2025 WNBA All-Star Game: Caitlin Clark, Napheesa Collier named captains after receiving most fan votes

Fan voting for the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game came to a close on Saturday, and after tabulating the results the league announced the two captains on Sunday. As expected, those honors went to Caitlin Clark and Napheesa Collier — the two top vote-getters. 

Once the full pool of All-Stars is announced, Clark and Collier will draft their rosters on July 8. Before that, they’ll meet in the Commissioner’s Cup championship game on Tuesday — Clark’s health permitting — when the Minnesota Lynx host the Indiana Fever. 

Clark led all players with 1,293,526 fan votes, while Collier received 1,176,020. Those numbers represent a staggering increase in fan voting participation. In 2023, the year before Clark’s arrival, A’ja Wilson received the most fan votes with 95,860, and the top-30 players had a combined 1,171,708 votes — fewer than Clark or Collier got by themselves this time around. 

“It seems like it’s certainly gonna set some sort of record for amount of votes cast compared to last year if I’m not mistaken,” Clark said earlier this month when the first round of voting returns were released. I feel like we’re on track for that, which just shows how much engagement we’re driving across the league for all different sorts of players and teams. 

“That’s exactly what the league needs is people excited about that type of stuff and wanting to be involved and feeling like their vote really counts and feeling like they can make an impact on the All-Star Game. It’s really exciting to see and hopefully as we continue to go here year, to year, to year it just continues to grow.”

Clark, the 2024 Rookie of the Year, is off to a frustrating start in her sophomore campaign. She’s had some incredible highs, but also some surprising lows. Multiple injuries — a quad strain and groin strain — have kept her out for seven of the Indiana Fever’s first 16 games. All told, she’s averaging 18.2 points, five rebounds and 8.9 assists, but shooting 29.5% from 3-point range. 

Clark received the news that she would be a captain via a call from WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert. 

Collier, the 2024 Defensive Player of the Year and runner-up for MVP, is on pace to earn the league’s top honor this season. She has been phenomenal for the league-leading Minnesota Lynx, who are off to a 13-2 start. A back injury cost Collier a few games earlier this month, but she’s back in action. Her career-high 24.5 points per game have her on pace to win her first scoring title, and she’s adding 8.4 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.5 assists on 51.7% shooting. 

Collier was surprised by her family and friends, who broke the news that she would be a captain prior to their game on Sunday against the Connecticut Sun. 

This is the first time in their careers that Clark and Collier will be captains.  

WNBA All-Star Game captains, all-time

All-Star starters to be announced Monday night

The rest of the starters for the 2025 All-Star Game will be announced on Monday night at 7 p.m. ET. Aside from the captains, which were determined strictly by fan voting, the other eight starters were chosen by a combination of fan, current player and media voting. The fan vote accounted for 50% of the final vote, while the players and media accounted for 25% each. All three groups filled out a ballot consisting of four guards and six frontcourt players. 

Once the starters are revealed, the league’s coaches will pick the 12 reserves. Each coach must submit a ballot of three guards, five frontcourt players and four players of any position. They cannot vote for a player from their own team. The reserves will be announced on July 6 at Noon ET. 

The WNBA used a traditional Eastern Conference vs. Western Conference format for the All-Star Game until 2018, when the captains format was adopted. The captains format has been in use since then, except in 2021 and 2024, when an Olympic themed Team WNBA vs. Team USA format was adopted. 

All-Star Weekend is set for July 18-19 in Indianapolis, with the Fever playing host for the first time in franchise history. The festivities will begin on Friday with the Skills Challenge and 3-Point Contest, followed by the All-Star Game on Saturday night.