Allisha Gray first WNBA player to sweep 3-point, skills titles

PHOENIX — Dinner is on Allisha Gray.

The Atlanta Dream guard took home a payday nearly equivalent to her annual salary after making WNBA history Friday night by becoming the first player to win the skills challenge and the 3-point contest in the same year.

For her wins, Gray won $5,150 from the WNBA and $110,000 from Aflac, the insurance company that announced Thursday it would supplement the league’s prize money with $55,000 for each event’s winner. Gray’s yearly salary is $185,000.

She’s ready to splurge a bit and take her Dream teammates out to dinner, but there’s one caveat.

“For my team, yeah, they gotta plan it,” Gray said. “I’ll just pay the bill.”

After going first in the 3-point finals and scoring 22 points, she had to hold her breath on the final shot of the contest. Fellow finalist Jonquel Jones of the New York Liberty was down to her last shot, a money ball that had she made, would’ve given her the win by a point. But Jones’ shot bounced off the rim, giving Gray the title 22-21.

“I was nervous because she went on a shooting streak,” Gray said. “J.J.’s a great 3-point shooter. I even told her before, I was like, ‘I’m familiar with your shooting game. I know you finna go out there and kill it.’

“But when she got to that last one and the score was kind of close and she missed it, it was like sigh relief because she’s a great shooter.”

Having already competed in the skills challenge earlier in the evening, Gray went into the 3-point contest already warmed up. But trying to pull double duty caught up with her toward the end.

“I was a little fatigued a little bit from the skills challenge, but I was there to lock in,” she said.

Jones led all shooters in the opening round with 25, followed by Gray’s 23, Kayla McBride‘s 21, Stefanie Dolson‘s 20 and Marina Mabrey‘s 19.

While Gray is the first WNBA player to win both events in the same year, she’s the third to win both events overall, joining Becky Hammon, who won the skills in 2007 and 3-point in 2009, and Sabrina Ionescu, who won the skills in 2022 and 3-point in 2023.

In the skills challenge, Gray outlasted one of two hometown favorites, Phoenix Mercury guard Sophie Cunningham, in the final round with a time of 32.1 seconds to Cunningham’s 34.5 seconds.

In the first — and only other — round, Gray and Cunningham beat out Mabrey, who finished in 35.7 seconds, Mercury center Brittney Griner, whose time was 46.3 seconds and Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell, who was disqualified after not finishing the course in time.

Mitchell was a late add after her teammate, Erica Wheeler, couldn’t make it to Phoenix on Friday after her flight was canceled. In an effort to honor Wheeler, Mitchell wore her jersey during the competition.

The skills competition had seven elements: Players had to throw three bounce passes into a net, throw a chest pass into a net, shoot a 3-point from the top of the key, shoot a shot from the elbow, shoot a 3 from the corner over a windmill, complete a chest pass and make a layup.

The night also included a 3×3 exhibition ahead of the Paris Olympics between the national team, that includes Dearica Hamby of the Los Angeles Sparks, Rhyne Howard of the Dream, former WNBA player Cierra Burdick and current TCU guard Hailey Van Lith, and the U23 national team.

The national team beat the U23 team 19-16 behind 10 points from Howard. The United States are the defending gold medalists but are sending four different players to this year’s games.