Elena Delle Donne Archives - Just Women's Sports

Elena Delle Donne is taking some time away from basketball, according to ESPN.

The two-time WNBA MVP will not sign the one-year supermax offer from the Washington Mystics. It’s unclear how long Delle Donne will stay away from basketball, according to ESPN’s sources. While free agency contracts can now be signed, the 34-year-old reportedly needs more time to think about what her future holds.

Delle Donne told the Mystics that she was unsure about her future prior to the free agency process beginning. She had hoped not to interfere with the team’s offseason plans.

Still, Washington opted to core their star player. As a result, the team holds her exclusive negotiating rights. Delle Donne could only explore other teams if a trade were to be made.

Should Delle Donne sit out this WNBA season, the team could again place the core tag on her.

One of the top free agents this offseason, Delle Donne has appeared in just 53 games for the Mystics since 2017. She’s struggled with injuries, including a back injury that required surgery and kept her limited from 2020 through the 2022 season.

Last season, she averaged 16.7 points and 5.4 rebounds.

Elena Delle Donne could be on the move.

While the Washington Mystics extended a core qualifying offer to Delle Donne on Jan. 13, a number of teams have inquired about the availability of the guard, according to Khristina Williams. Among those teams are the Phoenix Mercury.

SOURCES: The Mystics are seeking draft pick compensation for Elena Delle Donne, if a trade were to be completed. https://t.co/a3x3gWfUxr
— Khristina Williams (@Khristina) January 22, 2024

Any type of deal would have to be completed via a sign-and-trade, and according to Williams, the Mystics are seeking draft pick compensation for the star.

Currently, the Mercury hold the No. 3 overall pick in the draft, as well as the No. 13 pick and the No. 25 pick.

Delle Donne is one of the top free agents this offseason and has played for the Mystics since 2017. In that time, she won a WNBA championship with the team, but appeared in just 53 total games of her contract due to injuries.

Under the core tag, Delle Donne cannot talk to teams unless given the okay by the Mystics. A trade by the team would have to happen with her agreement.

The Washington Mystics aren’t letting Elena Delle Donne go just yet.

Per the WNBA’s transactions page, the Mystics extended a core qualifying offer to the forward. It comes after a report from The Next Hoops last week that Delle Donne was going to sign with another team in the offseason.

Delle Donne is one of the league’s top free agents and has played for the Mystics since 2017. In that time, she won a WNBA championship with the team and was a four-time WNBA All-Star. But she appeared in just 53 total games of her contract after a back injury kept her limited from 2020 through the 2022 season.

Last season, she averaged 16.7 points and 5.4 rebounds, although she did miss time with injuries.

The core tag doesn’t mean that Delle Donne couldn’t realistically sign with another team in the offseason, it just makes it more difficult. Under the core tag, Delle Donne has been offered a one-year, supermax contract by the Mystics. A different deal can still be negotiated with the Mystics.

Delle Donne cannot talk to other teams, unless the Mystics were to give the okay. She can still be traded by the team, although it cannot happen without her agreement.

In September of last year, both sides indicated that the decision about Delle Donne’s future with the team would not be an easy one. Delle Donne, for her part, said she still feels like she has “a lot of really good basketball left in her.”

“I think you always need to take a little bit of time to just kind of reflect and see what your next steps are going to be,” Delle Donne said.

“I just want to win. That’s truly what I care about most. It’s been my whole career, but especially coming back from all the back stuff and feeling like I’m really the strongest I’ve ever been. I’m in great shape. I feel like I have a lot more basketball to play, and I want to win.”

Elena Delle Donne could be on the move.

The two-time WNBA MVP’s contract with the Washington Mystics ended this season, and The Next Hoops has reported that Delle Donne is expected to sign with another team in the offseason.

She’s played for the Mystics since 2017, when she was traded from the Chicago Sky. In that time, she won a WNBA championship with the team and was a four-time WNBA All-Star. But she appeared in just 53 total games of her contract after a back injury kept her limited from 2020 through the 2022 season.

Injuries also caused her to miss time last season, although she still proved to be impactful, averaging 16.7 points and 5.4 rebounds on 48.5 percent shooting.

Both Delle Donne and the Mystics have remained relatively mum about her free agency.

“[Transition] is a word that can be used a little bit,” Mystics head coach Eric Thibault said last September. “I think we have to make a decision about what this is going to look like going forward. And it’s not an easy one.”

“I think the most encouraging thing is that she clearly views herself as having a lot of really good basketball left in her,” Thibault continued. “And that gives me a lot of confidence that that’s true, quite frankly.

Team general manager Mike Thibault also said something similar.

“Any time you have some of your players getting older, whether [Delle Donne] was a free agent or not, we need to make sure that we have other players that we can make focal parts of what we do,” Thibault said. “It can’t just be one player.”

