As the Elena Delle Donne fiasco continues, the Washington Mystics arrived last night to save the day, at least they believed. They announced that they had planned to pay Della Donne whether he played this season or not, as he is coming from back surgery and is currently rehabilitating. Which, at first, might seem to fix this with a neat little bow.
Except if you give it more thought, it certainly doesn’t. First of all, the dispute here is not really about money. It would be more about money for other players, but not for Delle Donne. She earns the league’s top salary, she has a nice healthy backing briefcase. Financially, Delle Donne will have no problem with lost checks for a season. She is basically said so much.
The problem is, the WNBA is so insensitive to one of its players’ major health issues. He wasn’t denying her the money, he was forcing her to choose between that and playing in an atmosphere that she didn’t think was safe for her. And she would hardly be the only one who does not feel safe. By having one of your most recognized players rejected from choosing not to participate, you can bet there are others lower in the food chain who won’t even try. You’d have to be a cynical bastard to think that was part of the WNBA calculation, but it turns out I’m that cynical bastard.
Secondly, the mystics essentially say they will pay an injured player while she is recovering from an injury she suffered while, you know, playing for them. This is standard. This would have happened under normal circumstances. You get no applause for paying a player his contract while rehabilitating an injury. What would not have happened under normal circumstances is for Delle Donne to be forced into a bubble that she believes puts her safety at risk. In a normal WNBA season, if Delle Donne’s condition or symptoms make her waste her time, she would not be charged. She would simply be on an “unavailable” list while recovering.
The mystics, and probably the WNBA, hope that Delle Donne gets her money to solve the problem and they all move on. In an interview with CNN, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert declined to say whether the decision not to grant Delle Donne a waiver was correct, choosing instead to only speak about the independent medical panel and a “level playing field for all players.” .
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But money doesn’t solve the problem that the league is asking any player to camp in Florida for weeks, that he simply ignored the case of a player feeling insecure and protecting himself, or that he didn’t really have to show his work. like what. After all, Delle Donne gave up his right to appeal, which does nothing to improve this scent.
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