WNBA at 30 Part 3, All-Star Voting Explained, & Stephanie White Speaks Out

The WNBA didn’t become a success overnight—it became a success because people believed in it long before there was proof.

In Part 3 of our WNBA at 30: How Did We Get Here? series, we explore the people who kept the league alive through its most uncertain years. From players who spent winters overseas just to keep playing professionally to the coaches, owners, and fans who refused to give up on the league, this episode looks at how belief—not inevitability—helped transform the WNBA from surviving to thriving.

Also in this episode:

• 🏀 Why does WNBA All-Star voting spark controversy every summer? We break down exactly how the process works—and why different groups often see the league differently.
• 🏆 This week’s awards examine sportsmanship, accountability, officiating, and the line between passionate fandom and harmful behavior.

Whether you’re new to the WNBA or you’ve followed the league for decades, this episode is a reminder that today’s sold-out arenas and record-breaking moments were built by people who believed long before there was proof.

Her Game Her Voice delivers big stories about women’s basketball in 15 minutes (give or take!).

Happy hoopin’!

“Big stories, little episodes—amplifying the voices shaping the game on and off the court." - Her Game Her Voice Podcast by Kaari Peterson

Transcript

Kaari 0:03

Howdy hoop heads and welcome to another episode of Her Game Her Voice, the podcast with big stories about women's basketball in little 15 minutes or less episodes. I'm your host, Kaari Peterson. Today on the pod, I'm sharing part three of our WNBA at 30 How Did We Get Here series, answering a listener question about voting for WNBA All-Stars, and of course I'll wrap it all up with the awards.

Kaari 0:33

Now let's tip it off.

Side Note: "Nneke Owl-umike"

Kaari 0:38

Before I really jump into today's episode, I've got a quick side note. I want to give an official shout out to an extraordinary wildlife photographer and birder. His name is Rick Morris, and he's based in Northern California.

Kaari 0:53

Schmoopie and I recently went on one of Rick's owl tours, and it was absolutely magical. One of the highlights was spotting a juvenile owl about three months old perched on a basketball backboard.

Kaari 1:08

That's right, this basketball nerd went owl watching and found one on a basketball backboard. How cool is that?

Kaari 1:18

If you're in the Bay Area and want to experience the magic of an owl or bird tour, look up Rick Morris inthewildwithrick.com. You will not be disappointed.

Kaari 1:31

Oh, and you'll be happy to know that I named that owl on the backboard Nneka Owl-umike. After the great Nneka Ogwumike, someone who is wise like an owl and definitely knows her way around a backboard!

WNBA at 30: How Did We Get Here - Part 3 "Belief Before Proof"

Kaari 1:48

And now back to our How Did We Get Here series. Part three is called Belief Before Proof. Last time we looked at the battle between the WNBA and the American Basketball League, the ABL. The WNBA survived and the ABL did not.

Kaari 2:07

You might think that once the competition disappeared, the WNBA was finally in the clear. It wasn't. Because surviving isn't the same thing as thriving.

Kaari 2:19

Today, when we look at the WNBA, it's easy to think that this was always where the league was headed. Sold-out arenas, record television ratings, expansion franchises paying hundreds of millions of dollars just for the opportunity to join. It almost feels inevitable.

Kaari 2:38

But history tells a different story. For much of its first two decades, the league's future was anything but certain. Even rapid expansion in the early years didn't guarantee long-term stability. And that brings us to today's question.

Kaari 2:56

So who kept the dream of the WNBA alive? At first glance, the answer seems obvious. It was the NBA. The NBA supplied the funding, business infrastructure, and perhaps most importantly, the credibility the league needed to get off the ground. Without that support, it's hard to imagine the WNBA surviving those early years.

Kaari 3:21

But here's where the story often gets oversimplified. You'll still hear people say, the WNBA failed and the NBA had to keep rescuing it. But that's not really what happened.

Kaari 3:35

The WNBA wasn't launched expecting to turn a profit overnight. It was launched as a long-term investment. Because that's how startup sports leagues work. Professional leagues aren't built in a few seasons, they're built over decades.

Kaari 3:53

The NBA understood that.

Kaari 3:56

Here's what I think people miss.

Kaari 3:58

The biggest challenge facing the WNBA wasn't about basketball. The talent was always there. The biggest challenge was perception.