For her part, the seven-time All-Star and two-time WNBA champion has stressed that the most important thing for her at this point in her career is winning.

“I think you always need to take a little bit of time to just kind of reflect and see what your next steps are going to be,” Delle Donne said.

Free agency is looming large for Elena Delle Donne.

The Washington Mystics were eliminated from the playoffs Tuesday, bringing their 2023 season to an end. And Delle Donne’s time in Washington could be coming to an end as well. Her four-year contract is up, meaning that the Mystics and Delle Donne have choices to make.

“[Transition] is a word that can be used a little bit,” head coach Eric Thibault said Wednesday. “I think we have to make a decision about what this is going to look like going forward. And it’s not an easy one.”

Delle Donne arrived in Washington in 2017, having been traded to the Mystics from the Chicago Sky. She helped the team to a WNBA championship in 2019 and was named league MVP that year. Since then, though, she has struggled with injuries, missing the 2020 season and playing just three games in 2021. She returned to form in 2022, averaging 17.2 points in 25 games. This season, she averaged 16.7 points in 23 games while also dealing with some nagging injuries.

A seven-time All-Star with two WNBA championships under her belt, Delle Donne previously has expressed her interest in staying in Washington. But on Wednesday, her tune was a bit different.

“I think you always need to take a little bit of time to just kind of reflect and see what your next steps are going to be,” Delle Donne said. “I just want to win. That’s truly what I care about most. It’s been my whole career, but especially coming back from all the back stuff and feeling like I’m really the strongest I’ve ever been. I’m in great shape. I feel like I have a lot more basketball to play, and I want to win.”

While this season wasn’t her best, Delle Donne still feels as though she has a lot left to give.

“I think the most encouraging thing is that she clearly views herself as having a lot of really good basketball left in her,” Thibault said. “And that gives me a lot of confidence that that’s true, quite frankly.

“I don’t think it’s fair necessarily to ask her to carry the load she carried when she was 27, 28, 29. But she can still be a big-time player, there’s no doubt about that.”

Even still, it’s time for both the Mystics and Delle Donne to evaluate how they want to move forward.

“I think that’s the discussion we’re having, and I really can’t give you that answer,” general manager Mike Thibault said. “I would say that anytime you have some of your players getting older, whether she was a free agent or not, we need to make sure that we have other players that we can make focal parts of what we do. It can’t just be one player.”

With injured players making their returns to the court, the Washington Mystics look like a completely different team compared to just weeks ago.

For the first time since early June, Washington has a healthy roster. Elena Delle Donne and Shakira Austin, who both missed significant time with injuries, are back on the court. And in Tuesday’s 83-72 win over the Lynx, not a single name was listed on the injury report.

“It was just a really dope moment,” Natasha Cloud told the Washington Post. “We’ve been through f—ing hell.

“It was a rough month and a half [of] playing down numbers, playing crazy lineups, having to adjust in a lot of minutes. So just to have everyone back [when] we’re making this playoff push and we’re really starting to peak and putting some wins together, it’s like the sweetest moment of the season for me right now.”

Kristi Toliver also made her return Tuesday, playing for the first time since June 16 after suffering from plantar fasciitis. And while Toliver, Delle Donne, Austin and Ariel Atkins remain on minute restrictions, it’s a step in the right direction.

With Tuesday’s win, the Mystics leapfrogged the Lynx into the fifth playoff spot. The Mystics (17-18) now hold a half-game lead on Minnesota and Atlanta with five games left in the regular season.

“It’s huge,” Brittney Sykes said of the win. “No, seriously, it is really big. We don’t want to get too caught up in looking ahead or thinking about, ‘Oh, well, if these teams win, if we win it, if we lose, they lose’ — it’s literally controlling our controllables.”

Of course, the team still has to juggle its returning players and monitor their progress. But the Mystics could be coming together at just the right time.

“It was good to have options,” head coach Eric Thibault said. “It feels a little choppy yet, kind of because I’m putting people in and yanking them out. We didn’t get a great rhythm, but we made some shots. Made some shots late in the clock, which was probably the difference in the game. We’ve been on the wrong end of a couple of those. We kept defending. I don’t know if we win this game earlier in the season.”

The Dallas Wings’ loss Sunday to the Chicago Sky featured two ejections and a fight during a chippy WNBA weekend, one which has resulted in one suspension and seven fines for players.

Wings star Arike Ogunbowale, one of the players ejected Sunday, gave voice afterward to a question that has echoed across the league this season: What is going on with the referees?

Ogunbowale received her second ejection of the season for making unnecessary contact with an official with 52 seconds left in the game. The 26-year-old guard’s shoulder knocked against the referee’s shoulder, which led to the technical foul and ejection.

“[The referee] was looking for something. I just watched it back a million times,” Ogunbowale said after the game. “I don’t know what’s going on this year with the refs but that was the worst call I’ve ever seen in my life.”

