The Connecticut Sun are sending all three franchise stars to the WNBA All-Star game in Phoenix on July 20 after DeWanna Bonner and Brionna Jones were selected to play for Team WNBA in a matchup against Alyssa Thomas and the U.S. Olympic team.
Bonner has earned five previous All-Star selections with three coming in her five seasons with the Sun. Jones received the honor in both 2021 and 2022, and she returns to her first All-Star game since an Achilles rupture ended her 2023 season prematurely. Bonner and Jones were among eight players chosen by a vote from the league’s coaches, while four others were named to Team WNBA by finishing the top-10 across the combined All-Star voting of fans, media and players.
Thomas and Bonner, who got engaged in July 2023, have been named All-Stars in the same season twice previously, but this will be the first time they compete against each other since 2019 when Bonner played for the Phoenix Mercury.
The 2024 All-Star Game will be played between the USA Basketball roster for this summer’s Paris Olympics and a team of the remaining All-Stars. This is the second time the league has utilized this format for the game, debuting the Team USA vs. Team WNBA matchup before the Tokyo Games in 2021. Thomas, a four-time All-Star, is set to make her Olympic debut in Paris alongside a trio of former UConn women’s basketball stars.
Huskies legends Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier and Diana Taurasi are all Olympic veterans looking to lead the U.S. to its eighth consecutive gold meal. Stewart, the MVP of the Tokyo Games, is appearing in her third Olympics, while Taurasi will make history as the first six-time Olympian in the history of men’s or women’s basketball. Collier was just a second-year pro when she was selected to the Olympic team in 2021 but figures to play a much bigger role in Paris amid an elite start to the 2024 season. Stewart and Collier both ranked top 10 in All-Star voting, and Stewart received the fourth-most votes from fans.
Team WNBA is headlined by a pair of rookie phenoms, Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark and Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese. It is the first time since 2014 that two first-year players have earned All-Star honors in the same season.
![By DOUG FEINBERG PHOENIX (AP) — There were times Brittney Griner thought she would never wear a USA Basketball jersey again. The two-time Olympic gold medalist was sitting in a Russian prison in 2022, sentenced to nine years in jail for drug possession and smuggling. Playing for her country again was a far-fetched idea at […]](https://www.courant.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/AP24203146718990.jpg?w=525 "By DOUG FEINBERG PHOENIX (AP) — There were times Brittney Griner thought she would never wear a USA Basketball jersey again. The two-time Olympic gold medalist was sitting in a Russian prison in 2022, sentenced to nine years in jail for drug possession and smuggling. Playing for her country again was a far-fetched idea at […]")