Sun’s ‘championship window’ had to close
Tom Brady can take a lesson from Maya Moore
It’s January, the UConn women are pressing on through so many injuries, and the men are staggering after a stunning start to the season, so the state was a little preoccupied this week when one of the top three or four women’s basketball players in the world left for New York.
The Connecticut Sun traded Jonquel Jones, the WNBA’s MVP in 2021, to the New York Liberty. The deal had the sound of that oft-mentioned window slamming shut.
“There is honest, real talk in that locker room,” Curt Miller said last September. “You’re only in championship windows so often. We built this team to be in the window currently.”
Before the end of the month, the Sun reached the league final for the second time in four years, came up short against Las Vegas and Miller’s words have since become all too prophetic. An exciting era of Sun basketball has come to an end.
With the writing on the wall, Miller left for
Los Angeles, eventually replaced by Stephanie White. New GM Darius Taylor has had to break things up, trading Jones to the Liberty and Jasmine Thomas to LA to reunite with Miller. This feels like a full-blown, back-up-thetruck and blow-up-theplace rebuild for one of the WNBA’s most successful and most avidly supported franchises, though folks around Mohegan Sun might prefer to say “retool.” The plan seems to be building around Brionna Jones, who will get the “core” tag, equivalent to the NFL’s “franchise player” status, Alyssa Thomas and DeWanna Bonner.
These things happen in all sports, of course. But why? Why can’t a “championship window” be allowed to close on its own anymore? Why can’t a franchise player, a generational talent like Jonquel Jones stay put for the loyal fans who have grown to admire her?
Why did the Red Sox have to trade Mookie
Betts and lose Xander Bogaerts? Why did the Nationals have to break up their 2019 championship team so soon? Why do NBA teams choose tanking over competing. Some of it is salary cap driven, yes. Younger observers seem more willing to embrace the jargon-filled explanations and strategy, maybe older ones are more apt to question why their emotional investment disappears like a life savings in a stock market crash.
In this case, circumstances beyond the Sun’s control, such as cap constraints and the appeal of big markets, appear to be dictating the breakup of a team that has made deep playoff runs every year since 2016. Jones wanted out, wanted to go to New York, and rather than let her sit out a season and/or walk as a free agent, they got something back.
In the three-team deal, Connecticut got Rebecca Allen, the No. 6 pick in the 2023 WNBA Draft, and Tyasha Harris from Dallas for Jones. For Thomas, the Sun got Olivia NelsonOdoda, the former UConn star, Jasmine Walker, and the rights to Kianna Smith from LA. It’ll be a young cast around and older core, with a new voice in the head coaching role.
When it all shakes out, including the signing of Brionna Jones, perhaps to a “super max” contract, the Sun will have some cap space, maybe $170,000, to add some experienced backcourt talent.
Perhaps it could be said that the Sun never did get over the top while they had all the pieces in place, and a new look and approach may, before too long, get them right back in contention. It just seems a shame such an enjoyable era had to end this way.
And more in the Sunday Read:
MLB’s now on the clock, looking for steals
It’s time for the rules that have been tested in the minor leagues to be called up to the majors. The pitch timer, limits to pickoff attempts, bigger bases and the outlawing of the infield shift are all in play for 2023.
Yard Goats manager Chris Denorfia, the ex-big league outfielder from Southington, has been working with the new rules and expects they will all work just fine.
“We had a taste of all of it last year,” Denorfia said. “There was an adjustment period, for sure. April was a little rough for everybody, the clock implementation especially. But all the other ones, the first time you see the bigger base you’re like, ‘Wow, that is a large pizza box,’ then you put it on the ground and you never notice it again. The shift is going to change the game a little bit, you’re going to see some fun things happen, you’re going to see more athletic guys taking over at second base and who knows what the analytics guys are going to come up with?
“Moving an outfielder, giving up left field. People are going to use their imagination still to get an advantage but the game adjusts. If we saw anything last year, the quality was the same but you lose about 30 minutes of down time. More people having more fun in a shorter amount of time is good for everybody.”
Maya Moore goes out the right way
As UConn legend, WNBA and U.S. Olympic star Maya Moore showed, being an athlete can be so much more than scoring and winning, though she did a lot of both. It would be hard to name one who used the platform more emphatically to try to bring change to society. She announced her retirement from basketball this week, going out with the grace and dignity that were her signatures.
“I hope people can find inspiration from my heartbeat for humanity,” Moore said, “And engaging in sport in a way that remembers that our humanity is first and foremost in how we play the game, how we leverage that game, how we treat people, how we play the game responsibly.”
Basketball will miss her on the court, but her impact will continue.
Sunday short takes
Regarding UConn’s budget deficit: This is the cost of doing business in major college sports, and UConn chooses to remain a player. For those who follow and love college sports, which I sense is the majority out there, no expense is too great; for those who don’t, a nickel is too much to spend. There will never an answer that pleases everyone.
Not sure how the UConn men can stop this slide. Some of the coaches I’ve talked to believe that playing Donavan Clingan more than Adama Sanogo, rather than both together, could help. There must be some way to get the mojo back, because it’s just unfathomable that a team can go from being that good to this bad in less than a month.
Former Huskies ace Anthony Kay, who was claimed by the Cubs on waivers Dec. 23, was designated for assignment Friday, but he took it in good humor. “What a run we had, Cubs,” he said via Twitter. With a good slider, a Long Islander and a former first-round pick by the Mets, maybe Kay, who idolized Andy Pettitte, would be a fit for a shot with the Yankees, who could use a lefty in the bullpen.
A shout out to my longtime friend Sweeny Murti, who is leaving WFAN after three decades, most of that covering the Yankees. A seasoned, pro’s pro who still brings the zeal of an intern to what he does, he will be a heck of a get for somebody in New York sports media.
Teaching respect and sportsmanship, not getting rid of postgame handshakes, should be the response to fights at high school sporting events.
Last word
For 23 years, Tom Brady has played poker with Father Time, Mother Nature and Lady Luck and raked in more than his share of big pots. Now is the time to take his substantial winnings and walk away with his health intact, rather than keep at it and take one hit too many.