The majority of WNBA players have made their way to Bradenton, Florida for the league’s 22-game season that hopes to start later this month, but there are a number of notable names that have opted out of this year’s season for various reasons.
Jonquel Jones, Natasha Cloud, Liz Cambage, Renee Montgomery, and others have all decided against going to IMG Academy for the WNBA season, with some citing health concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic while others are taking time away to focus on social justice reform. The reigning WNBA champion Washington Mystics are already without two key contributors in Cloud and LaToya Sanders, but may see their MVP Elena Delle Donne and former MVP and 7-time All-Star Tina Charles, who they traded for in April, also sit out.
The team announced both Delle Donne and Charles had not traveled with the team to Florida as they are awaiting results from a league medical evaluation to determine if they are medically excused from competing in the bubble. Delle Donne explained on Twitter that she is waiting to learn if her battle with Lyme disease puts her at high-risk for the virus.
Many of you know about my ongoing battle with Lyme Disease, and a compromised immune system. For now I’m following protocol and waiting for a risk assessment from the league medical panel. Missing my teammates but health and safety are the priority
https://t.co/3oChtiaqXJ
— Elena Delle Donne (@De11eDonne) July 8, 2020
As Kareem Copeland of the Washington Post notes, the key difference in being medically excused from playing is players that are excused not to play still get paid their salary, while those that opt out do not.
Remember, if they are determined to be high-risk, they can opt-out and still get paid. And Delle Donne has Lyme disease. https://t.co/yHKwCqSvzf
— Kareem Copeland (@kareemcopeland) July 8, 2020
Delle Donne is coming off an historic season, in which she averaged 19.5 points and 8.2 rebounds while joining the 50/40/90 club with a preposterous 51.5/43.0/97.4 shooting split en route to a second career MVP award. Charles joined the Mystics from the Liberty in a draft night trade, coming off a season in which she averaged 16.9 points and 7.5 rebounds in her least effective and efficient season of her career, but hoped to bounce back in a big way with a Mystics team primed to compete for another title.
Losing Delle Donne and Charles would be an even bigger blow to the Mystics hopes of repeating as champions. Adding to the difficulty of the entire situation, training camp was hopefully to start on Friday, but any replacement players they would sign after getting results back would have to quarantine after arriving in Florida and further delay their time to try and put together a cohesive unit.