The WNBA announced the All-WNBA First and Second Team on Wednesday, and there was one notable omission: Kelsey Mitchell. All-WNBA, an annual honor bestowed on the best players in the league after each season, is voted on by sportswriters and broadcasters. The First and Second Team, both positionless, each include five players. While the final picks weren’t particularly surprising, Mitchell is the one player who should have been named to the All-WNBA team.
All-WNBA First and Second Teams are announced, and Indiana Fever star is biggest snub
Kelsey Mitchell was the second-leading scorer post-Olympic break, and had a career season that should have been rewarded with an All-WNBA bid.
Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images
Noa Dalzell is a senior writer covering the WNBA and all of women’s basketball for Breakaway, SB Nation’s women’s sports vertical, as well as the Celtics for CelticsBlog.
Here were the final selections:
All-WNBA First Team
A’ja Wilson (Las Vegas Aces)
Napheesa Collier (Minnesota Lynx)
Breanna Stewart (New York Liberty)
Caitlin Clark (Indiana Fever)
Alyssa Thomas (Connecticut Sun)
All-WNBA Second Team
Arike Ogunbowale (Dallas Wings)
Sabrina Ionescu (New York Liberty)
Kahleah Copper (Phoenix Mercury)
Nneka Ogwumike (Seattle Storm)
Jonquel Jones (New York Liberty)
I released my All-WNBA picks last month, and my lists closely resembles the official list, with one key difference: I had Kelsey Mitchell of the Indiana Fever the Second Team in place of Arike Ogunbowale. Outside of that, my list had no discrepancies with the official ballot.
Let’s take a look at the numbers. In the 2024 season, Mitchell averaged 19.2 points on 46.8% shooting, including 40.2% from three. She also posted 2.5 rebounds and 1.8 assists, but was primarily used as a scorer on an Indiana Fever team that went 20-20 en route to the No. 6 seed and its first playoff berth since 2016.
Ogunbowale averaged 22.2 points, 5.1 assists, and 4.6 rebounds — so her numbers were higher in all three categories. But, she shot a career-worst 38.3% from the field, and 34.6% from three. To be fair, given that Ogunbowale is her team’s primary scoring option, she faced more defensive pressure than Kelsey Mitchell did. Still, her inefficiency is impossible to ignore, as is her team’s lack of success this season: at 9-31, the Wings finished with the second-worst record in the league. Certainly, that record reflects team-wide issues and injuries that go far beyond Ogunbowale’s individual performance, but it’s still hard to pick a player from one of the worst teams in the WNBA over one of the most efficient guard scorers in the league.
Jonquel Jones actually received the fewest votes of players selected to the All-WNBA Team (she finished with 3 votes for 1st team and 29 for 2nd team), but given the Liberty’s success this season and her two-way dominance, her inclusion is hard to argue against.
It’d be similarly difficult to justify removing any other player from the All-WNBA Second Team. Sabrina Ionescu was the head of the snake that was the best team in the league, and Kahleah Copper and Nneka Ogwumike each had great individual seasons and were the best players on their respective playoff teams.
Ogubowale is a tremendous player, and she’s already had two worthy All-WNBA season and four All-Star seasons — and plenty more honors in the future. But, Kelsey Mitchell was the second-leading scorer in the league post-Olympic break. She averaged 23.4 points on 50.6% shooting and 45.4% from three in the final 14 games of the season, a torrid scoring stretch that helped propel Indiana to the postseason. That type of efficiency, scoring prowess, and team success should be rewarded with an All-WNBA bid.
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