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Caitlin Clark headlines first round of WNBA All-Star voting
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Caitlin Clark missed some time early in the WNBA season. However, that absence did nothing to diminish the Indiana Fever star from being one of the game’s most enticing products on the court.
After 4 brilliant games to begin the season, Clark missed 5 straight contests while dealing with a quad injury. The Fever struggled without Clark on the court, but the team is now 2-1 since she returned, and she returned to the lineup with a pair of brilliant shooting performances for Indiana.
On Friday, the WNBA updated the tallies for the first round of All-Star voting, and Clark led the charge at No. 1 overall. That should come as no surprise, with reports of national WNBA viewership ratings taking a substantial hit during Clark’s absence.
Clark received 515,993 total votes to lead all players, and she is the only player to eclipse 500,000 votes in the first round. Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier, the current frontrunner for the MVP Award, was 2nd at 484,758, and Clark’s teammate, Aliyah Boston, was 3rd at 446,961. No other player received 400,000 votes at the first return.
The fan voting portion of the process will only account for 50% of the entire ballot for the All-Star starters. The other 50% will split evenly between a current player vote and a media vote, but it remains hard to envision a scenario where Clark is not a starter.
While Clark might lead the current All-Star voting, it is Collier who has the edge in the latest WNBA MVP odds produced by BetMGM. Collier is listed at -325, surging ahead of Clark during the former Iowa star’s absence, and Clark is currently slotted at +200.
Due to her injury absence, Clark is currently ineligible for the league leaderboards in per-game statistics. But, if eligible, Clark would rank 8th in scoring (19.9 points) and 2nd in assists (8.7). Her 1.3 steals per game would also be tied as a top-25 mark in the league.
We’ll see how the MVP race develops throughout the season, but Clark’s odds are still available at a good value for the time being.
Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.