With several stars hurting, WNBA crown up for grabs
Stewart, reigning MVP, among those out, so race open
NEW YORK — It’s been a busy offseason for the WNBA with big names changing places and a few injuries to some of the sport’s greatest players.
The league will tip off its 23rd season Friday with several teams contending for the championship. The defending champion Seattle Storm may be extremely hard-pressed to repeat. Reigning MVP Breanna Stewart will miss the season with an Achilles injury she sustained this winter while playing for a Russian club team.
The Storm took another hit this week when they announced that point guard Sue Bird will be out indefinitely with a knee injury. Seattle is also missing coach Dan Hughes for an indeterminate amount of time because he has cancer.
With the Storm short-handed, Washington, Los Angeles and the Aces are title favorites. The Mystics lost to the Storm in the WNBA Finals last season.
The Aces added 6-foot-8-inch Australian scoring sensation Liz Cambage last week. The runner-up for the MVP in 2018, Cambage gives the Aces a dynamic front court, as she teams with A’ja Wilson, last season’s rookie of the year.
The Sparks added Chiney Ogwumike from the Connecticut Sun, pairing her with her sister Nneka. The sisters 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 weeks.
Stewart, Bird and Parker aren’t the only players who will miss time during the early part of the season because of injury.
Angel Mccoughtry is still recovering from a knee injury she suffered last year. Diana Taurasi is out for at least a month while recovering from a back injury. 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.
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.”
On a positive note, the league struck a deal to broadcast 40 games on the CBS Sports Network. That nearly doubles the number of games on national television from last year. The TV channel will use local broadcast feeds for now, similar to what NBA TV does for WNBA games. The league also has a deal with ESPN to show 16 regular-season telecasts, including three on ABC.
The upcoming NBA TV schedule of WNBA games has not been finalized yet, but nearly 50 games are expected to be broadcast — the same as last year.