Cynthia Cooper and Teresa Weatherspoon revealed the 2026 AT&T WNBA All-Star rosters on July 15, and the first picks told the story fast: Paige Bueckers, who led all players in fan voting with 1,045,051 votes, was assigned to Cooper’s side after the coin flip. Caitlin Clark, the other vote leader with 1,023,321 votes, went to Weatherspoon. The teams will meet in the 2026 AT&T WNBA All-Star Game at United Center in Chicago on Saturday, July 25.
The draft was carried out on during the 2026 WNBA All-Star Draft show, with Cooper and Weatherspoon serving as special general managers in the league’s 30th season celebration. Weatherspoon opened by taking A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces, and Cooper answered with Breanna Stewart of the New York. The All-Star teams were drawn from 10 starters and 12 reserves, with Weatherspoon taking the first starter and Cooper taking the first reserve.
The assignment that mattered most came down to a coin flip before the draft order ever did. Bueckers had the biggest fan total, but Cooper won the flip and got her on Team Coop, while Weatherspoon landed Clark on Team Spoon. That split gives the league’s showcase game a cleaner edge than a simple popularity contest would have, because the top two vote-getters will not just headline the night — they will be separated, shaping the first real matchup of the event.
There is more than bragging rights on the line. The teams will play for a $100,000 prize pool benefiting two Chicago-based organizations dedicated to keeping girls involved in sports, with $70,000 going to the winning team’s affiliated organization and $30,000 to the runner-up. Becky Hammon and Cheryl Reeve will coach the game because their teams owned the two best records through games played on Friday, July 10, and Las Vegas edged Minnesota in the head-to-head tiebreaker after both sat at 16-6. Hammon will coach Team Coop, and Reeve will coach Team Spoon.
For Bueckers, the vote total is already the number that defines the moment. The league has set the stage for July 25, and the rest is now locked in: uniforms, coaches, and teams. What remains is the game itself, when the draft choices stop being names on a screen and become the matchup that opens three days of WNBA activity in Chicago.
