The WNBA has yet to alter its 2020 season due to the spread of Covid-19, but it’ll have to soon. The league’s draft is scheduled for April 17, training camps are set to begin on April 26, and the season is supposed to start May 15.
In all likelihood, the WNBA won’t tip-off on time in May. The White House said Monday that the country might not go back to normal until July or August. At the least, the CDC has recommended no gatherings of more than 50 people for at least eight weeks, which would be days before the season is set to tip.
League commissioner Cathy Engelbert released a statement Thursday saying the WNBA was “scenario-planning” and further details would be made available later in the month.
So what is the WNBA likely working through in the interim?
First, the draft
The WNBA hadn’t yet announced a venue for its 2020 draft, and that’s unlikely to matter. Should the draft continue on April 17, it probably won’t be done in public. But there are questions bigger than the when and the where. Who will declare for the draft?
What will college seniors do?
The NCAA hasn’t made a decision for its winter athletes in their final season of eligibility. Spring sport athletes, who lost their entire season to Covid-19, will get an additional season next year. But the status of winter sport athletes, including basketball players who were days from competing in the NCAA tournament, is unclear. Will players in their final year of eligibility get another chance to win a championship next year? Will they want to?
Another year of eligibility could sway some to stay in school.
What will underclassmen do?
Then there’s the question of underclassmen. So far, UConn’s Meghan Walker and Oregon’s Satou Sabally have already put their names in. But will they, or can they, change their minds?
The current date for players to declare for the draft is April 7. Chennedy Carter, an elite guard from Texas A&M who could go as high as No. 3 in the draft, is weighing her options for good reason. The NCAA and WNBA have decisions to make and loopholes to close.
It’s an extreme scenario, but what happens in the event that a player declares for the draft, is selected, and then the 2020 WNBA season gets canceled? Will she be able to return to school for another year? Or will she be without basketball in America until the 2021 WNBA season in May, 14 months from now?
The possibilities are endless without clarity from the NCAA.
Then, the 2020 season
The WNBA will need to hold some type of preseason training camp for teams to make final roster decisions, and it’ll need to schedule preseason games before the start of the season, whenever that might be. When and where those events can be booked is up in the air, and that’s before we even get to the regular-season calendar.
Scheduling a now-36-game season was hard enough for the WNBA in a normal year, but things could get a helluva lot more difficult should the NBA try and keep its season in tact. If the NBA tries to play its entire regular season out, that means rescheduling up to 18 games for some teams, and the playoffs. That begs the bigger question.
How will the NBA and WNBA co-exist for so long?
The NBA and WNBA seasons typically overlap for a couple of weeks, with the W starting its regular season during the final rounds of the NBA playoffs. But in this scenario, the seasons could overlap for close to the entirety of the W calendar. The NBA is prepping for the possibility of a mid-to-late June return as of now.
That strikes several questions. What happens if an NBA team has to play a game, or playoff series, in a home it shares with a WNBA franchise? The Lakers and Clippers would both need to play in Staples Center, which homes the Los Angeles Sparks. Same goes for the Brooklyn Nets, who are supposed to share the Barclays Center with the New York Liberty for the first time in 2020. The Minnesota Lynx and Minnesota Timberwolves also share the Target Center.
On top of arena scheduling, there’s also TV scheduling. Would the later NBA season mean replacing the already paltry amount of ESPN-aired WNBA games in favor of NBA ones? I’d hope not.
There’s so much to sort through, and a lot for the W is dependent on what the NBA and NCAA does.
What about the Olympics?
The Olympics could become the biggest hurdle for the WNBA rescheduling its season. If the Tokyo Games aren’t canceled, that removes three weeks the W could’ve used to program for its regular season, tightening an already tight window.
The league will fight another boundary, too. Players start to leave for leagues in Europe and Asia by the end of October, if this are to resume, too — again limiting when WNBA games can be played.
It’s way too soon to predict how big of a challenge scheduling may become, but the window could tough to pull off. This was supposed to be the WNBA’s first season with an expanded 36 regular season games. Now, who knows.
The WNBA will have to sort through every scenario carefully, and keep rules as flexible as possible to remain fair to all parties. It’s no easy task, and one that’ll have to sit and wait until more information becomes available from other sports leagues.
Everything about the 2020 WNBA season has to remain fluid for now.
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