While Caitlin Clark isn’t competing on the first day of WNBA All-Star weekend, there will still be plenty of stars to watch in Friday night’s Skills Challenge and 3-Point Contest. The festivities will also feature a 3×3 exhibition matchup between the USA Basketball 3×3 Women’s National Team and the USA Basketball 3×3 U23 National team.
The Skills Challenge includes a timed obstacle course to test skills like dribbling, bounce passes, chest passes and outlet passes, plus elbow jump-shots and 3-point shots from the top of the arc and the corner. The 3-Point Contest is a two-round, timed competition with five shooting locations around the arc.
WNBA Skills Challenge participants: Brittney Griner (Phoenix Mercury), Allisha Gray (Atlanta Dream), Marina Mabrey (Connecticut Sun), Erica Wheeler (Indiana Fever) and Sophie Cunningham (Phoenix Mercury).
WNBA 3-Point Contest participants: Jonquel Jones (New York Liberty), Stefanie Dolson (Washington Mystics), Allisha Gray (Atlanta Dream), Marina Mabrey (Connecticut Sun) and Kayla McBride (Minnesota Lynx).
The WNBA All-Star Game, which features Team USA vs. Team WNBA in a pre-Olympics tune-up, will be held on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. ET.
How to watch the WNBA Skills Challenge, 3-Point Contest
Date: Friday, July 19
Time: 9 p.m. ET
Channel: ESPN
Follow along with Yahoo Sports’ Cassandra Negley for live updates as WNBA All-Star weekend kicks off on Friday.
Live5 updates
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Up next is Allisha Gray, who finished in 31.2 seconds.
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Brittney Griner is up first in the Skills Challenge. She finishes in 46.3 seconds.
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Homecourt advantage for Mercury’s Brittney Griner
The hometown fans in Phoenix are happy to see Brittney Griner.
Safe to say EVERYONE in Phoenix loves them some Brittney Griner 🥺🧡
She’ll have a lot of fans cheering her on in the Skills Competition tonight pic.twitter.com/2ZqFwYG5c9
— WNBA (@WNBA) July 20, 2024
Great moment for Griner to be able to enjoy this after what she’s been through.
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Kelsey Mitchell subbing for Erica Wheeler in WNBA All-Star Skills Challenge
If you missed the news, the Indiana Fever’s Erica Wheeler was stranded due to the nationwide Microsoft outage that grounded flights for several airlines. Teammate Kelsey Mitchell is taking Wheeler’s place.
The Fever tried to charter a flight for Wheeler but none were available.
Please read more here.
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Allie Quigley jokes she should get back pay for winning 4 WNBA 3-point contests
Past WNBA 3-point champ Allie Quigley heard about the $55,000 bonus this year’s winner will receive and jokingly asked if she could get some back pay:
And oh yeah….Hey @aflac have you guys heard of back pay?
Sincerely, a 4 time WNBA 3 pt champ 😂 just kidding (kinda) GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE TONIGHT!!!!! #wnba https://t.co/o3zl1nKOnp— Alexandria Quigley (@alliequigley) July 19, 2024
Quigley won the 3-point shootout in 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2022 while with the Chicago Sky.
