By Cassandra Cousineau for LVSportsBiz.com
It’s been just over a week since the WNBA tipped off with its 12 teams gathered in a pandemic bubble in Bradenton, Florida — or as players and fans are calling it, the “wubble” at the IMG Academy.
In hopes of playing the full 22-game season amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, the league has given each team the keys to two golf carts to breeze around the campus. The WNBA’s 24th season is easily the most unique in league history with games being played in one centralized location — without fans — and with an unequivocal focus on racial justice.
Las Vegas Aces forward A’ja Wilson put the racial justice factor into context: “This year is bigger than basketball. We’re talking about our lives. We want people to say her name.”
Her name is Breonna Taylor. Taylor, a 26-year-old Black emergency room technician, was killed when police shot into her house while executing a wrongful ‘no-knock’ search warrant in March. The officers involved in the shooting were deemed to be at the wrong house, and have not been charged with any wrongdoing in the months since.
Focusing on racial injustice was a priority for players in a league where about 80 percent of its athletes are Black women.
Wilson is a founding member of the league’s Social Justice Council. Launched in early July, the WNBA and the WNBPA announced the council will be the “driving force of necessary and continuing conversations about race, voting rights, LGBTQ+ advocacy, and gun control among other important societal issue,” per the league’s press release.
Unlike the NBA bubble on the Walt Disney World of Sports campus in Orlando, options are significantly more limited for the Aces and their counterparts.
There’s swimming while observing a social distance; golf; and, of course, basketball.
When asked if the rules of the bubble help to foster team comradery, especially with the loss of Aces starters Kelsey Plum and Liz Cambage for the season, Wilson told LVSportsbiz.com, “That’s actually a good question, but we don’t really hang with one another. My roommate is Lindsey Allen and I see Dearica Hamby. Mostly, we all see each other when we get tested.”
The team is spread out throughout IMG. Players were given the option of where they wanted to live either in villas or at a hotel on site.
So, far the bubble has been working as planned for the WNBA. When players began arriving at IMG on July 6 seven out of 137 players tested positive for COVID-19, the novel coronavirus that has claimed the lives of 155,000 Americans. But there hasn’t been a positive result since the initial quarantine period.
The Aces are just a season removed from being among the teams favored to win the WNBA championship.
Without Cambage, Plum, and back-up center Ji-Su Park, other players have stepped up to help the team achieve its goal of bringing a trophy home to Las Vegas.
In addition to new additions Angel McCoughtry and Lindsey Allen, a familiar face has helped provide some stability to the team. Carolyn Swords, who averaged 2.6 points and 2.2 rebounds in 8.9 minutes on the court last year, announced her retirement in February, and was set to take on a new role on the team’s marketing department. Then, COVID hit.
“I was the one who laid her off from her job when this whole thing started,” Aces coach Bill Laimbeer told LVSportsBiz.com. Swords re-considered her retirement as a player and suited up instead. “She’s a professional basketball player. She doesn’t make many mistakes.”
The only test the team must, well, ace while in the bubble are the daily COVID tests.
Aces are currently, 2-2, after Sunday’s 79-70 win over Dallas and sit in sixth place in the league. They next play the Washington Mystics at 5 p.m. Aug. 5.
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