The WNBA should protect - not fight - Elena Delle Donne
In These Uncertain Times, if a player doesn't feel comfortable playing during a world historic pandemic, defer to them!
Good morning. Let’s basketball.
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Elena Delle Donne, the reigning WNBA MVP and a top candidate for best player in the league, applied to opt out of the 2020 bubble season due to her belief (supported by her personal doctor) that living with Lyme disease puts her at greater risk if she should contract coronavirus in Florida this summer. ESPN’s John Barr and Sarah Spain report that the WNBA’s medical panel denied that request.
Importantly, Delle Donne still has the option of sitting out the season, but she’d waive her salary to do so. Had the medical request been approved, she’d still get paid. She told ESPN she’s discussing her options with her doctor and wife.
On one hand, the WNBA set up a process and the medical panel with input and approval from the players’ union. This is the business of the process playing out. But it shows that the process was flawed from the start if a player as prominent as Delle Donne, who has battled her disease in full view of the public, gets denied because the CDC currently doesn’t believe Lyme disease elevates coronavirus risks. As if we know everything about how coronavirus acts right now! (For what it’s worth, it appears there remain a number of unknowns about Lyme disease, as well.)
Delle Donne’s own doctor as well as the Mystics’ team doctor have agreed that she’s at a higher risk. The WNBA and NBA are asking players to travel to coronavirus hot spots during an explosion of cases. The default setting for reviewing medical opt-out requests should be to approve them given the barest minimum rationale. If you have any sort of pre-existing condition — particularly a chronic one like post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, which can result in symptoms from the infection popping up with little warning — you should be able to opt-out of this very weird season without losing your contract.
Manatee County, where the WNBA has convened, set a new record for reported COVID-19 cases on Monday. Florida crushed the national record for a state on Sunday, and almost matched it Monday. The WNBA is asking a lot for fully healthy players. For players with well-documented diseases, they are asking even more.
The medical opt-out process the WNBA set up lacks the humanity required of the situation at hand. If Elena Delle Donne, who played through three herniated disks last year to help the Mystics to the championship, hasn’t earned the right to protect herself from exposure how she sees fit without penalty from the league, something’s rotten with the process.
Protect people, not profits. Do better, WNBA.
Bubble Borders
Two players, Houston’s Bruno Caboclo and Sacramento’s Richaun Holmes, have violated the bubble. Both claim it was inadvertant, but both still have to go back into a longer quarantine and undergo more testing before getting to practice and fish and give Dwight Howard some company at sparsely attended D.J. nights.
Caboclo reportedly left his room during the initial in-room quarantine period, a big no-no. He says he didn’t realize he couldn’t leave his room. Whoops! He’ll be free in about a week.
Holmes, meanwhile, says he inadvertently went into an unauthorized area to pick up a food delivery. Assuming negative tests, he’ll be back out of quarantine with a week to go before games begin. He’s actually critical to whatever chances the Kings have to get into the playoffs, so this time missing practice is not great.
The incident allowed his mom, however, to take an early lead in the race for Bubble MVP:
Too soon, Dr. Holmes!
Links
Russell Westbrook isn’t in the bubble because he tested positive for coronavirus back in Houston. He’s still expected to join the team when cleared.
Two unnamed NBA players tested positive during the quarantine period in the bubble and have exited Orlando. The NBA says the two players didn’t break quarantine, so other players shouldn’t have been exposed, except potentially in transit. Still a white-knuckle couple of weeks since it takes time for positive tests to show up with this virus.
The WNBA schedule has been released.
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Be excellent to each other.
And why aren't the Mystics the Ms.tics?
Yeah that's not a good look by the WNBA. As you said Delle Donne has given so much to the league.