The tentpole events are coming, the tentpole events are coming. Yes, I am referring to the Commissioner’s Cup Championship game on June 30 followed by WNBA All-Star Weekend a few weeks later.
The fan voting for WNBA All-Star began on June 11 and it runs Saturday, June 27. Media members will be voting as well in addition to players in this first round of All-Star voting. Keep an eye out for my picks coming next week.
SCHEDULE: Check out the full WNBA on NBC, Peacock slate of games
I have a bigger question on All-Star voting below, but let’s start with the Commissioner’s Cup. The Eastern Conference representative has been set. The streaking New York Liberty beat out the Atlanta Dream convincingly 104-90 to give them the advantage that allowed them to clinch a spot with their 86-64 blowout of the Mystics just a few days later.
The Western Conference picture, however, isn’t as settled. The Minnesota Lynx and Las Vegas Aces were battling for the final spot Wednesday night as part of a six-game slate spread across just a few hours.
Apparently the league wanted there to be situations like this where teams were fighting for final spots in the Cup Championship game. That’s why there’s a laundry list of tiebreakers.
The Wild Wild Western Conference
The Las Vegas Aces have had a Jekyll-and-Hyde few days.
They played in one of the most exciting games of the 2026 season against the Lynx this past Saturday, beating the league’s top team in the Minnesota Lynx 100-97 with massive contributions from their big three in A’ja Wilson, Jackie Young, and Chelsea Gray.
Then on Monday, in a game that our Cole Huff pointed out to be one to watch, the Aces got smacked by 30 points 96-66. Their defense looked almost zombie-like. Wilson addressed this postgame and noted that while their game against the Lynx previously was a win, they still gave up over 90 points.
“Sometimes I hate that wins give us a false reality that we are doing things well, when we aren’t,” she said postgame.
If the Aces beat the Wings on Monday they would have clinched playing in the Cup Championship against the Liberty, but now it’s still a two team race with the Lynx.
The games with consequence are as follows and were all scheduled for Wednesday night:
- New York Liberty @ Chicago Sky at 8 p.m. ET
In order for New York to put themselves in the best position to host, all they have to do is win on Wednesday night. What to watch out for will be how much juice Natasha Cloud has going up against her former team?
- Las Vegas Aces @ Phoenix Mercury at 10 p.m. ET
If the Aces win, they are in. But if they fall to the Mercury and the Lynx also fall to the Sparks, Las Vegas will need to rely upon the Golden State Valkeries to defeat the Wings to punch their ticket to the Cup championship.
- Minnesota Lynx @ Los Angeles Sparks at 10 p.m. ET
For the Lynx to move onto the Cup Championship they need to rely on the Aces since they lost the head to head on Saturday. The Lynx need to defeat the Sparks and the Aces need to lose, or if both the Aces and Lynx lose, the Lynx would need the Wings to beat the Golden State Valkyries.
Why are these two huge games scheduled for the same exact time? It beats me. Regardless of who advances to the Cup Final, there will be a rematch from either 2023 or 2024.
Should All-Star voting be positionless?
There is some consensus across WNBA media spheres that the way voting is set up is just not it when it comes to positional distribution and how players are categorized. The Athletic’s Sabreena Merchant has noted that this format of four guards and six front court players has given her a ton of difficulty in the past.
“The guards are also just hard because you think of most WNBA teams and they start three guards and two forwards,” she said on The No Offseason Podcast. “There’s only four spots for the guards but six spots for the front court.”
Nekias Duncan of The Dunker Spot bemoaned that wing players like Ryhne Howard and Jackie Young shouldn’t be distinguished as guards for a similar reason that Merchant alluded to above. But should they be in the front court when they also don’t really play in the front court? Should there be wing spots or no specific positions at all?
This is a question I posed to Sabrina Ionescu, whose absence from the majority of the start to the season will preclude her from earning her fifth All-Star appearance. She brainstormed that maybe it could be a five and five type of format or without positions entirely.
“Obviously, you want the best players there, regardless of position,” she said. “I think the way the league has gone, a lot of teams are playing positionless basketball. So I don’t think anyone really goes into the game with, like, you’re a one, you’re a two, you’re a three, and you don’t play any other position. Guards are rolling, guards are posting up, bigs are playing outside, shooting threes, so I could see it go both ways.”
The counter to that is it might reveal that true centers in the WNBA continue to be less common, something that came right to Mystics head coach Sydney Johnson when he was asked about if he’d like to see All-Star voting go positionless.
“When you have a Lauren Betts or a Jonquel Jones, a Brionna Jones, you want some representation too, positionally,” he said. “And you don’t want to see that completely fade and disappear.”
He does have a point. Only one true center was represented on one of last year’s All-Star teams in Atlanta’s Jones.
Top 40 Leaders in the First Fan Returns in WNBA All-Star Voting 2026 presented by Ally pic.twitter.com/1CfM1egBTx
— WNBA Communications (@WNBAComms) June 17, 2026
What does the fan vote look like right now? Is there positional balance? On Wednesday afternoon the league released its early returns of the fan vote and the 22 names listed included an even split of 11 guards and 11 front court players.
Breaking the top 22 names down further, nine of the frontcourt players are forwards with Aliyah Boston as the only true center and Gabby Williams who’s more of a wing. The 11 guards include seven true guards with four wings in Sophie Cunningham, Sonia Citron, Rhyne Howard, and Lexie Hull.
For now there’s positional balance, but we’ll have to see if that stands on my ballot which will lean more toward 2026 performance over team and brand popularity, characteristics that often drive the fan vote.
