Brittney Griner, A'ja Wilson, Stewart Among 2023 WNBA All-Star Starters Announced

The Phoenix Mercury's Brittney Griner, Las Vegas Aces' A'ja Wilson, New York Liberty's Breanna Stewart and Indiana Fever's Aliyah Boston headline the starters for the 2023 WNBA All-Star Game.

The league announced the four guards and six frontcourt players who led the overall balloting. Wilson and Stewart were the highest vote-getters among the fans and will serve as captains of the two All-Star squads.

Griner's return has been perhaps the biggest story of the season, both because what she overcame while wrongfully detained and the incredibly high standard of excellence she has maintained despite being out of the league for an entire year.

The 32-year-old is averaging 19.1 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.4 blocks. Her field-goal percentage (61.8) is on pace to be a career high.

Griner would be a strong MVP candidate if the Mercury weren't last in the WNBA (2-10).

For Boston, this figures to be the first of many All-Star appearnces.

The 2023 No. 1 overall pick has lived up to the hype so far as a rookie. She's averaging 15.6 points on 65.1 percent shooting to go along with 8.1 boards and 1.5 blocks.

At 5-8, the Fever have already matched their win total from 2023 and figure to hit double digits for only the second time since 2016. The franchise has been desperate to find a true cornerstone player following the retirement of Tamika Catchings after the 2016 season.

Boston unquestionably fits the bill.

Thanks to a process that split voting shares between fans, players and media members, there weren't many surprises with the starter reveal. But the Connecticut Sun's Alyssa Thomas has a strong case to fall into the snubbed category.

Even after trading Jonquel Jones to the Liberty, the Sun have the WNBA's second-best record (11-3), and Thomas is a big reason why. She's averaging 14.9 points, 10.4 rebounds and 7.6 assists.

While she has assembled an MVP-caliber résumé, the 6'2" forward couldn't impress the fans or her peers enough. She was 10th and seventh in those two voting categories.

Thomas will presumably get into the All-Star Game as a reserve, though.

The WNBA's 12 head coaches have the task of filling out the rest of the player pool. The reserves will be announced Saturday. Stewart and Wilson will draft their teams July 8 ahead of the event July 15 in Las Vegas.