Storm’s reign on shaky ground
It has been a busy offseason for the WNBA with big names changing places, a new commissioner and a few injuries to some of the sport’s greatest players.
The league will tip off its 23rd season on Friday with many teams hoping to win the championship this year. The defending champion Seattle Storm may be extremely hard-pressed to repeat. Reigning MVP Breanna Stewart suffered an Achilles injury in the winter while playing for a Russian club team. She’ll be sidelined for the season.
The Storm took another hit this week when it was announced that veteran point guard Sue Bird was going to be sidelined indefinitely with a knee injury. Seattle is also missing coach Dan Hughes for an indeterminate amount of time as he battles cancer.
“The most important thing to us is that Sue is healthy and strong. Based on her feedback and evaluation from her longtime surgeon and our medical team, it was determined the best course of action was a scope,” Storm CEO and general manager Alisha Valavanis said. “We have confidence this will support Sue’s full recovery and we look forward to her return to the court.”
Ogwumikes reunited
With the Storm shorthanded, Washington, Las Vegas and Los Angeles are the favorites to win the title.
The Mystics lost to the Storm in the WNBA Finals last season. The Aces added 6--8 Australian star Liz Cambage last week. The runner-up for the MVP in 2018 will give Las Vegas a dynamic duo in the front court, pairing her with last season’s WNBA Rookie of the Year A’ja Wilson.
The Sparks added Chiney Ogwumike from the Connecticut Sun, pairing her with her sister Nneka. The sisters, who previously teamed up for success at Cy-Fair and Stanford, will have to carry the load a little more in the early part of the season as Candace Parker is sidelined with a hamstring injury for a few weeks.
Stewart, Bird and Parker aren’t the only players not playing for the early part of the season because of injury. Atlanta Dream forward Angel McCoughtry is still recovering from a knee injury she suffered last year. Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi is out for at least a month while recovering from a back injury.
New boss in charge
And it isn’t just injuries that are sidelining some of the league’s top players.
Skylar Diggins-Smith gave birth to a baby boy this spring and hopes to return to the Dallas Wings’ lineup at some point this season. Meanwhile, Maya Moore decided to take a year away from playing basketball to focus on her family and “some ministry dreams that have been stirring in my heart for many years.”
The season gets underway with a new person in charge. The WNBA hired Cathy Engelbert as its commissioner last week. The previous four leaders had been known as president.
Since 2015, Engelbert has been CEO of Deloitte US, an accounting organization that works with Fortune 500 companies. She won’t start until around the AllStar break in late July.
Her hiring hasn’t been the only news of note this offseason. The WNBA struck a deal to broadcast 40 of its games on the CBS Sports Network.