Tag: Elena Delle Donne

WNBA Preview: 5 things to look forward to this WNBA season

The W is back!

The WNBA’s first tip off on Saturday cannot get here any sooner.

And it all starts with a bang. On Saturday, at 12 noon, Sue Bird, Breonna Stewart and the Seattle Storm will face Sabrina Ionescu and the New York Liberty.

That’s just the beginning, though. There’s so much more to dive in on for this upcoming season in the WNBA Bubble. There are so many stacked teams with multiple All-Stars. At the same time, there are so many All-Stars that are actually sitting this season out because of coronavirus.

And, best of all, there are so many players down the Wubble right now having a blast.

This season looks like it’s going to be fun. We cover all of that and more in the video above.

Elena Delle Donne lambasts WNBA, reveals she takes 64 pills a day to battle Lyme disease

The MVP also ripped into the WNBA.

WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne revealed earlier this week that her request for a medical exemption from playing in the 2020 season was denied by a panel of league physicians.

Delle Donne, who led the Mystics to their first ever WNBA championship last year, has suffered from Lyme disease for over 10 years and now, because of the league’s decision, faces the same hard choice as millions of other Americans.  Namely, whether or not she should risk her health for a paycheck.

Due to the pandemic, the WNBA is playing a shortened 22-game season in a Florida bubble, but that’s still far from totally safe.  As has been proven with the recent spate of positive tests around leagues that are returning to play, COVID-19 has a way of worming itself into any environment.  In a Twitter thread, Delle Donne said that while she wanted to be with her teammates, her compromised immune system made it risky.

In an essay for the Players’ Tribune published Wednesday, Delle Donne wrote about the exact lengths she’s had to go through to keep herself healthy as she battles Lyme disease.

I take 64 pills a day.

Sixty-four pills: That’s 25 before breakfast, another 20 after breakfast, another 10 before dinner, and another 9 before bed.

I take 64 pills a day, and I feel like it’s slowly killing me. Or if it’s not killing me, directly, then I at least know one thing for sure: It’s really bad for me. Longterm, taking that much medicine on that regular of a regimen is just straight-up bad for you. It’s literally an elaborate trick that you play on yourself — a lie that you tell your body so it keeps thinking everything is fine.

When she applied for the medical exemption, Delle Donne said she submitted detailed reports from her primary care doctor and the Mystics team physician, both attesting to the seriousness of her condition and the potential risk she faces in relation to COVID-19. The WNBA panel denied her request, she says, without even talking to her. In the essay, Delle Donne ripped the WNBA for suggesting that she’s faking any portion of her disease just to get a paycheck.

What I hear in their decision is that I’m a fool for believing my doctor. That I’m faking a disability. That I’m trying to “get out” of work and still collect a paycheck.

I don’t have NBA player money. I don’t have the desire to go to war with the league on this. And I can’t appeal.
Yup….. they caught me.

That’s why I played in the finals last year with THREE HERNIATED DISCS IN MY BACK.

That’s why I work out during the seven months a year when we’re not in season, when no one’s watching me, when I’m not collecting my player salary.

That’s why I’ve crammed my 6’5” body into so many coach class flights that I almost forget what it’s like to have legs and feet that aren’t dangerously swollen.

That’s why I take 64 pills a day.

Because I’m the type of player who makes up a condition to avoid playing basketball.

They figured me out.

According to Delle Donne, she also signed a no appeal clause, which means that the panel decision is final. She still hasn’t said whether or not she plans to play this season, but it is ridiculous that she’s in this position to begin with.

As our own Michelle Martinelli pointed out earlier this week, the CDC doesn’t include Lyme disease as one of the medical conditions that increases the risk of adverse COVID-19 symptoms, which might be why the WNBA panel of doctors differ so greatly from Delle Donne’s personal physician.

Still, the underlying point here is that we don’t know much about coronavirus nor that much about Lyme disease, leaving far too much risk on the table.

As Delle Donne said, she is facing a choice that millions of other Americans are also facing when it comes to the pandemic, trying to decide between financial stability and her overall health. It’s an untenable situation, one that no one should be in.

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It’s ridiculous the WNBA is forcing Elena Delle Donne to choose between her health and her paycheck

Elena Delle Donne said her request to opt out of the 2020 season for medical reasons was denied.

