Caitlin Clark Skips the WNBA 3-Point Contest for a Third Straight Year

Caitlin Clark declined her invitation to the WNBA’s 2026 3-point contest, the league confirmed Tuesday. She still has not taken a competitive shot in the event her own signature shot inspired. Sabrina Ionescu, Paige Bueckers and Kayla McBride are missing from the six-player field too, set for Friday night at Wintrust Arena in Chicago.

State Farm signed on this year as the contest’s first-ever title sponsor and built a new shot worth extra points around the exact spot on the floor that made Clark famous. The company still will not have her in the building.

The Field Is Set, the Headliner Isn’t

The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) released its six player field for the State Farm 3-Point Contest on Tuesday afternoon. Four time All-Star Rhyne Howard of the Atlanta Dream and first time All-Star Marina Mabrey of the Toronto Tempo headline the group, joined by 2026 top draft pick Azzi Fudd of the Dallas Wings, Bridget Carleton of the Portland Fire, Natisha Hiedeman of the Seattle Storm and Janelle Salaün of the Golden State Valkyries.

Mabrey enters the weekend with 82 made three-pointers to lead the league, with Howard second at 79. Here is how the rest of the field stacks up entering play on July 21.

Every player in that group ranks among the league’s most productive shooters this season. None of them carries the name recognition of the players who turned the invite down.

How State Farm Built a Campaign Around One Shot

This is the first year State Farm has served as the contest’s title partner, and the company used the launch to introduce a new wrinkle: two pedestals positioned at deep range, holding a special ball worth three points for shots made from the logo at center court, the same spot Clark has turned into her calling card.

The tie in did not start this week. State Farm rolled out an ad campaign called From the Logo in June 2025, timed to the start of that WNBA season, built entirely around Clark sinking shots from center court. The campaign was part of a broader platform the insurer has stretched across other basketball properties it sponsors.

So the sponsor spent a year turning one player’s shot into a brand identity, then folded that identity into the contest’s actual rules for the first time. The player who inspired it is not competing.

Three Fever Shooters Never Got the Call

Clark’s absence is not the only surprise from Indiana. The Fever have three players putting up career-best shooting seasons, and none of them made the field either.

• Caitlin Clark – the Fever guard declined for a third straight year and is still working back from a back injury that cost her three games last month.
• Sabrina Ionescu – regarded as one of the league’s most accurate long-range shooters, also turned down her invitation.
• Paige Bueckers – the Wings guard who led every player in All-Star fan voting with 1,045,051 votes, is not in the field.
• Aliyah Boston – shooting a career-high 46.9% from three for Indiana, was not selected.
• Sophie Cunningham – shooting 43.7% from deep and one of the league’s more followed players on social media, was left out too.
• Kelsey Mitchell – shooting 42.3% from three and ninth in fan voting, is also missing from the field.

Boston, Cunningham and Mitchell are each shooting at least three attempts a game from deep, all at career-high clips. It is unclear whether any of the three were asked and passed, or simply were not invited.

Why Does Caitlin Clark Keep Skipping This Contest?

Clark has never taken a shot in the WNBA 3-point contest across three professional seasons. She declined in 2024, was expected to compete in 2025 before a groin injury pulled her out of the entire All-Star Weekend, and has now declined again for 2026 while managing a separate back injury.

That back injury flared up June 24 against the Phoenix Mercury, cost her three games, and has kept her on a minutes restriction since she returned July 8. It is a lighter issue than the one that ended her 2025 weekend entirely, but it fits a pattern of caution the Fever have shown with her body all year.

Last July, after the groin injury forced her out of both the shooting contest and the game itself in Indianapolis, Clark explained her decision directly.

I am incredibly sad and disappointed to say I can’t participate in the 3-Point Contest or the All-Star Game. I have to rest my body.

Clark wrote in a statement the Fever posted last July, after the groin injury ended her 2025 All-Star Weekend before it started. She had already missed nearly a dozen games that season to injury and still led all players in fan voting.

Damian Lillard Chased History in the Same Event

State Farm sponsors the men’s version of this contest too, and the contrast from All-Star Saturday in February is hard to ignore. Damian Lillard, a nine-time NBA All-Star who has not played a single game this season after tearing his Achilles tendon in April, still showed up and won.

Lillard scored 29 points in the final round to beat Devin Booker and claim his third State Farm 3-Point Contest title in four years, tying Larry Bird and Craig Hodges for the most wins in the event’s history. He made the trip and competed in a made-for-television shooting contest while sidelined from actual basketball for the year.

On the men’s side, a star with nothing left to prove and no games to play still treated the event as worth chasing history in. On the women’s side, the healthiest and most famous active player in the league keeps opting out.

Rookies and Role Players Get a Rare Spotlight

The six players who are competing get something Clark’s presence would have crowded out: a night where they, not her, are the story. Howard and Mabrey have both been through this before. Howard competed as a rookie in 2022, and Mabrey took part in 2024. Fudd, Carleton, Hiedeman and Salaün are all making their contest debuts.

The event has made unlikely names before. When Chicago last hosted All-Star Weekend in 2022, Allie Quigley, never the league’s biggest draw, won the shootout for a record fourth time, a mark no other player in WNBA or NBA history has matched. A contest built to showcase a superstar has, in its actual history, just as often built the reputation of a role player instead.

Fudd’s case is the sharpest version of that trade. She ranks outside the top five in raw made threes this season, yet the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft gets a nationally televised spot that a healthier, higher-profile roster would not have left open.

ESPN’s Ratings Math Gets Harder

The league picked this exact weekend to lean into a milestone. The WNBA is marking its 30th anniversary season, and it brought the 30th anniversary celebration back to Chicago, the same city that hosted in 2022. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said the weekend would deliver what she called unforgettable competition and community outreach.

Clark’s pull on live television is not in question. Fever games with her on the floor have repeatedly cleared a million viewers, and her celebrity now extends well past box scores, reflected in her recognition as the Associated Press’s Female Athlete of the Year. A three-point contest with her name attached is close to a guaranteed audience. One without her is a bet on six players most casual fans could not name.

Friday night at Wintrust Arena, the shot clock starts without the player whose shot the whole event was rebuilt around, for the third year running.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Kia WNBA Shooting Stars Event?

It is a separate skills competition happening the same night as the 3-point contest at Wintrust Arena. It is new for 2026, and the league had not announced its participants as of Tuesday’s field release.

How Does the WNBA 3-Point Contest Scoring Work?

Shooters get a two round, timed competition with racks at five spots around the arc. Four racks hold four balls worth one point each plus one oatmeal-colored money ball worth two points, one rack is all money balls worth two points each at a location each shooter picks, and two deep pedestals hold the new three-point From the Logo balls.

When and Where Is the 2026 WNBA All-Star Game?

The game is Saturday, July 25, at the United Center in Chicago, airing at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC, Disney+ and the ESPN App, the night after the 3-point contest and Shooting Stars event at Wintrust Arena.

Is Sabrina Ionescu Also Dealing With an Injury?

No specific injury has been disclosed for Ionescu. A Fever-focused outlet has speculated that she and Clark may simply be prioritizing rest, but unlike Clark, who has a documented back injury this season, Ionescu has not had a specific ailment reported.