Caitlin Clark’s All-Star voting drop-off. Plus: Happy birthday, WNBA!

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Welcome back to No Offseason. We’re so glad you’re here. Today:

🗓️ New 50-game schedule

📍 WNBA’s 30th birthday celly

🗳️ ASG early voting results

It’s been quite the week, and we’ve got a lot to get to. Let’s go!

Expansion: Schedule grows to 50 games in 2027

Want more WNBA? You’ve (almost) got it.

The league will expand its schedule to 50 games in 2027, nearly a 50 percent increase in games from the 2019 season (34 games), it announced last week.

After the shortened pandemic seasons in 2020 and 2021, the league had 36 games in 2022, 40 in 2023 and 2024, 44 in 2025 and 2026 and now … 50 in 2027. The CBA even includes a provision to grow the schedule to 52 games in 2029. (For comparison, the NBA has an 82-game schedule.)

That means there is a lot more regular-season basketball, without any corresponding increase to the most fun part of the season: the playoffs.

On the one hand, if the league keeps expanding — it’ll reach 18 teams in 2030 — and keeps the postseason field at eight, the regular season will retain some stakes because it’ll be harder to qualify for the playoffs.

But that’s still many more games to squeeze into essentially the same calendar footprint because the WNBA doesn’t want to butt up against the NCAA Tournament or face logistical challenges with NBA arenas the longer it extends into October and November.

People around the league have suggested that any expansion is a sign of the continued health of the WNBA, that it can sustain more inventory. Health is the operative word, however, because more games generally lead to more injuries. The recent WNBA Finals have all featured at least one player sustaining an injury that bled into the start of the next regular season.

How the league allots these 50 games will be interesting. Currently, scheduling is done with respect to conference, even if the standings don’t take conference into account. However, when the Sun move to Houston, the WNBA will have nine Western Conference teams and six teams in the East, so either there’s realignment needed or the league has one-off divisions for scheduling before Cleveland joins in 2028. Imbalanced schedules will also force the WNBA to reevaluate its playoff format.

Basically, the W can’t just announce 50 games and expect everything to fall into line. There are lots of knockdown effects from an expanded schedule, and so many questions still left to answer.

Fast Breaks

👟 The Caitlin 1, Caitlin Clark’s first Nike signature shoe, will be available for sale on Oct. 1 (along with her 18-piece apparel line). They retail for $140. More on Clark below.

🏀 Angel Reese is officially the fastest player to reach 1,000 rebounds in league history. Or rather, call ’em “Mebounds.”

🏀 And Brittney Griner set the all-time blocks record with 878.

📒 Ever wondered what it’s like to be on the fringes of a WNBA roster, not knowing if you’ll make it through training camp? Peyton Williams has an interesting journal about her (albeit brief) time with the Fire and Mercury to start the 2026 season.

🏀 What’s in a name? Some players of African descent spoke to Andscape about how to honor their heritage when choosing which name to go by on the court.

🖋️ As an original WNBA player, Sue Wicks penned a letter to the Liberty and league ahead of its 30th anniversary game between New York and Los Angeles.

🎙️ On the pods, Zena, Annie, and Sabreena break down Azzi Fudd’s decision to join Project B and Flau’jae Johnson’s move to Unrivaled, and rank the greatest players across the league’s lifetime. Speaking of …

Happy Birthday, WNBA! 30 stars from 30 years

Sunday in L.A., the legends came out to celebrate the league’s inaugural game between the Sparks and the Liberty on June 21, 1997.

League legends Lisa Leslie (who won the opening tip in that first-ever matchup, BTW), DeLisha Milton-Jones, Teresa Weatherspoon and Vickie Johnson were all in attendance for Nneka Ogwumike’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give the Sparks the win.

But are any of them on our top 30 stars list?

Leslie, a three-time champion and two-time MVP who played from 1997-2006 and 2008-09, comes in at No. 11. But the others fell off — we only had 30 spots, after all!

