WNBA All-Star Weekend kicks off Friday night, July 18, with the WNBA All-Star Skills Challenge and the WNBA 3-Point Contest. The events begin at 8:00 p.m. ET and will both be televised on ESPN.
Some of the luster is already off the event, with the news that Caitlin Clark has pulled out of the 3-Point Contest with a groin injury. Watching her light it up in front of the hometown Indianapolis events would have been great, but there is still plenty of talent to tune in for.
Allisha Gray will be defending her title in the Skills Challenge, going up against Natasha Cloud, Courtney Williams and teammates Skylar Diggins and Erica Wheeler. Clark's teammate Lexie Hull was chosen to replace her in the 3-Point Contest, and she'll be facing off against Gray (who won last year) as well as former champion, Sabrina Ionescu, Kelsey Plum and rookie Sonia Citron.
WNBA All-Star Skills Challenge results
PLAYER | TEAM | 1ST ROUND | 2ND ROUND |
|---|---|---|---|
Allisha Gray | ATL | 39.4 sec | OUT |
Natasha Cloud | NYL | 34.1 sec | 36.4 sec |
Skylar Diggins | SEA | 44.3 sec | OUT |
Erica Wheeler | SEA | 36.5 sec | 37.5 sec |
Courtney Williams | MIN | 42 sec | OUT |
Cloud took the victory, besting Wheeler by 1.1 seconds in the second round.
WNBA All-Star Skills Challenge rules and prize money
The WNBA All-Star Skills Challenge is an obstacle course, with each player needing to dribble through obstacles to make a bounce pass, chest pass and outlet pass, as well a jumper from the elbow, a corner 3-pointer and an above-the-break 3-pointers. Players are timed through the course.
All five players compete in the first round, the two fastest advance to the finals, where they run the course again. The fastest player through the course wins and receives $55,000 from the event sponsor, as well as $2,750 from the WNBA league, courtesy of the current CBA.
WNBA 3-Point Contest results
PLAYER | TEAM | 1ST ROUND | 2ND ROUND |
|---|---|---|---|
Allisha Gray | ATL | 25 pts | 22 pts |
Sabrina Ionescu | NYL | 25 pts | 30 pts |
Lexie Hull | IND | 20 pts | OUT |
Kelsey Plum | LAS | 22 pts | OUT |
Sonia Citron | WAS | 19 pts | OUT |
Ionescu claimed her second 3-point contest victory with the second-highest total in the history of the competition. She put up 30 points, hitting 11 straight shots before knocking down both STARRY balls worth three points each. Gray couldn't better her first-round score, settling for 22 points.
WNBA 3-Point Contest rules and prize money
Each player shoots from five locations arrayed around the arc, with five balls waiting on a rack at each location. Four of those racks are normal — the first four balls in a rack are worth one point, the final ball or "Money Ball" is worth two points. The fifth rack is composed entirely of Money Balls, and each player can choose which of the five locations they'd like that rack placed. That means there are a total of nine Money Balls in each round.
Players have 60 seconds to make as many shots as they can and need to finish all balls in one rack before moving to the next one. If a player happens to step on or over the 3-point line, the shot does not count.
The two players with the highest scores from the first round advance to the final round, where they repeat the same process. The player with the highest score in the final round wins and receives $60,000 from the event sponsor, as well as $2,750 from the WNBA league, courtesy of the current CBA.
In the event of a tie, they enter a 30-second tie-breaker round with balls and shooting locations in the same format. The record for highest score ever in a single round was set by Sabrina Ionescu in 2023 when she made 37-of-40.