Thursday 23 May 2019 13:00, UK
It's been a busy offseason for the WNBA with big names changing places, a new commissioner and a few injuries to some of the game's greatest players.
The league will tip off its 23rd season on Friday and defending champions Seattle Storm may be hard-pressed to win the championship after reigning MVP Breanna Stewart suffered an Achilles injury which will sideline her for the season.
The Storm took another hit this week when it was announced that veteran point guard Sue Bird was going to be sidelined indefinitely with a knee injury. Seattle are also missing coach Dan Hughes for an indeterminate amount of time as he battles cancer.
"The most important thing to us is that Sue is healthy and strong. Based on her feedback and evaluation from her longtime surgeon and our medical team, it was determined the best course of action was a scope," Storm CEO and general manager Alisha Valavanis said. "We have confidence this will support Sue's full recovery and we look forward to her return to the court."
With the Storm short-handed, Washington, Las Vegas and Los Angeles are the favourites to win the title. The Mystics lost to the Storm in the WNBA Finals last season. The Aces added 6ft 8in Australian star Liz Cambage last week. The runner-up for the MVP in 2018 will give Las Vegas a dynamic duo in the front court, pairing her with last season's rookie of the year A'ja Wilson.
The Sparks added Chiney Ogwumike from the Connecticut Sun, pairing her with sister Nneka. The pair will have to carry the load a little more in the early part of the season as Candace Parker is ruled out with a hamstring injury for a few weeks.
Stewart, Bird and Parker are not the only players not featuring in the early part of the season due to injury. Angel McCoughtry is still recovering from a knee injury she suffered last year. Diana Taurasi is out for at least a month while recovering from a back injury. And it is not just injuries that are sidelining some of the league's top players.
Skylar Diggins-Smith gave birth to a baby boy this spring and hopes to return to the Dallas Wings lineup at some point this season. Maya Moore decided to take a year away from playing basketball to focus on family commitments.
The WNBA has a new leader as the league hired Cathy Engelbert as commissioner last week. The previous four leaders of the WNBA had been known as president.
"Commissioner, first of all, honoured and humbled to have that title. And it comes with awesome responsibility," Engelbert said.
Since 2015, Engelbert has been CEO of Deloitte US, an accounting organisation that works with Fortune 500 companies. She was the first woman to hold that job. Engelbert won't start until around the All-Star Break in late July.
The New York Liberty found a new owner in the offseason as the team was bought by an investment group led by Brooklyn Nets minority owner Joseph Tsai.
Tsai, co-founder of the e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, bought a 49 per cent interest in the Nets in April. The team played an exhibition game at Barclays Center and drew over 4,000 fans. The team will play most of their home games this season in Westchester, but Tsai said at the exhibition game that he would welcome more games at Barclays in the future.
Watch Seattle Storm @ Minnesota Lynx live on Sky Sports Arena and Sky Sports Mix in the early hours of next Thursday morning (1am).