Elena Delle Donne, the Washington Mystics superstar and reigning WNBA MVP, told ESPN on Monday that her request to opt out of the 2020 season was denied by a panel of physicians, assembled by the WNBA and the players association.

Delle Donne’s request was for medical reasons because she’s had chronic Lyme disease since 2008, and her personal physician told her she was at a high risk for contracting COVID-19 and having related complications, ESPN reported. She has not yet traveled to the WNBA bubble at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida and said in a statement to ESPN that she needs to think things over and speak with her doctor and her wife before making a decision about playing or not.

On Twitter last week, the 30-year-old forward — who led the Mystics to the franchise’s first championship last year — said she has “a compromised immune system” and as much as she wants to be with her teammates, “health and safety are the priority”.

More from ESPN:

“The independent panel of doctors the league appointed to review high-risk cases have advised that I’m not high risk, and should be permitted to play in the bubble,” Delle Donne said in a statement released to ESPN Monday.

“I love my team, and we had an unbelievable season last year, and I want to play! But the question is whether or not the WNBA bubble is safe for me. My personal physician who has treated me for Lyme disease for years advised me that I’m at high risk for contracting and having complications from COVID-19,” Delle Donne added in her statement.

“I’m thinking things over, talking to my doctor and my wife, and look forward to sharing what I ultimately plan to do very soon.”

Players can skip the abbreviated 22-game regular season for any reason, as The Washington Post noted, but only the players “deemed high risk by doctors will still receive full pay.”

Delle Donne’s agent, Erin Kane, told ESPN her client was in “disbelief” over the decision to reject her request to medically opt out of the season and that players don’t have the opportunity to appeal.

So now, the two-time WNBA MVP will have to choose between opting out of the season without getting paid or playing and possibly contracting a virus — which has already killed more than 134,000 people in the U.S. — that her own doctor said could lead to complications.

That’s absolutely ridiculous and an appalling look for the league.

It seems fair to assume that Delle Donne’s personal physician, who she specifically said has treated her for Lyme disease for years, knows better than a panel of doctors what’s best for their patient.

And it really shouldn’t matter that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn’t include Lyme disease among the underlying medical conditions that increase the risk for severe illness from COVID-19. Even if the panel is taking the CDC’s guidelines into consideration when looking at high-risk cases, as ESPN reported.

Delle Donne has been open about her fight against Lyme disease, which can have overlapping symptoms with COVID-19, USA TODAY noted. In a story for ESPN The Magazine’s Body Issue in 2016, she said her “biggest challenge is trying to stay healthy with Lyme disease,” adding that she takes about 50 supplements a day to combat it.

“At my worst, I have muscle aches and fatigue and various symptoms, like you get when you have the flu,” she told ESPN in 2016. “Then there are days I’ll wake up a little bit tired or my muscles aren’t recovering as well, but I keep that in mind and will alter my training.”

There are no proven treatments for chronic Lyme disease, more specially known as Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome, according to the CDC. And because it has a history of controversy surrounding treatment options, Harvard Medical School recommends patients find “a doctor you trust and who can work closely with you.”

It certainly appears as though Delle Donne has done exactly that if she’s been treated by the same doctor for years. Couple that with how little is still understood about the novel coronavirus, its longterm effects and how it may interact with underlying medical conditions, her doctor seems to be the best person to evaluate the potential health risks of playing this season.

The WNBA’s panel should have deferred to the opinion of her personal doctor, as well as that of the Mystics’ team physician. More from ESPN’s story Monday:

“…Kane told ESPN that the Mystics’ team physician, Dr. Anne Rettig, sent a letter to the medical panel advising them that Delle Donne was cleared to play but noted that she should be considered ‘higher risk.'”

Instead, Delle Donne — like far too many Americans during this pandemic — now has to weigh her paycheck against her jeopardizing health. And that’s unacceptable.

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Former Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe …

Former Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant said he believes that there are three WNBA players who could play in the NBA right now. “I think there are a couple of players who could play in the NBA right now, honestly,” Bryant told CNN when asked whether there might be a day when his daughter could play in the same league in which he was a five-time champion and 18-time All-Star selection during his 20 seasons with the Lakers. “There’s a lot of players with a lot of skill that could do it. “Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, Elena Delle Donne. There’s a lot of great players out there, so they could certainly keep up with them.”