The 2026 WNBA season tips off next month, marking the league’s 30th year and ushering in historic paydays for players under a new collective bargaining agreement.
Portland and Toronto will each add an expansion team in 2026. Ahead of the milestone season, ESPN ranked the league’s top 50 players entering the season. Back-to-back MVP and defending WNBA champion A’ja Wilson led the list at No. 1. She was also ESPN’s top-ranked player entering 2025.
Alyssa Thomas, Napheesa Collier, Breanna Stewart and Jackie Young rounded out ESPN’s top five. Caitlin Clark, the 2024 Rookie of the Year, was ranked No. 10.
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Clark was ranked behind last season’s Rookie of the Year, Paige Bueckers, as well as Atlanta Dream guard Allisha Gray, Sabrina Ionescu and Kelsey Plum.
A string of injuries sidelined Clark in 2025, limiting the NCAA’s all-time scoring leader to 13 games in her second WNBA season. The injury woes last year included a groin strain followed by an ankle bone bruise.
ESPN highlighted Clark’s breakout rookie season as the foundation for her rapid rise.
“Clark received the fourth-most MVP votes as a rookie while setting a single-season league record for assists and posting the second-most 3-point field goals in a season. She became one of the league’s best passers and long-range shooters the moment she stepped onto a WNBA court, and was just getting started when she was named Rookie of the Year and first-team all-WNBA in 2024. Injuries limited her to only 13 games in 2025, but she was still named an All-Star.”
The rankings sparked strong reactions from fans
“There aren’t 9 players better then CC,” one fan wrote on X.
“Paige Bueckers, Jackie Young, Sabrina Ionescu, Alisha Gray even Alyssa Thomas are not above CC,” another person pointed out. “What is this nonsense?”
“I love Paige, but how is she ahead of CC after one yr? Caitlin’s rookie year was better than hers if we’re going based off one season. Literally none of the four players ahead of CC make any sense,” a different X user noted.
Another fan took a more measured approach noting, “Coming off an injury riddled season this is fair.”
The New York Liberty and Atlanta Dream lead the pack with six players each, while the Aces, Chicago Sky and Los Angeles Sparks follow with five apiece. Rookies were considered in the rankings.
Clark went down early in the third quarter after a collision with a Dallas Wings player but avoided a serious injury. She limped to the bench and appeared to walk it off during a replay review that resulted in a Flagrant 1. Clark then made two free throws before watching the rest of the game from the sideline.
Clark finished with 21 points and quickly dismissed any concern about the injury.
“I feel good. I just landed on my kneecap really hard,” she told reporters. “I know there’s a committee of people that really wanted them [the refs] to start calling things, and I thought they did a great job of that. Honestly, I thought the refs were great, and it’s preseason, so you’re probably going to see more fouls called. I expect that number to drop. But I think overall, it’s going to improve the product.”
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