Ionescu in spotlight with WNBA season opening
Things to know about the WNBA season, which begins Saturday with a 22game schedule inside a “bubble” complex in Bradenton, Fla.:
More than four months have passed since Sabrina Ionescu got the bad news. The NCAA called off its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, costing Ionescu and her Oregon teammates a shot at the national title. The rest of her senior season was spent mostly at home at Walnut Creek, but now comes the WNBA season with Ionescu, the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, leading the New York Liberty against the Seattle Storm in the league’s first game. It’s an early start — 9 a.m. PDT — and will be televised on ESPN.
Remarkably, Ionescu is one of seven rookies on the Liberty’s 12woman roster, making this team a dark horse for championship contention. The others: Jocelyn Willoughby (Virginia), Jazmine Jones (Louisville) Leaonna Odom (Duke), Kylee Shook (Louisville), Joyner Holmes (Texas) and Megan Walker (UConn), said to be the best shooter in the draft.
Ionescu won’t be dealing with inexperience in the backcourt. She’ll be paired with Layshia Clarendon, who led Cal to a 283 regular season in 201213 and its firstever appearance in the Final Four. (The Bears lost in the semifinals to Louisville.) Clarendon, a 2017 WNBA AllStar who has played on the USA national team, was acquired in free agency after playing with Connecticut last season. Point guard Kia Nurse (UConn), who started in last year’s AllStar Game, likely will move to small forward.
The regular season runs through Sept. 12, followed by singleelimination playoff games in the first and second rounds, then going to bestoffive for the semifinals and Finals. The league reached an agreement with the WNBA Players Association that will pay the players 100% of their housing, salaries and benefits. They are permitted to live with children and a caretaker during their stay.
Like Ionescu, Phoenix guard Diana Taurasi was among those chosen to speak at the Kobe Bryant memorial service in Los Angeles (Feb. 24), and that was appropriate. With her fierce desire, elite talent and relentless work ethic, Taurasi is the WNBA’s version of Bryant. At 38, back on the court after missing most of last season with injuries, she’s a very good reason to watch the Mercury.
WNBA players have spent years fighting hard for gender equality, respectable salaries and a manageable lifestyle, while staying active in the fight against social injustice and police brutality. Heading into Bradenton, they will be promoting their joint platform, The Justice Movement, to encourage social reform and honor women who have died in connection with police action or alleged racial violence, including Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor and Vanessa Guillen. A number of players will wear warmup shirts that say “Black Lives Matter” on the front and “Say Her Name” on the back, with other messages likely in play.
It has been a difficult month for Elena Della Donne, who won last year’s MVP award and led the Washington Mystics to the championship. Della Donne has dealt with chronic Lyme disease since 2008, with debilitating effects on her immune system, and she requested a medical exemption from the WNBA to sit out this season. A leaguechosen panel of doctors denied her request, meaning she would not be paid, and as Della Donne wrote on the Players’ Tribune, “I’m left with how much this hurts. The league I’ve given my blood, sweat and tears to has basically told me that my doctors are wrong and I’m wrong for believing them.” The Mystics stepped in to announce July 15 that Della Donne would be paid, after all, but this was an awfully bad look for the league. (Della Donne had back surgery in January after playing last year’s Finals with three herniated disks.)
Also opting out of the season for health reasons: Connecticut center Jonquel Jones, Las Vegas center Liz Cambage, L.A. guard Kristi Toliver and forward Chiney Ogwumike, New York guards Asia Durr and Rebecca Allen, Phoenix forward Jessica Breland, and Washington center Tina Charles and forward LaToya Sanders.
Ogwumike, who played at Stanford and has twice been a WNBA AllStar, felt her body wasn’t up to the task — she has endured a ruptured Achilles tendon and a knee microfracture in past years — and has taken the opportunity to join Mike Golic Jr. as cohost of a national show on ESPN Radio (14 p.m. daily, debuting next month). In doing so, she will miss the chance to play another season with her sister, Nneka, a sixtime AllStar and the 2016 MVP. But Chiney thinks this is the perfect time for her voice to be heard. “I’m Nigerian American. I’m a nerd from Stanford. But at the same time, in America, I’m still a Black woman,” she told USA Today. “That will always come first, because my representation is what matters. That’s what opens doors.”
Opting out to focus on Black Lives Matter and other social issues: Atlanta guards Renee Montgomery and Tiffany Hayes, Washington guard Natasha Cloud and Minnesota guard Maya Moore, a topfive WNBA talent who missed last season on a passionate mission to free a Missouri man, Jonathan Irons, from prison. (After serving 23 years of a 50year sentence, Irons was ruled to have been falsely convicted of burglary and assault charges.)
There was widespread disappointment among players when the league announced that Kelly Loeffler, the junior U.S. senator from Georgia, will not be forced to sell her ownership stake in the Atlanta Dream. In a July 10 article in the Daily Caller, with a message similar to one she delivered in a letter to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, Loeffler wrote, “The Black Lives Matter political organization is undeniably radical. This Marxist group proudly advocates for the defunding of police, calls for the removal of Jesus from churches, supports the disruption of the nuclear family structure, harbors antiSemitic views and actively promotes violence and destruction across the country.”
Within a league in which the rosters are 80% Black, players were stunned and appalled. The Players Association as a group tweeted “ENOUGH! OUT!” in a plea to oust Loeffler, who has coowned the team since 2011 and has a close alliance with President Trump. “I can’t believe I ever set foot in Kelly’s house and shared a meal with her,” Clarendon, who played three seasons in Atlanta, wrote on Twitter. “It’s actually really hurtful to see her true colors. Happy to own us as long as we stay quiet and perform.”