Why WNBA All-Star teams are called Spoon and Coop

Why WNBA All-Star teams are called Spoon and Coop originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Many WNBA fans will be excited Saturday night to tune into the 2026 All-Star Game.

They'll quickly notice that the game matches up Team Spoon and Team Coop.

That raises an obvious question: Team who?

Here's what you need to know.

Why are they Team Spoon and Team Coop?

The teams are named after their legendary coaches.

Teresa Weatherspoon and Cynthia Cooper-Dyke are leading the two rosters for this game.

In the past, the WNBA has had teams named after the top vote-getters -- for example, last season, it was Team (A'ja) Wilson against Team (Caitlin) Clark.

Now, they've gone with a bit of a legend captain/coach system to put together the rosters and name the teams.

It's a more common in both the NBA and WNBA as they mix up the All-Star formats. They've gone away from one conference versus the other and instead picked teams, as if playing a pickup game.

This year, Cooper-Dyke and Weatherspoon got involved.

They're two all-time greats, and now they're involved in their own ways in the 2026 WNBA All-Star Game.

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