Sabrina Ionescu, Kayla McBride reject the WNBA’s 3-point contest invite narrative

After not appearing in the list of contestants for the 2026 WNBA All-Star 3-point contest, New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu said the WNBA never extended her an official invite to defend her title.

>“I can’t decline an offer I never got officially invited to,” Ionescu said Wednesday, the day after the field was released.

>On Tuesday, the WNBA announced a group of six contestants for the 3-point shootout: Bridget Carleton, Azzi Fudd, Natisha Hiedeman, Rhyne Howard, Marina Mabrey and Janelle Salaün. League sources told The Athletic that the WNBA also invited Ionescu, Caitlin Clark and Kayla McBride to participate, but the trio declined.

>Ionescu denied that report, saying she was surprised to see it and wanted to set the record straight.

>McBride posted a message to her Instagram story Wednesday, writing, “I received a half-ass invite to the 3 pt contest, thru my agent, in a text randomly 48 hours ago.. not officially.”

>Clark has not addressed her contest invite publicly. Both players are in the top five in the league in 3-pointers made per game (2.6). McBride is shooting 39.8 percent from that distance, while Clark has made 34.5 percent of her attempts.

>“Our general process is to reach out to agents to determine a player’s interest, and some accept and some decline,” a WNBA spokesperson said in a statement.

>Ionescu, who set the contest record for WNBA and NBA players in 2023 with a 37-point final round, is a two-time champion. She is one of two multi-time champions in the WNBA’s history, along with four-time winner Allie Quigley. Ionescu also competed in a W/NBA crossover event at the 2024 NBA All-Star against NBA all-time 3-point leader Stephen Curry.

>Ionescu was not voted as an All-Star in 2026 after missing 12 of the first 13 games of the season. She was an All-Star the previous two times she competed in the 3-point contest as well as both times she competed in the skills challenge.

>This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

>Minnesota Lynx, New York Liberty, WNBA

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