For the third time in the last four seasons, the Dream will have three players at the WNBA All-Star game.
But if you were expecting a celebration in College Park this week, you’d be wrong.
Allisha Gray, Angel Reese and Rhyne Howard were not in the initial selections as starters, but they were added as reserves for Saturday’s All-Star Game at United Center in Chicago, and the reaction has been less “We made it,” and more “We should have never had to wait.”
It’s a snub that left Dream coach Karl Smesko openly unsure of what had happened, during his pregame media availability ahead of a matchup with the Washington Mystics, ahead of the announcement for the reserves.
Asked about the Dream’s absence from the starting lineup, Smesko didn’t hold back, calling the outcome disappointing and arguing that his players had done enough on the court to deserve better.
Smesko pointed to the fan-vote-heavy format — which accounts for half the weighted score, with media and players splitting the rest — as the reason Atlanta came up short, even as he insisted three of his players belonged among the starting group.
Reese was even more pointed. After the starters were revealed, she called the omission “disrespectful” and, in comments picked up widely across the league’s coverage, described the snub as a slap in the face to a Dream roster that has climbed into title contention. Reese leaned on the numbers to make her case: She was leading the WNBA in rebounding and one of only two players in the league averaging a double-double.
Howard and Dream point guard Jordin Canada ranked first and second, respectively, in the league in steals per game. Howard, for her part, was penalized in the voting simply by classification; the WNBA lists her as a guard, though she could be considered a forward, a distinction that possibly cost her a starting spot she’d have claimed outright in a frontcourt field.
When the reserves were announced, the list read less like a reward and more like a correction. Smesko had predicted as much, calling it a “no-brainer” that all three would get in as reserves, and he used the moment to lobby for a fourth Dream player, floating Canada as deserving of a nod herself, given her two-way production and defensive numbers.
Canada didn’t make the cut, but the larger point stood: This Dream roster believes it’s underrated, even as it stacks All-Star selections.
Gray, typically the quietest of the trio in moments like this, has let her production do the talking. She’s averaging 18.5 points and has scored in double figures in all but one of Atlanta’s 21 games, and she picked up Eastern Conference Player of the Month honors in May, a résumé that made her fourth straight All-Star selection feel less like news and more like routine.
So how does having three All-Stars actually stack up against the other top teams in the league?
Atlanta isn’t alone at the top.
The Dream, Fever and Lynx each have three All-Stars The two-time defending-champion Aces, by contrast, landed just two players on the roster: MVP A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young, while four teams, the Sky, Sun, Mercury and Fire, have no All-Stars.
Measured against that backdrop, three isn’t just solid. It’s tied for the league lead, and a signal that the balance of talent in the WNBA has shifted toward Atlanta’s core as much as anywhere else.
For the Dream, the All-Star break arrives with some work to do.
Three players are headed to Chicago. Some in the Dream orbit would say it should have been decided a long time ago, and settled with starting nods, not reserve spots.
The 2026 All-Star Game tips off Saturday, airing on ABC at 8:30 p.m. ET. All-Star weekend also includes the Shooting Stars event and 3-point contest on Friday, where Howard will represent the Dream, plus WNBA Live programming running Thursday through Saturday at McCormick Place.
In a nod to the league’s 30th season, WNBA legends Cynthia Cooper and Teresa Weatherspoon served as honorary general managers, drafting the two All-Star squads themselves.
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