The 2026 All-Star voting briefly got caught up in controversy after players’ verdict on Caitlin Clark. The Indiana Fever star was ranked 11th in the players’ vote in the All-Star voting, outraging former players like Candace Parker, who cited ‘insecurity’ as the reason behind players not selecting Clark. On Sunday, former ESPN host Linda Cohn brought the controversy back to life after she critiqued her former colleague for his take on Caitlin Clark.
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When the controversy first flared up in July following the results of the vote becoming public, Andscape’s senior writer and basketball analyst David Dennis Jr. said, “I don’t think you can make a compelling argument that Caitlin Clark is a top-4 guard in the WNBA.” Cohn posted Dennis Jr.’s six-second viral clip on X with the caption “Need a laugh?”
Given her impact on the Indiana Fever offense, some might even argue that the 2024 Rookie of the Year might be the best guard in the league. She has been in the conversation since her rookie year when she averaged 19.2 points and 8.4 assists per game, and after missing most of her second season due to a groin injury, Clark is now averaging a career-best 22.5 points per game.
Besides Cohn, another veteran analyst, Skip Bayless, also highlighted the disparity between Caitlin Clark’s performance this season and where the WNB player’s voting placed her on the list.
“Somehow the player who finished 11th among guards in All-Star voting by rival players just won her third Eastern Conference Player of the Week award this season. Go figure,” Skip Bayless said on August 4.
However, even before Bayless, the only WNBa player to win MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same season, Candace Parker, spoke about what she also saw as a disparity, especially compared to the fan vote.
“I wholeheartedly believe that there need to be some rules with the WNBA players, because this is getting out of hand. Caitlin Clark voted 11th-best guard by WNBA players? That’s crazy,” she said on the Post Moves podcast.
“I think people need to look at themselves in the mirror and realize, man. You have got insecurities if you are sitting down and putting Caitlin Clark as the 11th best guard.”
While Parker had pointed out that she felt that the players placing Clark outside the top 10 was surprising, the result also clashed with the fan and media vote segments of the overall All-Star voting.
Clark finished second in the fan-voting results and third in media votes. Since fan votes count for 50% of the total All-Star votes and players and media votes count for 25% each, Clark made it to her third straight All-Star in her third WNBA season. Since then, the Indiana Fever star has only improved.
Clark leads the league in assists this season. She is currently tied with Alyssa Thomas at the top with 8.4 assists per game. The difference between Clark and the next player in points scored and assists combined is chasmic. The Fever star is the primary decision-maker on the best offensive team in the league while also being the third-highest on the average points per game list.
Caitlin Clark dominates fiba world cup mvp fan vote 🗳️😳 @CaitlinClark22 is taking over the international stage before even stepping onto the floor, currently capturing an overwhelming 65% of the total fan vote for the TISSOT FIBA World Cup MVP award! 🏆 Clark commands a Show more
Last Friday, following Indiana Fever’s blowout win against the Connecticut Sun, Clark became the first WNBA player to score at least 30 points and 10 assists in back-to-back games. In fact, she had been instrumental in helping her teammate Kelsey Mitchel continue her historic 20+ point game streak, which now stands at 24 games.
However, what’s even more important is that Clark is one of the top three candidates in the MVP race this season. So it’s no surprise that analysts like Cohn feel putting her anywhere outside the top three guards in the league would seem like an obvious injustice to her.