John Locher / AP
Connecticut Sun’s Shekinna Stricklen shoots during the 3-point contest during the WNBA All-Star festivities Friday, July 26, 2019, in Las Vegas.
Friday, July 26, 2019 | 8:30 p.m.
Las Vegas Aces' Kayla McBride competes at the 3-point contest during the WNBA All-Star festivities Friday, July 26, 2019, in Las Vegas.
It’s a city of spectacles, a town that knows how to entertain. Las Vegas excels at putting on a show for the tourists while making sure the locals feel the love.
Take the WNBA 3-point contest on Friday night. Aces guard Kayla McBride may not have won — she finished as the runner-up to Connecticut forward Shekinna Stricklen — but the crowd behind her roared every time she came onto the Mandalay Bay Events Center court, and more is expected for her and teammates A’ja Wilson and Liz Cambage at the All-Star Game at 12:30 p.m. today.
The competition marks the first time the WNBA has held its All-Star weekend in Las Vegas. How did the city known for hosting big events fare? Naturally, Las Vegas wowed the WNBA’s best.
“Everything’s just kind of been bigger and grander,” Mystics six-time All-Star Elena Delle Donne said. “Even right when you land, you see the marketing behind it. It’s why the Aces have been so successful in these past two years: They market the crap out of their team, and it works.”
Her feeling was shared throughout the locker room. Players from across the league raved about Las Vegas, both in the way it treats the Aces, who are in just their second season, and the way it treated each of them.
Stricklen, a first-time All-Star, was humbled to be among the best in the league but felt like she belonged.
“I’m not really one of the main All-Stars, but everybody treated me like I’m one, so it’s great,” she said. “The crowd was amazing. I had a lot of fun.”
It extends even to the Aces. Cambage has been an All-Star twice before and experienced the hometown vibe this weekend after an offseason trade to Las Vegas. She said nothing in her WNBA career that began in 2011 compares to her time with the Aces so far.
“We’re everywhere. I can’t even escape myself some days. I’ll be driving home and I see my face on one of these billboards,” Cambage said. “There’s a lot of love for basketball out here in this city.”
The marketing, not only for the Aces but all the stars in town, has stuck out to the players. Cambage said the team was going to dinner last night and couldn’t get away from all the All-Star signage and fans who flocked to Mandalay Bay early for the fanfest and rushed the arena once doors opened.
Mercury six-time All-Star Brittney Griner said it was the attention the city and its staff gave to the players that stuck out to her the most. She said Las Vegas already ranks among her favorite All-Star experiences and that it’s a natural destination for WNBA’s showcase game.
“You get off and it’s cameras and media and people and you actually do feel like an All-Star versus getting out of the car and it’s like, where is the person that’s supposed to be meeting me?” Griner said. “Not here. Not that at all.
“Not taking away from any of the other markets that did it, but there’s always room to go higher, and I think they took the right steps this year.”
From the Aces to the rookies to the experienced stars, no one had much negative to say about Las Vegas as a host city.
Well, almost. Cambage did have one complaint about Saturday’s All-Star Game ahead of her night as a DJ with Snoop Dogg and Iggy Azalea at a Mandalay Bay beach party.
“They need to make the game later,” she said. “This 12:30 game — 12:30 is not a time anybody is doing anything in Vegas.”
