Sue Bird and Becky Hammon top WNBA vs. USA Basketball balloting

Monday night the WNBA announced the top vote-getters for the “WNBA vs. USA Basketball: The Stars at the Sun” game in early July. While seeing names such as Sue Bird and Becky Hammon at the top of the list was no surprise to fans, others like Michelle Snow and Jayne Appel garnered incredulity and outright derision from the public and media.

The Seattle Storm’s Bird led all players (127,490) in final returns and San Antonio Silver Stars player Hammon (116,391) finished second.

The others in the top five are Indiana Fever’s Tamika Catchings (100,248), Phoenix Mercury’s Diana Taurasi (93,649) and Bird’s Seattle teammate, Swin Cash (85,236).

The remaining players on the list: Storm’s Lauren Jackson (80,392), Los Angeles Sparks’ Candace Parker (78,624), Silver Star teammates, Jayne Appel (69,316), Michelle Snow (67,906) and Sophia Young (65,974).

Instead of an WNBA All-Star game, this year’s mid-season festivities features the U.S. facing a team of the league’s remaining All-Stars on July 10 at Uncasville, Connecticut.

Unlike previous years, the players selected by fans will not necessarily be starters. Any player voted in who is already in the USA National Team Pool will play on the USA Basketball team, led by head coach Geno Auriemma, while the remaining players who have been voted in by the fans will play on the WNBA team.