Minnesota Lynx ahead Napheesa Collier is the WNBA MVP entrance runner on the midway level within the season. Collier and Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark are the 2 captains for the WNBA All-Star Sport and get to draft their groups. Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers needed to wait some time to listen to her title known as, however Collier chosen her because the final starter.
Bueckers and Clark share a connection that goes again years. Each stars performed below Geno Auriemma at UConn, every successful nationwide titles as their group’s finest participant. The sisterhood of Huskies is a powerful on within the WNBA, and Collier confirmed that in the course of the All-Star draft. Of her 5 starters, three of them went to UConn, together with herself.
Collier expressed her pleasure at enjoying alongside Bueckers on social media with a brief comment on social media.
“Cannot wait,” Collier mentioned about her decide.
Collier and Bueckers have been the highest gamers on their groups all season. Nonetheless, the Lynx are doing much better than the Wings to date this yr. After a sluggish begin from Arike Ogunbowale, Dallas has scratched and clawed its approach to 6-14. Minnesota, then again, sits at 17-2. The group is undefeated at residence exterior of a Commissioner’s Cup Ultimate loss to the Fever.
This yr’s All-Star Sport is Collier’s fifth of her profession. Bueckers, then again, is one among three rookies making their All-Star Sport debut. She is joined by Washington Mystics standouts Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen. Whereas each Bueckers and Collier have clashed on the court docket all season, the All-Star Sport offers every of them an opportunity to rub elbows with one of the best the WNBA has to supply.
The connections that Bueckers walked into the WNBA with are largely because of UConn. The All-Star draft was simply one other instance of the friendships she has across the league and the way her predecessors join together with her each on and off the court docket. Collier, for one, was a fan earlier than she even touched the WNBA.