All-Star starters in the game\u2019s 26-year history.<\/p>\n

A fun format<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s All-Star format is different from last year\u2019s, when the U.S. women\u2019s Olympic team played against Team WNBA. This time, each team is headed up by a captain (Clark and Collier) who drafted players from a pool of selected All-Stars.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a return to a more traditional format after the 2024 Olympic year shook things up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little more loose, has that fun element to it,\u201d Team Collier coach Cheryl Reeve said of this year\u2019s game. \u201cIt\u2019s obviously very player centric, and you just want to have fun and enjoy the experience. It\u2019s for the fans, so it\u2019s a fun year.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP WNBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 Caitlin Clark is out but most of the WNBA\u2019s best are in for the league\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-6267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}