While Azzi Fudd stole the show at the WNBA 3-Point Contest, becoming the first rookie ever to win the event, WNBA analyst Rachel DeMita raised an interesting point about missing players. Even after Fudd’s historic victory, one question remains: why weren’t some of the league’s biggest shooters, like Caitlin Clark and Sabrina Ionescu, in the competition? DeMita believes she has the answer.
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As the league prepares for the second half of the season, DeMita shared what she thinks is the real reason. Speaking on her Courtside Club show, DeMita highlighted how a part of the WNBA’s freshly negotiated CBA might have unintentionally created confusion in relation to competition invites. She stated that her insights came from speaking with player agents.
“He (an agent) basically said that in the new WNBA CBA, I think if the league asks a player to be in the contest, then they are contractually obligated to do it. So I think that that might have been some of the miscommunication between player and league. And again, like put the blame wherever you want here, because there’s clearly miscommunication.”
Since the players are not given a choice in participation for events like the 3-Point Contest or the Shooting Stars challenge per the CBA, the league might have chosen to gauge interest through player agents before sending official invites. Additionally, as both Minnesota Lynx guard Kayla McBride and Ionescu reported not being invited at all, it supports DeMita’s claim.
She also believed that the spectacle of rookie Azzi Fudd competing against Caitlin Clark and Sabrina Ionescu and potentially winning the contest would’ve brought in more viewership than the event received.
This follows the controversial decision to exclude Caitlin Clark, one of the league’s brightest shooters, as well as Ionescu. Ionescu is a two-time 3-point contest winner and even participated in the historic NBA vs WNBA shooting contest, where she went up against Golden State Warriors guard Steph Curry. Her exclusion from this year’s 3-Point Contest is puzzling.
A WNBA spokesperson elaborated on the matter, per The Athletic.
“Our general process is to reach out to agents to determine a player’s interest, and some accept and some decline.”
However, it all became more convoluted when Ionescu and McBride revealed their side of the story.
Sabrina Ionescu and Kayla McBride publicly pushed back on the invitation narrative
It all started when the reports of Sabrina Ionescu and Kayla McBride turning down invites first surfaced, and Ionescu talked to reporters to clear the air. She revealed that she never received what she considered an official invite, according to a report by CBS Sports.
“I can’t decline an offer I never got officially invited to I can’t decline an offer I never got officially invited to,” she said. “So I was pretty surprised to see that. Never got invited. Whether it’s against Steph Curry or in the W, I always go out and try and beat my record every single time I’ve gone out. So yeah, I mean, I just kind of wanted to set the record straight. That was just false.”
While details about Clark’s invite are unknown, McBride explained via social media that she only received an unofficial invite on short notice via text from her agent.
“I received a half a** invite to the 3 pt contest, thru my agent, in a text randomly 48 hours ago.. not officially,” she wrote on her Instagram Story. “sooo posting things like i’m afraid of shooting smoke is weird and if you didn’t hear it from me prob shouldn’t believe it we should focus on the great shooters in it already!!!”
If DeMita’s reporting is accurate, clearer communication between the league and its players needs to be on the same level of importance as the competition itself.