When the WNBA dropped the first batch of All-Star voting results last year, A’ja Wilson was leading the charge early, with Caitlin Clark and Aaliyah Boston right behind her. And Angel Reese? Well, after she casually made history by becoming the first rookie to record seven straight double-doubles, it was only expected that the phenom would land a well-earned seventh place with 118,490 fan votes. What’s more? By the time, the final results came in, the Chicago Sky star had moved even further up to 5th with 381,518 votes. Now, fast forward to a year later, and the script seems pretty familiar.

Once again, Reese has decided to drop historical numbers just at the right time—she became the second-youngest player in WNBA history to post a triple-double, leading her team to a 78–66 win over the Connecticut Sun on Sunday. This year, Reese also became the fastest player in league history to notch 500+ points and 500+ rebounds, in just 38 games, surpassing Tina Charles. She’s also the fastest player ever to hit 30 career double-doubles (42 games).

So when this year’s first All-Star returns dropped and Reese was sitting at 13th with 173,363 votes? It was unexpected to many. Leading the list was Clark (515,993 votes) followed by Napheesa Collier (484,758), Aliyah Boston (446,961), A’ja Wilson (394,600), Breanna Stewart (367,819), Paige Bueckers (312,920), Kelsey Mitchell (277,664), Sabrina Ionescu (234,684), Lexie Hull (217,438), and Kiki Iriafen (213,500) in the Top-10.

Now, sure, Reese’s shooting efficiency has dipped a bit, but to her credit, she’s been putting in the work. She’s even stepped out to the three-point line. But, let’s be real. Fan votes are also driven by popularity, and Reese has found herself at the opposite end of the stick. At the end of the day, though, she isn’t built to sit back. Taking to X on June 19, the young player wrote, “DOUBLE VOTING TODAY!” while sharing a tweet from ‘I talk hoops 🏀’ that read, “Angel Reese enters tomorrow’s game as the only WNBA player averaging a double-double this season! ✨”. On Instagram, she further appealed, “DID YOU VOTE TODAY????! VOTE NOW!”

Notably, in light of the low votes Reese has garnered so far, teammate Rachel Banham told the Sun-Times, “If you average a double-double, you deserve to be an All-Star”. Will Benham’s manifestation come true? Well, we’ll have to wait a bit more to know that.

Meanwhile…

“Unhinged” Caitlin Clark fans accused ahead of the WNBA All-Star

While we are just a month away from the latest edition of the WNBA All-Star games, not everything seems to be in paradise for the Indiana Fever. No sooner did the league announce the official opening of voting lines, did Clark fans find themselves in the eye of the storm. But before we get to that…

Let’s understand how the voting works first. The ballot stays open for about half a month. You can cast one ballot per day through the WNBA app or WNBA.com, where you’ll get to vote for up to 10 players: six frontcourt stars and four guards. And there are double-vote days. Yes, your vote will count twice on these magical dates: June 14, June 20, and June 27. But fans don’t hold all the cards, just half of them. Fan votes count for 50% of the total score, and the other half is split between the players and media, who each contribute 25%. Once all the votes are tallied, the top four guards and six frontcourt players with the highest overall scores will be named starters. Then the WNBA head coaches come in to pick the 12 reserves, but no voting for players on their own teams. Unfortunately, many took advantage of the media vote loophole to boost Caitlin Clark.

All it took was entering a media member’s email to skew the results in favor of the Fever star. A journalist, LoLivia Pope, exposed the scandal on X, writing, “Multiple media members have had their emails hacked by Caitlin fans…. All for the sake of voting her into the All Star game? This next level sh-t. Y’all don’t feel crazy doing this? All for an ALL STAR GAME? Weirdos man.”

Another WNBA journalist, Sara Jane Gamelli, shared a screenshot that showed unsolicited vote confirmations. “Woke up to more votes in my inbox!” she posted. “Fan base is unhinged. Call it how I see it. Harassment and threats for what? Some people are just truly showing why this has been the elephant in the room no one’s been talking about.”

It seems like the fans took matters into their own hands because Clark had missed five games due to a quad injury, and everyone thought that hurt her All-Star chances. Really, though? She is the face of the league, after all.