
NEW YORK — Courtney Vandersloot, Kahleah Copper and Emma Meesseman will get a chance to play in front of their home fans as the trio was selected as reserves for the WNBA All-Star Game on July 10 at Wintrust Arena.
The Chicago Sky stars will join Candace Parker, who was voted in as a starter last week.
It’s the fourth All-Star selection for Vandersloot and the second for Copper and Meesseman. Copper made her first All-Star team last year, while Meesseman went seven years between selections after making it in 2015 with the Washington Mystics.
Other reserve guards picked Tuesday included the Mystics’ Ariel Atkins, the Phoenix Mercury’s Skylar Diggins-Smith, the Dallas Wings’ Arike Ogunbowale and the Seattle Storm’s Jewell Loyd, a Niles West alumna. Atlanta Dream rookie Rhyne Howard also was picked by the league’s 12 coaches, who voted for three guards, five frontcourt players and four players at either position regardless of conference.
Coaches were not able to vote for their own players.
The Las Vegas Aces’ Dearica Hamby, the New York Liberty’s Natasha Howard and the Connecticut Sun’s Brionna Jones and Alyssa Thomas also were chosen in the frontcourt. Jones is the only player to make the All-Star Game this season while coming off the bench.
The Sky’s James Wade will coach one team while the Aces’ Becky Hammon will lead the other. The league announced last week the Storm’s Breanna Stewart and the Minnesota Lynx’s Sylvia Fowles will co-captain one squad and the Storm’s Sue Bird and the Aces’ A’ja Wilson will draft for the other. All four were chosen as starters. Fowles and Bird announced earlier this year they will retire after the season.
The All-Star teams will be drafted Saturday.
Howard, who played with Bird and Stewart in Seattle before coming over to the Liberty, put in a pitch to play with her former guard.
“I would love to play with Sue one more time,” she said after practice Tuesday. “It’s her last All-Star Game.”
The other starters announced last week were the Los Angeles Sparks’ Nneka Ogwumike, the Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu, the Sun’s Jonquel Jones and the Aces’ Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young.
The Indiana Fever is the only team without an All-Star.


PREVIOUS ARTICLE