The WNBA quickly resumed play after the Olympics, and this fast turnaround might be something players want to address in the next collective bargaining agreement.
Teams began playing games just four days after the Paris Games ended. This included Breanna Stewart and the New York Liberty, who had to start their games in Los Angeles, which is nine hours behind France.
“I think that even in a non-Olympic year, you think about All-Star, it’s like, everybody needs some time after All-Star break, or it’s not a break. So trying to kind of push that into the CBA, I think would be really important,” she told The Associated Press.
“Especially following the Olympics, because we’ve never had an Olympics in a 40-game season, except this season.”
Players or the league could choose to opt out of the current CBA at the end of this season.
The quick turnaround didn’t seem to affect New York, which had four players and its head coach competing in the Paris Games. The Liberty won two games against Los Angeles and Las Vegas to stay at the top of the standings and secure a playoff spot.
Stewart realizes that the league wants to keep the momentum going and not miss games for an extended period.
“From the W’s perspective, I’m sure they’re like, well, we don’t want to be not showing games for an entire month or a month plus. But at the same time, understanding the players’ perspective I think is really important,” she said.
“It’s wild, from Paris to the West Coast, so it’s just like, not an ideal situation.”
The Liberty forward mentioned that, unfortunately, players often find themselves in situations like this.
“It’s like, onto the next, onto the next, onto the next, where we kind of even really celebrate what we did, of winning a gold medal, as much as you would want to.”
The Aces split their first two games, and A’ja Wilson wished she had a few more days to recover after helping the U.S. win its eighth consecutive gold medal. Las Vegas was one of the teams that didn’t start playing until Saturday.
“I definitely needed some time to decompress. Playing for USA Basketball is a whole other thought and mind process that you might not necessarily have to exert that much energy when you play with your respective team,” Wilson said.
“So definitely needed just a couple of days just to kind of decompress, whether that’s just getting back into the flow of things, or just get my feet underneath me, because that was a long time away with a lot of just back and forth.”
Wilson said she’d support discussing getting more time off with the players.
“I think if it is a chance for us to go to the table and say, ‘Hey, we should get more rest time,’ even if it’s just a couple of days. It’s crazy to see players play fresh off of a plane in a sense. So yeah, I don’t mind asking for that.”
