As we near the halfway point of the WNBA season, the All-Star Game in Indianapolis, Ind. at Gainbridge Fieldhouse is almost upon us. The game is set to tip-off on Sat. Jul. 19 at 8:30 pm ET/5:30 pm PT with a Skills Competition and Three-Point Contest occurring on the eve of the event. Before we get to that point, the people who view WNBA games had to make their voices heard in voting for the most popular and talented players in the game this season. And they voted en masse for some big stars such as Caitlin Clark, Napheesa Collier, Kelsey Plum, Breanna Stewart, and A’ja Wilson that mostly qualified as starters. One of those who was lucky enough to be a starter due to her incredible style of play and impressive stats on both sides of the game is Paige Bueckers, who in her rookie season has achieved something that the most-popular player in the sport did last season. The fans, WNBA media members and the players voted in Bueckers as a starter in the All-Star voting process, in which the starters and reserves were chosen in a draft that the top vote-getters partook in as “team captains”. Copying a model that the NBA used for its All-Star Games from 2018 through 2024, the WNBA designated the most-voted candidates from both conferences as captains of their own named teams that they would draft. The NBA had this for several years with mostly the same stars like LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry.

The WNBA, having an unbalanced amount of teams, decided to go the route of the team captain format this year, having the top vote-getters in both conferences qualify to be their own team captains. Those two players turned out to be Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever(the most popular women’s basketball player on the planet) and Napheesa Collier of the Minnesota Lynx. Both forwards were voted as starters with the most votes from their respective conferences and a mixture of the top-10 most voted players in the league qualified as starters. Those players included Clark’s Fever teammate Aaliyah Boston, Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu of the New York Liberty, Allisha Gray of the Atlanta Dream, A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces, Nneka Ogwumike of the Seattle Storm, Satou Sabally of the Phoenix Mercury and Paige Bueckers of the Dallas Wings.

Each of those starters, along with reserve selections, were used as draft choices in a draft show between Caitlin Clark and Napheesa Collier held on Tues. July 8. Similar to the NBA All-Star game draft show, the WNBA All-Star draft show started with the captains choosing which four of the eight remaining starters would be on their respective teams. Clark chose her Fever teammate Boston, Ionescu, Wilson, and Sabally; while Collier chose Stewart, Gray, Ogwumike and her fellow UConn legend Bueckers. Notable reserves that were chosen to be All-Stars on the 11-player rosters(team captains included) were Kelsey Mitchell of the Fever, Gabby Williams and Skylar Diggins of the Storm, Courtney Williams of the Lynx, Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky and rookies Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen of the Washington Mystics.

As for Bueckers, she leads the Wings in points per game(18.2), assists(5.5) and steals(1.7). Paige has been a very bright mark for a struggling Dallas team, which has done better in recent weeks. In spite of missing a few games due to a concussion and an illness, Bueckers has been dominant for the most part when she is on the floor. Having to deal with rotations of her teammates who have been injured or inefficient, Paige has averaged nearly 35 minutes on the floor per game. That might be pushing it a little bit due to her injury history, but due to the injuries and lack of depth that Dallas has gone through, Bueckers has had to be relied on as one of the key cogs for the Wings, who currently stand at 6-14 through the first 20 games of their season. Being near or at the bottom of the Western Conference standings, the Wings could use some better luck against the competition they face and that competition will include three remaining matchups with the Indiana Fever, who will hopefully have Caitlin Clark healthy for all three of those games.

Paige will get a chance to face off against her fellow star player in Clark on Sun. July 13 after missing out on an opportunity to play against her last month due to the latter having an ankle injury. Clark is fully recovered and expected to return to action soon, so there will be loads of Paige vs. Caitlin matchups on tap pretty soon. The WNBA is in dire need of those kinds of games happening in order to drive up their TV ratings and ticket sales. And having these two on different teams in the All-Star Game only makes it more interesting to view. This truth is only more amplified due to the fact that the second scheduled game between the Fever and Wings will be occurring at the American Airlines Center, just as it did on Fri. June 27. Many fans bought tickets to the 20,000+-seat arena to see a matchup of the game’s two brightest stars, but unfortunately one of them was inactive. Hopefully both Bueckers and Clark will be healthy for the Downtown Dallas rematch on Fri. Aug, 1 at 4:30 pm PT/6:30 pm CT. Their only other scheduled matchup for this season will be in Indiana on Tues. Aug, 12, a week and a half after the second Dallas game. So, seeing both of them face off as starters on their respective All-Star teams will be something to see. Paige might eventually be popular enough to be the top vote-getter in the West and we should all assume that Clark will keep that status in the East. One of these years, there might be a Team Bueckers vs. Team Clark matchup in the WNBA All-Star Game.

Regardless of the hoopla, this is a good accomplishment at the halfway point of Paige Bueckers’ rookie season. She is definitely the current front-runner for Rookie of the Year, although she might face some competition from those two Mystics All-Stars down the stretch. Playing well with fellow rookie teammates Aziaha James and J.J Quinerly, Bueckers definitely has a bright future ahead of herself. Along with veteran stars Arike Ogunbowale and Myisha Hines-Allen, Bueckers can hopefully lead a downtrodden Dallas team to better results, whether it be in this season or in a future year. Rebuilds can be tough, especially when you know that there are more expansion franchises on the way in the WNBA. Either way, Paige Buckets will have a chance to prove herself while playing with and against some of the league’s brightest stars on a Saturday night in Indiana. She definitely earned her way to this point, even though she attended last year’s WNBA All-Star Game with a courtside seating view. That was quite some foreshadowing there for the UConn alum with some mighty strong charisma and skills.