Sylvia Fowles and Sue Bird highlight 2022 WNBA All-Star starters in their final season

The captains for the 2022 WNBA All-Star game to be held in Chicago on July 10 will be Breanna Stewart, Sylvia Fowles, A’ja Wilson, and Sue Bird.

In homage to the final seasons for Fowles and Bird, the WNBA created two sets of co-captains for the midseason showcase, though both of the veterans were also voted as starters. Stewart will be paired with Fowles and Wilson with Bird, as the four players headline a field of ten starters that was revealed on ESPN2 on Wednesday.

The remaining starters are Jonquel Jones, Candace Parker, Nneka Ogwumike, Kelsey Plum, Jackie Young, and Sabrina Ionescu.

The co-captains will draft teams on July 2 at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN, selecting among the starters first and then from the pool of reserves (who will be picked by the WNBA coaches and announced on June 28). The starters were chosen by a combination of 50 percent fan vote, 25 percent media vote (of which Swish Appeal took part), and 25 percent player vote. Wilson and Stewart were the top vote-getters from fan voting.

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This is the fourth consecutive All-Star selection for Wilson (there was no All-Star Game in 2020), whose Aces lead the WNBA with a 13-3 record and have clinched the Western Conference berth in the second annual Commissioner’s Cup final. It is also the fourth All-Star selection for Stewart, the WNBA’s leading scorer. She and Wilson are currently second and third overall in the league in win shares.

Wilson was also a captain the last time the league had this format in 2019, alongside Elena Delle Donne. This is the first time Delle Donne will not be a captain under the present format, as the Mystics forward — who has missed eight of her team’s 19 games — was not selected as a starter.

Fowles, the league’s all-time leader in rebounds, will finish her career with eight All-Star appearances; Bird, the league’s all-time assist leader, caps her final season with a 13th All-Star nod.

Parker will be playing in her seventh All-Star game and her second as a member of the Chicago Sky. Her former teammate Ogwumike is an All-Star for the seventh time, all as a member of the Los Angeles Sparks. Jones, the reigning WNBA MVP, is now a four-time All-Star with the Connecticut Sun. They are joined by three first-time All-Stars in the starting lineups: Plum and Young from the Aces, and Ionescu from the Liberty.

Some of the biggest names to not be selected as starters include Alyssa Thomas and Bri Jones of the Sun; Parker’s Chicago teammates Emma Meesseman and Courtney Vandersloot; and other 2021 All-Stars including Ariel Atkins, Skylar Diggins-Smith, and Chelsea Gray.

The league also announced that Brittney Griner would be named an honorary All-Star starter. Griner has previously been selected as an All-Star in each of her seasons that the WNBA has held a game.