Jewell Loyd and Nneka Ogwumike to represent Seattle Storm at 2024 WNBA All-Star game
By Rowan Schaberg, edited by Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - Seattle Storm teammates Jewell Loyd and Nneka Ogwumike are set to face off in the WNBA All-Star game on July 20th in Phoenix, the league announced Tuesday. Loyd and Ogwumike, two veteran members of Seattle’s “Core Four”, will make their seventh and ninth career All-Star appearances, respectively.
Seattle Storm shooting guard Jewell Loyd throughout the course of the 2024 WNBA season so far. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo)
Loyd, the reigning All-Star MVP and All-Star Game scoring record holder, will be representing the USA Basketball squad after being named to the 2024 Olympic roster back in June. Following the conclusion of All-Star weekend, Loyd will travel with her fellow Olympians to Paris with sights set on winning her second gold medal, which could be USA women’s basketball’s eighth-straight.
Seattle Storm forward and WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike throughout the course of the 2024 WNBA season so far. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo)
For the third straight year, Ogwumike will represent Team WNBA, her ninth career All-Star selection. After 12 years with the Los Angeles Sparks, Ogwumike’s first season with the Storm has essentially been a seamless transition, a testament to her dominant, transferable talent. She currently ranks 11th in the league in scoring (17.2 points per game), fifth in steals with 1.9 SPG, and fifth in field goal percentage with 54%.
USA Basketball’s announcement of the 2024 Olympic roster automatically decided half of the All-Star roster, while the other half was determined through a revised format of previous All-Star selection strategies. Fans, players, and media members’ votes went into selecting a top-10 list of players. Of those 10 players, 6 of them were already on the Olympic squad, naming the remaining four to Team WNBA. The 12 WNBA head coaches were then given a list of the next 36-highest vote-getters not already on Team USA and were tasked with selecting eight additional players to round out the 12-person roster. Starters for both teams will be determined by head coaches of both squads closer to tip-off at Footprint Center.
Indiana Fever young stars Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark, who have faced off against the Seattle Storm three times this season including this game on June 27th at Climate Pledge Arena, were named to this years WNBA All-Star team. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo)
Indiana Fever dynamic duo Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston finished first and second in voting, respectively, with rookie phenom Angel Reese also coming in top-five in fan, player, and media votes. Dearica Hamby and Arike Ogunbowale were also included in the top-10 vote-getters, earning them a place on the Team WNBA roster. Ogwumike was chosen from the 36-player list by WNBA coaches to join the team alongside DeWanna Bonner, Allisha Gray, Brionna Jones, Jonquel Jones, Kayla McBride, and Kelsey Mitchell.
In 2023, Loyd set the All-Star scoring record with 31 points, easily earning her the All-Star MVP honor, which she will have the opportunity to defend in Phoenix later this month. Coming off of a historic campaign in 2023 in which she set the WNBA single-season scoring record while averaging 24.7 ppg, Loyd continues to raise the bar even with support in scoring from her new teammates, such as Ogwumike. Loyd has scored over 90 points over Seattle’s last three games and is currently fifth in the league in average points per game with 20.2.
In the 2023 WNBA All-Star game, Seattle Storm guard Jewell Loyd took home MVP honors. (Photo by Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
Loyd and Ogwumike have led the charge in Seattle’s resurgent season, along with Ezi Magbegor, who was shockingly left off of the All-Star roster. The Storm are currently fourth overall in WNBA rankings, second in the Western Conference, with a record of 13-6, and have already surpassed their total number of wins last season (11) with over half of the season left to play.
Moments throughout the 2024 WNBA season with Seattle Storm guard Jewell Loyd and forward Nneka Ogwumike. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo)
Currently halfway through a historic nine-game homestand, Seattle will match up with the Chicago Sky for the first time this season on Friday, July 5th, and then again on Sunday, July 7th. The Storm will then face their Achilles heel, the Minnesota Lynx, for the fourth time this season, hoping to pull off their first win against the only team above them in the Western conference currently. With eight-straight wins at Climate Pledge Arena and five more games to go in the homestand, Seattle is in a great position going into the All-Star break.
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