Home, real quiet home
Connecticut Sun point guard Jasmine Thomas back in Virginia
Jasmine Thomas has some unplanned free time on her hands right now as she's quarantined herself at home in Virginia.
“Usually I file for an extension on my taxes because it takes time to organize my data,” Thomas chuckled during a Wednesday phone interview. “But since I'm here, I'll be able to do that on time.”
Thomas, the Connecticut Sun's starting point guard, hasn't been around for Tax Day the past several years. She's been playing basketball overseas during the WNBA offseason like so many of her peers where the pay is better and helps them maximize their earning power at a job with a short shelf life.
Thomas was playing for Gorzow Wielkopolski in Poland and was waiting for the start of the postseason when the Board of the Polish Basketball Association ended the Energa Basket Liga Women on Thursday, March 12 due to COVID-19. She arrived back in the states the next afternoon.
“I'm doing the 14 days (of quarantine) and I'm on day five,” Thomas said. “I got my dog (Bella) back from my parents, so I had a little contact with them, and my brother (Darrell) came by once and dropped some stuff off and kept going. I haven't had any symptoms. I have zero signs of being sick, but just being in the center of Europe, I did travel to France (to play), I traveled to Russia (to play) and have been in-and-out of airports during that time.
“It's just safer for me to make sure that even though I don't have symptoms that I'm not a carrier.”
Oddly enough, Thomas decided after playing
overseas last year that she was going to take the first extended break of her nine-year professional career after this past Sun season. Rather than leaving to play in October after Connecticut played the Washington Mystics in the WNBA Finals, she stayed home until Jan. 1 and rested. She even hosted Thanksgiving and Christmas, holidays that she usually misses (she was able to get home for Christmas in 2018, but wasn't sure the last time she wasn't overseas for Thanksgiving).
“I felt like I was ready for (a break),” Thomas said. “I wanted to give my body a chance to recover. I had planned on having a long (2019) season in the WNBA and we went all the way deep into the finals, so it just kind of made sense.”
Thomas was into her second month playing in Gorzów Wielkopolski, located in western Poland. Her team finished third.
“My first, I'd say, three games were pretty tough, then I started getting my rhythm of late,” Thomas said. “It wasn't so much my skill-set as it was just getting into the swing of things. My team already had chemistry, they had been playing together for a few months, it's just how it is.
“I really enjoyed my teammates a lot, and the club was one of the best ones for sure as far as being professional and treating you well like a human being.”
Thomas said Poland had been pretty safe from the virus and that that Gorzów Wielkopolski hadn't had a reported case.
The phrase, “life comes at you fast” has taken on a new meaning for the entire world of late, and it began changing after the first case in the region became public.
“The last week of February, we played two games with no fans, and that was the first wave of it affecting the Polish league,” Thomas said.
Playing in an empty gym was a shock to the system.
“Oh-hhhh, boy,” Thomas said. “It was interesting for sure . ... Gorzow has a really big and dedicated group of fans that actually travel round Poland to all the games. For us, it was a significant difference playing in an empty gym. I guess it was kind of like practice where you have to find your own energy, even in warm-ups. During the games, when things were not going so well, you had to feed off each other and turn it around. It was definitely very different, but at least we were playing.
“It's not something that you could probably get used to.”
There had been rumors about the league shutting down, so Thomas had begun packing just in case.
And then President Trump announced the 30-day travel ban from Europe on Wednesday, March 11 effective last Friday.
“I was awakened at 3 o'clock in the morning by my teammate, who was awakened by her family, and she was like, ‘we got to go,'” Thomas said. “‘They're saying we won't be able to get back into the country.'
“Originally, (the ban) wasn't reported as clearly as it was later. It was only for non-U.S. citizens. So we panicked, of course, initially. Then, as things settled down, we were able to figure out a better plan.”
Easy trip
Surprisingly, Thomas had no issues getting a flight back to America, although she did have three of them booked at once just be safe. The biggest issue was finding a carrier that would allow her to bring on her other dog, Oliver.
“Maybe because I was flying directly to the states and non-residents (weren't on the plane), there were fewer people traveling,” Thomas said. “At least that's what it felt like.”
Thomas drove two hours to Berlin, Germany and flew into Newark, N.J.
Thomas lives close to her family, so Darrell Thomas and Nikki, his wife, were kind enough to stock up her house with supplies before she arrived. She had already turned half of her garage into a “fitness center” where she could stay in shape (and bide her time during quarantine). There are a few outdoor basketball courts nearby that she can visit once she gets out of her house to keep her shot on target.
“Honestly, it's looking pretty attractive right now getting outside on the court,” Thomas said. “I'm lucky. I have the dogs. I'm able to go outside and just be close to them and be able to interact and play with them. That helps a little bit.” n.griffen@theday.com