Kayla Thornton was named an All Star for the first time in her career on Sunday and was the lone Golden State Valkyries representative selected. The teams for the game were announced on Tuesday so she found out her teammates and opponents for the game as she was picked to be on Caitlin Clark’s team. The game will take place on Saturday, July 19th, in Indianapolis.
Kayla’s Season
The honor was certainly deserved for Kayla Thornton as she has been a consistent contributor for the Valkyries in their better-than-expected start to their time in the league. As the team’s leading scorer, she is 19th overall in the league at 14.9ppg. Asked to play a variety of defensive roles, she has often been tasked with particularly difficult assignments. Despite battling against taller players, she ranks 12th in the league in rebounding at 7.1rpg. For a player who did not make it in the league immediately after college, this is just the latest impressive accomplishment in her professional career.
The Format and Draft
Fans got to vote for players to participate in the All Star Game and the top two vote getters in that process were named the captains for the teams. Those votes were then weighed with votes from players and the media to determine which eight players would be named starters. The league’s coaches then voted on reserve players, which is when Kayla Thornton was selected. The captains conducted a draft of the selected players, starting with the starters and then picking from the reserves. There was also a trade of coaches so that Cheryl Reeve could be with her Minnesota player Napheesa Collier, leaving Sandy Brondello coaching Clark’s team.
Kayla’s Teammates
Caitlin Clark got the first pick in the draft and chose her teammate Aliyah Boston. She took Sabrina Ionescu third and reunited her with her Oregon teammate Satou Sabally at the seventh pick while getting A’ja Wilson at pick five. Clark got the second pick starting with the reserve portion of the draft and was able to get her teammate Kelsey Mitchell at the tenth spot. Gabby Williams of Seattle was her next pick followed by the Washington duo of Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen. Jackie Young was her last pick before Kayla Thornton was the last player available. She gets to be reunited with her former New York Liberty coach and her former teammates Ionescu and Sabally from New York and Dallas.
The Opposition
Napheesa Collier was able to take her college teammate Breanna Stewart with her first pick and the selected her Unrivaled teammate Allisha Gray from Atlanta next followed by Nneka Ogwumike of Seattle. Dallas’s Paige Bueckers was not picked earlier so she was the default final starter assigned to the team. With the first choice among reserves, Collier picked her only current teammate Courtney Williams and then got her last Lunar Owls teammate from Unrivaled in Seattle’s Skylar Diggins next. She filled out her roster with Chicago’s Angel Reese, Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas, Los Angeles’s Kelsey Plum, and Atlanta’s Rhyne Howard.
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