The WNBA All-Star Game is the league’s biggest annual showcase of talent, bringing together its brightest stars while attracting fans from all over the country. However, after last year’s exhibition left many wanting more, Rachel DeMita didn’t mince words when reflecting on last year’s WNBA All-Star Game.

Speaking on her YouTube channel, she called the 2025 exhibition a “missed opportunity” and urged the league to follow the NBA’s lead in making its showcase competitive. She pointed to the 2026 NBA All-Star Game as proof of what’s possible.

“We also saw with the NBA this year for All-Star and Victor Wembanyama was kind of leading the charge on that,” she explained in her show.

She added, “We saw a really competitive All-Star game for the men. So, I hope the women follow suit. I hope they give us a show and not what we got last year because I felt like it was, you know, just kind of a missed opportunity, especially wearing the shirts that were like ‘Pay Us What You Owe Us’ and you just didn’t really play that hard.”

In 2025, Team Collier defeated Team Clark 151-131 in a game that lacked intensity compared to the previous year’s USA vs. WNBA All-Stars matchup, which ended 117-109 and previewed the Olympic roster bound for Paris. The 2025 contest, despite its powerful pregame message of “Pay Us What You Owe Us,” failed to deliver on the court, leaving fans and analysts disappointed.

Competitiveness has long been a challenge for All-Star events. The NBA itself struggled after 2020, widely cited as the last truly competitive game before 2026. That changed when Victor Wembanyama set the tone with energy, ball movement, and highlight plays, sparking a game that drew praise from fans and analysts alike.

“Exclamation-point plays, playing in a solid manner and sharing the ball with energy,” Wembanyama said when asked about setting the tone. “If you share that energy, people feel like they have a responsibility to share it back to you… I’m confident in the way it’s going to go.”

His efforts were successful. The All-Star game saw significantly more positive reception from both fans and analysts, and Wembanyama was the catalyst.

Candace Parker Echoed the Criticism

Rachel DeMita isn’t the only one who was disappointed by the game’s results in 2025. Even former player and WNBA great Candace Parker saw the game itself as underselling the message of better pay that the players were sending to viewers and the league itself.

“Y’all cannot come out there with those shirts of ‘Pay Us What You Owe Us,’ and then do that in the All-Star Game,” she said on the Post Moves podcast. “I think it was just an opportunity, to me, on one of the biggest stages, with those shirts being worn — everyone always talks about how the NBA does not play in All-Star Games. But guess what? They come down, they do windmills, they do stuff like that, right?”

Fans echoed the sentiment, chanting “Pay Them” as Napheesa Collier accepted All-Star MVP honors. The message resonated, but many felt the lack of competitiveness diluted its impact.

Only time will tell if the 2026 All-Star Game was able to deliver a stronger showcase than last year. For DeMita, the formula is clear: the league must ensure the action on the court matches the power of the message off it.