Greg Bibb, Dallas Wings Chief Executive Officer & Managing Partner, left, Dallas Wings forward Jessica Shepard, Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers, and Curt Miller, Dallas Wings EVP of Basketball Operations and General Manager, pose for a photo before a game against the New York Liberty on July 20 at College Park Center. Shepard and Bueckers were honored for being named All-Star game starters.
The 2026 WNBA All-Star Game will feature two players from the Dallas Wings, second-year guard Paige Bueckers and forward Jessica Shepard.
The Wings enter the All-Star Break with the league’s fourth-best record, at 18-9. Dallas’s final game before the break was a 101-97 road win against the Portland Fire on Wednesday, which featured a triple-double from Shepard and a 21-point performance by Bueckers.
The .667 win percentage would be the franchise’s best since the Detroit Shock made it to the Finals in 2007. Since then, the Shock moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2010, and then to Texas six seasons later.
Teams for this year’s All-Star Game are split into Team Coop and Team Spoon, with players drafted by Basketball Hall of Famers Cynthia Cooper-Dyke and Teresa Weatherspoon, respectively.
In a voting system that weighs player, fan and media voting, Bueckers earned the best point total of any guard in the league, leading in both fan and player voting. As the highest vote-getter, Bueckers went to Team Coop in a coin flip.
Entering the All-Star Break, Bueckers is sixth in the league in points, with 20.9 per game, and sixth in assists, with 6.2 per game.
Shepard earned the third-best point total among the league’s frontcourt players, ranking third in player and media voting, and was selected fifth by Team Spoon.
Shepard enters the All-Star Break leading the WNBA in rebounds, with 12 per game, and ranked second in the WNBA in field goal percentage, hitting 59.7% of her shots. She also has the most double-doubles in the league, with 18, and the most triple-doubles, with four.
In addition to the game itself, Shepard will compete in the Shooting Stars event, alongside three-time WNBA champion Deanna “Tweety” Nolan and a player from the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League to be named later.
Each of the four Shooting Stars teams pairs a current all-star with a WNBA legend and Nike EYBL player, hoping to celebrate the game’s past, present and future. Shepard and Nolan will be teammates on the combined “Dallas/Detroit” team.
In the event, teams have 70 seconds to score as many points as they can from seven designated locations on the floor, ranging from a layup to a deep three. The event features two rounds, with the top two teams from the opening round going to the championship round.
Guard Azzi Fudd will compete as the only rookie in the 3-Point Contest. Fudd earned the 10th-best vote total among guards and was available to be drafted as a reserve player, but was not.
The 3-Point Contest will feature six of the league’s top shooters from range and have two rounds, with the top-two point-getters from the First Round advancing to the Championship Round. Each round will require competitors to shoot from five designated positions beyond the arc, each having a rack with five balls.
Four of the racks each feature four regular balls, worth one point each, and one money ball, worth two points each. One rack of the competitor’s choosing will be all money balls. In addition, there will be two balls positioned extra far from the basket, for “From the Logo” shots worth three points.
The Shooting Stars event and 3-Point Contest will begin at 7 p.m. Friday at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, as a prelude to the All-Star Game. The two contests will be broadcast on ESPN and streamed on Disney+ and the ESPN App.
The All-Star Game begins at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the same arena, and will be broadcast on ABC and streamed on Disney+ and the ESPN App.
@TyRoland06