ESPN has announced the full list of nominees for the 2026 ESPYS on June 25. A closer look at the WNBA best player nominees reveals that the 2025 winner of the ESPY for the Best WNBA player, Caitlin Clark, has not made the top four this time around.

The list of best player nominees includes A’ja Wilson (Las Vegas Aces), Napheesa Collier (Minnesota Lynx), Allisha Gray (Atlanta Dream), and Alyssa Thomas (Phoenix Mercury).

Thomas just served a one-match suspension and paid a $1000 fine for making first contact during her scuffle with Caitlin Clark during their Wednesday, June 24, 2026 game. However, ESPY’s are handed out based on last season’s performance.

While ESPN did not explicitly state the reason behind leaving Clark out of the nominations, last year’s winner had her 2025-26 season cut short due to a groin injury on July 15, 2025, which sidelined her for the rest of the season.

For the time Ckarj was actually playing, she was scoring quite efficiently. She had a 49.1% true shooting percentage and 44.1% effective field goal percentage. Her usage rate was also quite high at 28.7%. She provided an incredible 41.8% of Indiana’s assists.

The Indiana Fever star averaged 16.5 points, 8.8 assists, and 5.0 rebounds per game, as per ESPN. She was the league leader in total assists as well as assists per game.

Indiana finished with a decent 24-20 record and finished third in the Eastern Conference. Clark had to sit out the postseason games as well, as they lost a close series in the playoff semifinals to the eventual champions, the Las Vegas Aces.

However, being left out of the ESPY nomination list may just be the least of Clark’s worries as she just picked up another injury.

Caitlin Clark couldn’t finish her last game

During the Fever’s second game with the Phoenix Mercury on Wednesday, Clark attempted a three-pointer in the second quarter. Mercury’s Valériane Ayayi blocked Clark, not giving her enough space to land, and the 2025 ESPY winner seemed to tweak her back as she fell awkwardly.

Caitlin Clark tried to brush it off and attempted to power through the discomfort. However, with 5:15 left in the third quarter, the Fever player left for the locker room and didn’t return to the court.

While speaking to the media ahead of Saturday’s game against the Los Angeles Sparks. “She’s OK. She’s going to be out on Saturday,” White said when asked about Clark’s condition.

While Indiana did end up beating the Sparks 111-87 without Clark, Coach White couldn’t give a concrete date for Clark’s return either.

“No indication. But it’s a good time, because we have off all week next week, so we’ll take this opportunity just to get her treatment, get her healthy, and see what happens. Long-term health and wellness is the most important,” she said on Friday.

The Fever’s next game is on July 5, against the Las Vegas Aces. We’ll have to wait and see if Caitlin Clark can get back in the paint by then.