Kaari 4:10

Every time attendance dipped, critics predicted the league was dying. Every time a franchise moved, people declared women's basketball had failed. Men's leagues have often been given decades to grow.

Kaari 4:26

Women's sports were expected to prove themselves almost immediately. That's an impossible standard.

Kaari 4:33

So who kept the dream alive? The answer?

Kaari 4:37

Thousands of people.

Kaari 4:40

People who believed in what the WNBA could become.

Kaari 4:49

The players kept believing.

The Players

Kaari 4:51

For years many of the league's biggest stars finished the WNBA season, took only a short break, then spent the winter playing overseas just to earn enough money to keep playing professionally. Year-round basketball, very little rest, and then they did it all over again. Not because it was easy, because they believed a professional women's basketball league in the U.S. was worth building.

The Coaches

Kaari 5:21

The coaches kept believing too. They weren't just teaching offenses and defenses. They were building standards. They were building culture, credibility.

Kaari 5:31

As Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve has often said, today's success was built by generations of players and coaches who kept believing long before the rest of the basketball world caught on.

The Owners

Kaari 5:46

And what about the team owners? Well, that story is a little more complicated. Not every owner stayed committed, but enough owners believed the league was worth investing in, even when profits weren't guaranteed, that it kept moving forward.

The Fans

Kaari 6:07

And then there were the fans, the original season ticket holders, families, youth basketball teams, people who kept showing up, even when the national spotlight didn't. Those fans weren't simply buying tickets.

Kaari 6:24

They were casting votes for the future of women's basketball.

Kaari 6:28

Think about that for a second.

Kaari 6:30

Every sold-out arena we see today, every television audience that sets a new record, every expansion franchise, every little kid who now dreams of playing in the WNBA rests on the shoulders of people who kept believing. When believing required a whole lot more than faith.

Kaari 6:52

Today, believing in the WNBA doesn't require much faith. The arenas are full, television audiences are continuing to grow, sponsors are investing, owners are lining up, expansion teams are paying record prices just to get in. The proof is everywhere.

Kaari 7:11

But 30 years ago, none of that existed. There was no proof. There was only belief. Belief that someday this league could become what it is today.

Kaari 7:23

And maybe that's the real story of the WNBA's first 30 years.

Kaari 7:29

Not that success was inevitable, but that enough people believed long enough for the league to go from surviving to thriving.

Kaari 7:39

And with that, I'm awarding myself today's unofficial buzzer beater award for making it through an entire episode about belief without quoting Journey's Don't Stop Believing.

Kaari 7:52

Well, I almost made it.

Kaari 7:55

Next time in part four of How We Got Here, we'll meet one of the players who embodied that belief and brought something to the WNBA that every great sports league needs. Its first dynasty and its first true superstar.

Listener Question

Kaari 8:13

And now it's time for our listener question.

Kaari 8:17

This week's question comes from Jordan in Seattle, who asks, how exactly are WNBA All-Stars selected? It seems like there were some pretty big snubs this year.

Kaari 8:29

Wonderful question, Jordan, and very timely. Every year in July, fans start debating who made the All-Star team and who didn't.

Kaari 8:40

Here's how the voting works. First, the 10 starters are chosen through a weighted voting system. Fans make up 50% of that vote. Current WMBA players account for 25%, and a media panel makes up the final 25%.

Kaari 8:58

Everyone votes for four guards and six front court players.

Kaari 9:03

Once those votes are combined, the top four guards and top six front court players are named All-Star starters.

Kaari 9:11

After that, the process changes. The 12 reserves are selected entirely by the league's head coaches. Coaches vote for three guards, five front court players, and four wild cards, and they can't vote for players on their own teams.

Kaari 9:27

So remember, not being voted a starter doesn't mean a player won't make the all-star team. More than half the roster is actually selected later by the coaches as reserves.

Kaari 9:38

Now, about those snubs.

Kaari 9:41

This year's biggest controversy involved the player vote. Caitlin Clark was ranked as just the 11th best guard in the league by her fellow players, despite raking near the top with both fans and the media.

Kaari 9:55

Then ESPN reported that fewer than half of eligible WNBA players actually submitted ballots, meaning a relatively small number of votes had an outsized impact on the player rankings.

Kaari 10:08

So it's really no surprise that All-Star voting sparks debate every year. Fans, players, media members, and coaches all value different things.