Let’s get into our top 5:

5. Breanna Stewart (2017-present)

4. A’ja Wilson (2018-present)

3. Cynthia Cooper (1997-2000, 2003)

2. Diana Taurasi (2004-2014, 2016-2024)

1. Tamika Catchings (2002-2016)

Maybe this was controversial, but Catchings tops my list. Only winning one title doesn’t detract from the consistent two-way brilliance Catchings brought to the court for 15 seasons. She’s followed by the all-time leading scorer in Taurasi, the league’s only four-time finals MVP Cynthia Cooper and current stars Wilson (four-time MVP, three-time champion) and Stewart (two-time MVP, three-time champion).

Read all 30 picks here to see where others like Maya Moore, Brittney Griner and Becky Hammon rank.

All-Star Fan Votes: Wilson leads, Clark in fifth after early voting

The first returns of All-Star fan voting are out, and they’re telling.

Wilson takes the top spot with 308,249 votes. Paige Bueckers, last season’s Rookie of the Year, earned 298,027 and three-time All-Star Aliyah Boston from the Fever rounded out the top three with 282,186.

Stewart came in fourth with 255,879 votes. Clark, after leading early returns in her first two seasons, came in fifth with 253, 602.

Here are our takeaways:

🗯️ Annie: Clark’s drop to fifth place is a bit of a shock, especially when considering she’s averaging the most points in her career this season (21.3 ppg).

That said, I’ve wondered if this is the universe balancing out after two years of utter pandemonium when it comes to Clark’s star power. She was a catalyst for never-before-seen growth in the WNBA, bringing in a wave of new fans who have helped take the league mainstream. But those fans have, as a result, been subjected to the greatness of other stars — Wilson being one of them.

Wilson leading in fan votes accurately represents her status as the best player in the league. So, maybe the early returns aren’t so surprising after all and are instead a reflection of things leveling off.

🗯️ Sabreena: It’s becoming clearer that Bueckers (who is currently third in voting) has picked up the mantle as the favorite perimeter player in this new generation entering the WNBA — the league’s GM survey suggested as much during the preseason — but it’s one thing for team officials to think that, and another for fans to vote that way.

Clark being fifth in fan voting is entirely fair based on how she’s played this season, and her popularity is still carrying her over excellent seasons from players like Kelsey Plum and Olivia Miles. The most shocking result from these early returns is probably that Clark’s teammate, Boston, passed her on the ballot. If Clark isn’t even the most popular player on the Fever, that is a massive changing of the guard.

That, combined with Clark seemingly not being the priority at Nike (why else would her shoe debut after the WNBA season started?), and it’s a weird time in Clarkland.

Decisions: Fudd joins Project B over Unrivaled

No one from Unrivaled or Project B is going to say the leagues are competing for players. Everyone loves to talk about the women’s basketball ecosystem as if there is enough room for everyone. But at the end of the day, both leagues are gunning for the biggest stars and operate in the same window. So yeah, they’re in direct competition.

Project B pulled off a coup by signing Fudd, the Class of 2025 “Future is Unrivaled” member. Two days later, Unrivaled, the 3-on-3 league founded by Stewart and Napheesa Collier, announced it inked Flau’jae Johnson to a multiyear deal.

In the end, Unrivaled has Project B beat because it’s entering Year 3 while the new barnstorming international league still has a lot of questions to answer.

But don’t let anyone fool you. Competition is a factor for these leagues. They may be playing different styles of basketball, but ultimately, coexisting long-term is a pipe dream.

Watch Guide

Here are the top games we’re monitoring this week (all times ET):

📺 Wings-Aces

Thursday at 10 p.m., NBA TV

The Wings have had the Aces’ number this season, winning the two matchups by a combined 38 points. But both of those games took place in Dallas, and now the season series moves to Las Vegas.

📺 Sparks-Fever

Saturday at 8 p.m., CBS/Paramount+

One prominent figure missing from the Sparks versus Liberty 30th season celebration was the WNBA’s first president, Val Ackerman. But she will be honored in Indiana on Saturday with the Lin Dunn Inspiring Women Award. It’s also another opportunity to check in on the notoriously hot-and-cold Fever.

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This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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