Atlanta Dream coach Karl Smesko didn’t hold back before Thursday’s loss to the Washington Mystics. And it wasn’t just about the officiating, which he called ‘borderline bizarre’ after an 81-76 defeat that dropped his team to 12-8 and extended their losing streak to four games. He had a bigger gripe.
The All-Star Game starters were announced without a single Dream player in the lineup. Smesko made it clear he thought that was a mistake.
‘It’s really disappointing, especially since we had three players who were so close to making it, and I felt they were deserving of being starters by the merit of their play,’ Smesko said during pregame media availability, according to video posted by WNBA reporter Emmanuel Glaze.
He was almost certainly talking about Rhyne Howard, Angel Reese, and Allisha Gray. All three finished near the top in fan voting — which accounts for 50% of the starter selection — but not enough to crack the final five. Smesko acknowledged the fan vote hurt them.
‘The voting is half the fans, and we didn’t get as much fan voting as we would like, and that kind of put us in a tough position to get anybody as a starter,’ he said.
The NBA-style format weights fan voting equally with media and player ballots. That means a team like the Dream, which doesn’t play in a major market, has an uphill climb against bigger fan bases. Still, Smesko isn’t giving up on getting his players into Chicago for the game next month.
He said he ‘fully expects’ Howard, Reese, and Gray to be named as reserves when those spots are announced Tuesday. The reserves are picked by league coaches, not fans. That could work in Atlanta’s favor — or not.
Smesko also made a case for a fourth Dream player: point guard Jordin Canada, who’s having a quietly strong season. ‘She’s had an exceptional year,’ Smesko said. But he acknowledged it might be a tough sell for the coaches to pick four players from one team.
‘As a coach, you know you have to vote in three of our players because they are three of the top 10 players in the league, and then you’re going to have to put a fourth in, all from the same team. Coaches like to spread things around a little bit,’ he said.
It’s a legitimate concern. Spreading the wealth is common practice among WNBA coaches when they vote for reserves. And with less than half the league’s players even submitting ballots for the All-Star Game, according to reports, there’s clearly some voter apathy going on. But for a Dream team sitting third in the standings, having nobody in the starting lineup stings.
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