2026 WNBA All-Star Game: The three biggest snubs, including Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas

The reserves for the 2026 WNBA All-Star Game were announced Tuesday, filling out the full player pool for the annual mid-season showcase. As expected, the group was headlined by Atlanta Dream stars Allisha Gray, Rhyne Howard and Angel Reese, as well as former MVPs Nneka Ogwumike (Los Angeles Sparks) and Jonquel Jones (New York Liberty).

Earlier this month, the 10 starters were revealed. That group, including reigning MVP A'ja Wilson and the last two Rookie of the Year winners, Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers, was chosen by a combination of fan, media and player voting. The reserves, on the other hand, were picked by the coaches.

Each of the league's 15 head coaches submitted one ballot with three guards, five frontcourt players and four players of any position. They could choose players regardless of conference affiliation, but could not vote for a player from their own team. Here are their 12 selections.

As always, there were some surprises from the coaches' decisions. Ahead of the All-Star draft to decide the teams, which will be conducted by honorary general managers Cynthia Cooper and Teresa Weatherspoon later this month, let's take a look at some players who had a case to be in Chicago on July 25 -- and might be after all depending on whether injury replacements are needed.

Thomas is the biggest snub from this list. The six-time All-Star hasn't missed the event since 2021, when she was sidelined with a torn Achilles, and it's stunning that the coaches chose not to select her. She is putting up 14.4 points, 6.9 rebounds, a league-leading 8.4 assists and 1.5 steals per game on 51.5% shooting -- nearly identical numbers to last season, when she finished third in MVP voting.

The Mercury have not been good this season, but their 8-13 record is better than the Seattle Storm's (6-17) and not meaningfully different than the Los Angeles Sparks' (8-11), and those two teams had a combined three players selected as reserves. Thomas not being named a starter was one thing, but it's baffling that she didn't get the nod as a reserve.

Again, she's leading the league in assists. If that doesn't make you an All-Star, what does?

Sykes made her All-Star debut as an injury replacement last season, and missed out on the honor this season in part because of her own ailment. She went down with a plantar fascia injury on June 16 and has not played since. It's still unclear when she'll be back on the court, or whether she would have been healthy for the All-Star Game anyway.

Prior to her injury, however, Sykes had been extremely impressive for the expansion Tempo. She was averaging a career-high 20.1 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game. Sykes is eighth in the league in scoring, and one of just two players (along with Kahleah Copper) in the top-15 in scoring who are not Chicago-bound.

While Sykes has only played 15 games, Plum (12 games) and Malonga (15 games) both were selected as reserves despite their own injury issues.

Once you get past Thomas and Sykes, there aren't any players who can really complain about not being selected. But we'll add a third name here, just in case the league ends up needing three injury replacements, as they did last season.

In that case, Leite deserves a shout. The former first-round pick was selected in the expansion draft for the second year in a row, and has thrived as the Fire's starting point guard. At 15.4 points and 5.6 assists per game, she's leading the team in both categories and is ninth in the league in assists.

She's also one of six players putting up at least 15 points and five assists; the other five are All-Stars.