The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Who’s in and who’s out of 2020 season
At long last, the WNBA is back. Teams opened training camps this week at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., where the 2020 season will tip off amid the COVID-19 crisis.
While the league has yet to release its schedule, we know that games will begin July 25. Each team will play 22 games, with a traditional playoff format — singleelimination first- and second-round games and best-of-five semifinals and finals — to follow.
Many, but not all, of the big names are back. Some have decided against playing during the pandemic to focus on issues bigger than basketball (e.g. their health, social justice initiatives).
Here’s what you need to know to get ready for the season.
THEY’RE BACK
A pair of UConn/WNBA icons aren’t letting age, injury or the uncertainty of the times hold them down. Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird are back.
Taurasi, the league’s all-time leading scorer, played all of six games with
Phoenix in 2019. She was limited to back and hamstring injuries. Meanwhile, Bird, an 11-time All-Star, missed the entire season with Seattle after undergoing knee surgery.
Both Taurasi, 38, and Bird, the league’s oldest player at 39, had a longer offseason than usual to rest their bodies. With their careers winding down, retirement approaching, they both felt a great sense of urgency to return. In fact, Bird told reporters on Zoom Saturday that she “might have been done” if she had decided not to play this summer.
Bird’s teammate, 2018 MVP Breanna Stewart, is also on the comeback trail after a long layoff. More than 22 months will have passed since Stewart last played with Seattle when the season finally tips off.
TESTING FOR COVID
On Monday, the WNBA announced that seven of the 137 COVID-19 tests distributed between June 28-July 5 had come back positive. Eleven of the 12 teams traveled to Florida that same day, but the Indiana Fever delayed their arrival out of what the league described as “an abundance of caution due to the CDC’s close contact self-quarantine requirements.” Indiana later announced that two of its players had, in fact, tested positive.
Liberty guard Asia Durr chose not to make the trip at all after she was diagnosed almost a month earlier. The former Louisville standout revealed that she had endured a “complicated and arduous” recovery process and would opt out to protect her “long-term wellness.”
Durr’s teammate, exHusky Megan Walker, also tested positive. Walker, the ninth pick in April’s draft, is asymptomatic and currently under the care of team physicians.
Any player, including Walker, who tests positive must satisfy public health protocols (i.e. self isolation and two negative tests) before they are cleared by a physician to return.
MYSTICS’ TITLE DEFENSE GETTING COMPLICATED
Two of the biggest stars yet to declare their intentions happen to play for the same team. Reigning MVP Elena Delle Donne and seven-time All-Star Tina Charles, both of the Washington Mystics, are awaiting assessments from the league’s independent panel of doctors to determine if they’ll be medically excused for the season.
Delle Donne has battled lyme disease and would potentially be at a higher risk for serious illness if she contracted the virus. Charles’ reasoning is not yet known, though head coach Mike Thibault said neither player is ill at this moment. Should they be medically excused, both players will receive their full salaries.
The defending WNBA champions will already be without Natasha Cloud and LaToya Sanders, who opted out last month. Losing Delle Donne and Charles — acquired in the offseason in a three-team deal with New York — would leave Washington with only 10 players.
COMMITMENT TO SOCIAL JUSTICE INITIATIVES
Renee Montgomery, the Atlanta Dream guard and former UConn star, announced last month she would sit out the upcoming season to focus on off-thecourt initiatives. The WNBA has since introduced a new platform, The Justice Movement, and the creation of the WNBA/ WNBPA Social Justice Council.
Throughout the season, players will wear warm-up shirts that display “Black Lives Matter” on the front and “Say Her Name,” on the back. “Black Lives Matter” will also be painted on the courts this season.
That plan has received pushback from Dream co-owner and U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler, who voiced her concerns about intertwining sports and politics in a letter to WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert.
“In a time when polarizing politics is as divisive as ever, sports has the power to be a unifying antidote,” Loeffler, a Republican from Georgia, wrote. “And now more than ever, we should be united in our goal to remove politics from sports.”
Montgomery responded with an open letter to Loeffler, which she published Friday on Medium. Several players have also called for Loeffler to be removed from her ownership position.
SUN STILL SHINING
If the Connecticut Sun are going to return to the WNBA Finals, they’ll need to learn how to win without one of their cornerstone players. Jonquel Jones, the league leader in rebounds (330) and blocks (68) in 2019, opted not to play this season because of concerns about the pandemic.
Without Jones, the Sun may take a step back. But the addition of DeWanna Bonner, plus a healthy Alyssa Thomas, gives Connecticut two potential All-Stars to complement veteran point guard Jasmine Thomas. Briann January and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis — both acquired in offseason trades — should bolster the team’s depth.
HUSKY CONNECTION
The UConn brand remains strong across the WNBA, with 15 former Huskies participating in training camps: Bird, Napheesa Collier, Crystal Dangerfield, Stefanie Dolson, Bria Hartley, Katie Lou Samuelson, Moriah Jefferson, Mosqueda-Lewis, Kia Nurse, Azura Stevens, Stewart, Kiah Stokes, Taurasi, Morgan Tuck, and Gabby Williams.
Maya Moore, Tiffany Hayes, Montgomery and, possibly, Charles will skip the season. Walker hopes to return when healthy.