Kaari 10:18

And one more fun fact about this year's All-Star Game. Because the WNBA is celebrating its 30th season, they're doing something they've never done before.

Kaari 10:29

Instead of having the top two fan vote getters serving as team captains, the league has handed the keys to two absolute legends, Cynthia Cooper and Teresa Weatherspoon.

Kaari 10:41

If those names sound familiar, they should. Cynthia Cooper was the league's very first MVP, and Teresa Weatherspoon hit one of the most iconic shots in WMBA history.

Kaari 10:52

They're two pioneers who helped build the league, making them fitting honorary general managers for this year's celebration. Each will draft a team from the full pool of 22 All-Stars.

Kaari 11:05

So, yes, there will always be debate about who got snubbed. But in the WNBA's 30th season, it's also a celebration of the women who made today's league possible.

Kaari 11:17

And that, my dear hoop heads, is pretty cool.

Buzzer Beater Award

Kaari 11:25

And now it's time for the awards. This week's Buzzer Beater Award goes to Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White for reminding us that you can demand accountability for an incident on the basketball court and also defend the humanity of everyone involved in that incident.

Kaari 11:45

By now, I'm sure you've heard about the thing that happened during last month's Fever Mercury game. You know, the one involving Alyssa Thomas and Caitlin Clark. After the league retroactively upgraded the play to a flagrant two, emotions boiled over.

Kaari 12:01

Fans were calling on WNBA Commissioner Kathy Engelbert and the league to make a statement as the story dominated headlines.

Kaari 12:09

But as the backlash against Alyssa Thomas escalated into online abuse, death threats, and hateful rhetoric, it was Stephanie White who stepped up first.

Kaari 12:21

During an intense press conference, White passionately condemned the toxicity, racism, and homophobia directed at Alyssa Thomas. She made it clear that criticism of a basketball play is one thing, but threats and hate have no place in the game.

Kaari 12:40

She also said that the people spreading that abuse weren't representing the WNBA or Indiana Fever fans. They were simply using this moment to push their own divisive agendas.

Kaari 12:55

Congratulations, Coach White, on your well-deserved buzzer beater award.

Airball Award

Kaari 13:02

And now the Airball Award. This week's Airball Award goes to the WNBA officiating crew from last month's Fever Mercury game.

Kaari 13:14

Look, their job is to make calls in real time.

Kaari 13:18

Unfortunately, they missed one of the biggest calls of the night.

Kaari 13:23

The league later reviewed the play, upgraded Alyssa Thomas's foul to a flagrant two, fined her, and suspended her for one game. That retroactive decision quickly became one of the biggest stories in the WNBA, spilling out of sports media and into the mainstream.

Kaari 13:42

Now we'll never know whether making the correct call during the game would have changed everything that followed. But what we do know is that the officials missed a play the league later determined warranted a flagrant two.

Kaari 13:56

And let's be honest, the WNBA didn't need another high-profile example of questionable officiating.

Kaari 14:04

And that's why this week's Airball Award goes to the officiating crew from last month's Fever Mercury game.

Flagrant Foul Award

Kaari 14:13

And finally, the Flagrant Foul Award. This week's flagrant foul award goes to the people who crossed the line from criticism into threats and harassment.

Kaari 14:25

Look, if you want to criticize Alyssa Thomas for what happened in that Fever Mercury game, that's fair.

Kaari 14:32

The league reviewed the play, upgraded it to a flagrant two, find her, blah blah blah.

Kaari 14:37

That's basketball.

Kaari 14:39

But sending racist messages, making death threats, and harassing someone over a basketball play?

Kaari 14:46

That's not basketball.

Kaari 14:48

Alyssa Thomas is a human being. You don't have to like what she did.

Kaari 14:54

But no player deserves to be threatened or dehumanized over a game. Women's basketball has worked too hard to build this community.

Kaari 15:04

We can't let hate become part of it.

Kaari 15:07

Congratulations, haters!

Kaari 15:09

You've won this week's Flagrant Foul

Sign-Off

Kaari 15:11

Award.

Kaari 15:15

I'm Kaari Peterson, and you've been listening to Her Game Her Voice.

Kaari 15:20

Want more?

Kaari 15:20

Hit follow or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. ? Thanks for listening and happy hoopin'!

Kaari 15:35 Kaari 15:35