If you haven’t watched a WNBA game recently, you might be surprised to catch up with the action in the wubble — the nickname for the WNBA’s isolated atmosphere during the pandemic — based in Bradenton, Fla.
Playing an abbreviated 22-game season at IMG Academy, the professional league was one of the first in the U.S. to return to play. All of the league's 12 teams are playing without fans in the same facility through Sept. 12. Playoffs will follow.
The wubble is working so far. The WNBA has had zero positive tests for COVID-19 since the league's startup quarantine ended July 10, the league announced Friday.
Being one of the first leagues back in business paid off. ESPN highlighted the WNBA on its opening weekend by airing every game on its main networks. The four-game opening weekend averaged 401,000 viewers, the network said, up 63 percent from its 2019 average viewership for the season. It also had the most-watched WNBA opener since 2012 when the Los Angeles Sparks defeated the Phoenix Mercury.
After announcing those statistics, ESPN added 13 more WNBA games to its national television schedule. At least 77 WNBA games will be aired on national television.
The WNBA’s support of the Black Lives Matter movement has emerged as the strongest, sustained effort by a professional league this year. Players are wearing jerseys with the names of Breonna Taylor and other black female victims of violence. Players are supporting her foundation through T-shirts. The #sayhername campaign has joined forces with the league. Team social media accounts and players provide a united front. ESPN’s Holly Rowe is relentless in her sideline coverage of both the basketball and the social justice movement.
A strong show of unity is being held together by a group of resilient women who successfully reached a new collective bargaining agreement with owners in January that increased WNBA salaries to a $130,000 average salary (triple the former average) and allow the league’s all-stars and superstars to earn a maximum salary of more than $500,000. It’s already been a triumphant year for women in basketball.
The games themselves are fast and intense, and an analysis by WNBA writer Howard Megdal published this week proves it. Megdal is editor-in-chief of The Next, a women’s basketball site, and is founder of the women’s sports newsletter The IX. On the data-driven news site fivethirtyeight.com, Megdal says the pace of play in games this year is the highest ever.
“It’s probably a combination of new coaches and new players in this league and youthful legs, and just having that time off,” Atlanta Dream coach Nicki Collen said, referring to players not returning from overseas pro leagues, where many choose to supplement their income.
Chennedy Carter of the Dream is the top rookie so far, and she is one of the main factors contributing to the Dream’s up-tempo season. She scored 35 Thursdasy, making her the youngest player in league history to score 30 points or more, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The former Texas A&M star is just 21 years, 9 months old.
Unfortunately for the New York Liberty, the 2020 top draft pick Sabrina Ionescu was lost for the season with a severe ankle sprain in her third game. It was a big loss for a rebuilding team with seven rookies and picked to finish last. Ionescu averaged 18.3 points per game before she went down, including a 33-point performance in her second game.
Meanwhile, I’m still waiting for my orange WNBA hoodie in the mail. Thanks to promotion from NBA players and the #orangehoodie movement on opening day of the WNBA season, the item is backordered and the hottest selling WNBA item ever for Fanatics, according to a report in GQ.
Don’t miss out. Watch the games. And for the best online coverage of the WNBA, subscribe to these newsletters and websites:
• Courtside at https://courtside.substack.com. A newsletter by Lyndsey D'Arcangelo featuring interviews with WNBA players.
• The Next, a newsletter providing 24/7/365 women’s basketball coverage. Sign up at https://thenext.substack.com
• Mechelle Voepel’s reporting for ESPN.com.
Joyceb10bassett@gmail.com • @joyceb10bassett • https://blog.timesunion.com/allin
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All In: WNBA inside the wubble provides united voice, up-tempo style - Times Union
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