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****2024 WNBA All-Star Game - Phoenix****

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blackfoot NAP

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ESPN and ABC Presents WNBA All-Star 2024, Juky 19-20​

ESPN and ABC will provide multi-day, multi-platform coverage of the 2024 AT&T WNBA All-Star hosted by the three-time WNBA Champion Phoenix Mercury. On Friday, July 19, ESPN will televise the Kia WNBA Skills Challenge and the WNBA STARRY® 3-Point Contest at 9 p.m. ET. On Saturday, July 20, the 2024 AT&T WNBA All-Star Game will be broadcast live on ABC in primetime for the second consecutive year. Live coverage from Footprint Center tips off at 8:30 p.m. with a special onsite edition of WNBA Countdown Presented by Google preceding Saturday’s broadcast at 8 p.m. (ABC).
 

The 2024 AT&T WNBA All-Star Game will showcase the league’s top talent squaring off against one another as the USA Basketball Women’s National Team takes on the WNBA All-Stars who were selected as part of a combination of fan, player, media and coach voting. The top ten vote-getters included Aliyah Boston (Indiana Fever), Caitlin Clark (Indiana Fever), Napheesa Collier (Minnesota Lynx), Kahleah Copper (Phoenix Mercury), Dearica Hamby (Los Angeles Sparks), Sabrina Ionescu (New York Liberty), Arike Ogunbowale (Dallas Wings), Breanna Stewart (New York Liberty), A’ja Wilson (Las Vegas Aces), and Jackie Young (Las Vegas Aces). Boston, Clark, Hamby, and Ogunbowale, who are not on the USA Women’s National Team 5-on-5 roster, were automatically assigned to Team WNBA.
 
Cheryl Miller, Cheryl Reeves to coach WNBA All-Star Game
Basketball icon Miller, the first head coach of the Mercury, will be joined on the sideline by former Phoenix star Adrian Williams. - Reeve's national team staff is rounded out by Duke coach Kara Lawson, Texas A&M coach Joni Taylor and Washington Mystics GM Mike Thibault.
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The 2024 WNBA All-Star Game will tip Saturday at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
 
Griner, Jones among participants in WNBA All-Star Friday
Phoenix's Brittney Griner and New York's Jonquel Jones are among the biggest names who will participate in the WNBA's special competitions Friday during the league's All-Star weekend.
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The Skills Challenge will include Griner, teammate Sophie Cunningham, Atlanta's Allisha Gray, Connecticut's Marina Mabrey and Indiana's Erica Wheeler. The 3-point Contest includes Jones, Gray, Mabrey, Washington's Stefanie Dolson and Minnesota's Kayla McBride. Griner is the only member of the U.S. Olympic team who will participate in either competition.
 
Mercury unveils new practice facility as part of All- Star festivities
The facility, which the Mercury said cost $100 million and is three blocks from the team's arena, will including strength and cardio areas, hydrotherapy, a sauna, offices, meeting rooms, lounge and dining room, among other amenities. It will also have a full kitchen with a dedicated chef.
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The U.S. Olympic team was the first team to train at the new facility. The Mercury became the third WNBA team in the past few years to debut a new practice facility as Phoenix joined Seattle and Las Vegas.
 
Fever's Wheeler replaces by Mitchell in skills event after flight issues
Wheeler wasn't able to get to Phoenix because of the faulty software update that caused technological havoc worldwide Friday and delayed flights. The Fever guard was trying to fly from Atlanta to Phoenix, but her flight was first delayed and then canceled. She said in a tweet that Pacers CEO Mel Raines tried to get her a charter flight to the All-Star festivities, but nothing was available on short notice.
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The winner of the contest receives $2,575 from the league, per the collective bargaining agreement, but also gets $55,000 from Aflac as part of a partnership with the WNBPA.
 
Clark, Reese, 'looking foward' to WNBA All-Star Game pairing
The two, who played against each other in the 2023 women's NCAA tournament national championship game and 2024 Elite Eight when Clark was at Iowa and Reese was at LSU and three times in the first half of the WNBA season, have momentarily embraced being teammates. They spent time working on a pick-and-roll together during Friday morning's practice.

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While Clark and Reese will play in the All-Star Game, both declined invitations to participate in Friday night's skills competition -- Clark in the 3-point contest and Reese in the skills challenge.
 
Allisha Gray first WNBA to sweep 3-point, skills title
While Gray is the first WNBA player to win both events in the same year, she is the third to win both events overall, joining Becky Hammon, who won the skills in 2007 and 3-point in 2009, and Sabrina Ionescu, who won the skills in 2022 and 3-point in 2023.

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For her wins, Gray won $5,150 from the WNBA and $110,000 from Aflac, the insurance company that announced Thursday it would supplement the league's prize money with $55,000 for each event's winner. Gray's yearly salary is $185,000.
 

Arike Ogunbowale torches Team USA with All-Star record 34 points​

]Ogunbowale sat in the locker room at halftime of Saturday's WNBA All-Star Game with zero points and Team WNBA trailing by two. Coach Cheryl Miller pointed to Ogunbowale and called her out in a surprise move. Ogunbowale set a WNBA All-Star Game record with 34 points to earn her second All-Star Game MVP and lead Team WNBA to a 117-109 over Team USA in front of 16,407 fans at Footprint Center. Ogunbowale's 34 points were the second most scored in any half in WNBA history, including the regular season, playoffs, All-Star Games and the Commissioner's Cup, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. Only Riquna Williams, who scored 35 points in the second half for the Tulsa Shock in a 2013 regular-season game, had more.

That helped Ogunbowale become the fourth player to earn multiple WNBA All-Star Game MVPs, joining Lisa Leslie and Maya Moore, who each had three, and Swin Cash, who had two. Ogunbowale's performance was the icing on the cake of a historic WNBA All-Star Game. Stewart became the first player with 30 points and 10 rebounds in a WNBA All-Star Game, and Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese became the first rookie to record a double-double, with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Team USA's A'Ja Wilson scored 22 points, Diana Taurasi added 14 and Brittney Griner put up 10. Ogunbowale was complemented on Team WNBA b Allisha Gray's 16 points, Nineka Ogwumike's 14 and Kelsey Mitchell's 13. Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Claek finished with 10 assists,

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WNBA All-Star Game in Phoenix draws record number of viewers​

The WNBA All-Star Game in Phoenix drew a record number of viewers on Saturday, crushing the old mark set 21 years ago. In all, 3.44 million people watched the game on ABC, topping the previous record of 1.44 million viewers in 2003. That game featured an array of current and future Hall of Fame members, including Dawn Staley, Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper, Lisa Leslie and Sue Bird. Last year's game, also played in prime time and televised by ABC, drew an audience of 850,000. Sports Media Watch reported the All-Star Game was the most-watched WNBA event since the opening week of play of the league in June 1997. Viewership of the first game in league history hit 5.04 million, with 3.59 million people tuning in the following day.

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