While Ogunbowale avoided a suspension, she did receive a fine for her contact with the official and for her postgame comments. Sky forward Ruthy Hebard received a one-game suspension and a fine for leaving the bench area during an on-court altercation earlier in the game, and her teammate Courtney Williams received a fine for doing the same.

The WNBA also handed out punishments for an altercation during Sunday’s game between the Los Angeles Sparks and Washington Mystics. Los Angeles’ Layshia Clarendon and Washington’s Ariel Atkins, Brittney Sykes and Shakira Austin all received fines.

Mystics players Elena Delle Donne and Natasha Cloud both have expressed frustration with WNBA officiating this season. In May, Delle Donne criticized the referees for treating her “like a rookie with calls.” In July, Cloud had even harsher words for the referees.

“I don’t care what pipeline refs we have coming through. I don’t care,” she said. “We have to do our job every single night. You need to do yours. This is bull—t. This is f–king bull–t.”

In June, Atlanta Dream coach Tanisha Wright questioned the officiating in one of her team’s games, particularly a flagrant-one call on New York Liberty guard Stefanie Dolson that Wright believes warranted a flagrant-two and an ejection.

“We’re expected to play at a high level every single night… The officials need to be able to rise to that same occasion. They should be held to that same standard,” Wright said. “They’re going to fine me for this, but I’m challenging them to raise their standards… Officiating needs to get better, period.”

Also in June, Seattle Storm guard Jewell Loyd — after scoring a career-high 41 points — took time to call out officiating issues.

“Protect the players,” Loyd said. “It’s not just us. Every single team has said something about the refs. That tells you that something is going wrong in that department. You expect high-level players, we expect high-level refs. We’re not getting that every single night.”

Alyssa Thomas, Elena Delle Donne and Napheesa Collier headline the 12 reserves who will compete at the 2023 WNBA All-Star Game. The reserves were announced on Saturday following a vote by WNBA head coaches. They will join the 10 All-Star starters — voted on by fans, media, and players — who were revealed last week.

Five players will make their All-Star debut in 2023: Gray, Magbegor, Mitchell and Parker, plus starter Aliyah Boston.

Sabrina Ionescu will make her second All-Star appearance thanks to the coach vote after she was ranked 19th amongst guards by her fellow players.

Of the reserves, Elena Delle Donne boasts the most All-Star Selections (nine), while Brittney Griner leads all All-Stars with nine.

While much fan and media attention is spent on comparing starters vs. reserves, that division becomes much less important once the All-Star game tips off. Both starters and reserves earn the “All-Star” label, playing time is typically divided more evenly than regular games, and there’s nothing to keep a reserve from being named All-Star MVP. Erica Wheeler (2019) was the most recent reserve to accomplish the feat.

All-Star captains A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart will draft their teams during a special WNBA All-Star selection show on Saturday, July 8 (1 p.m. ET, ESPN). The WNBA All-Star Game will be played at Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday, July 15, with the game airing on ABC (5:30 p.m. PT/8:30 p.m. ET).

Also on Saturday, the WNBA confirmed that Las Vegas head coach Becky Hammon (14-1) and Connecticut Sun head coach Stephanie White (12-4) will serve as All-Star head coaches thanks to their records through June 30. Hammon will coach Team Wilson, while White will coach Team Stewart.

Elena Delle Donne is calling out WNBA officiating, saying she is being treated “like a rookie” by referees.

The Washington Mystics expressed her frustration with foul calls (or lack thereof) during Sunday’s grueling road loss to the Connecticut Sun, the same team the Mystics will host Tuesday night.

“I’m just going to say it,” Delle Donne said. “I’m so sick of being treated like a rookie with calls. If I get fined — whatever. It’s unbelievable. I’ve been through too many back surgeries to — whatever.

“I just keep attacking, in the end I hope that because I can elevate and jump over people, you can see that my arm is getting hit. I just keep attacking and hoping that it’ll change. Hopefully it’ll change next game, but there’s really nothing you can do in those moments. You just, when you see something, you’ve gotta still attack it. And thank goodness for Shakira, who stepped up and took over.”

Both Delle Donne and Shakira Austin finished with double-doubles in the loss, but Delle Donne found herself in foul trouble five five while Austin had four. Alyssa Thomas and Brionna Jones each had five fouls for the Sun.

“It’s all just about timing — knowing when you should probably do certain things and when you should take advantage and be aggressive one-on-one. Still figuring it out,” Austin said.

Still, Mystics players agreed that the rough defense contributed to some issues. First-year Mystics head coach Eric Thibault received his first technical foul in his new position.

“I wouldn’t say it spooked us or anything like that, but it definitely takes you off your rhythm, especially as an offensive team that has a flow,” Mystics guard Ariel Atkins said. “Obviously you would like a few calls to go your way, but if you put the game in the hands of the ref, you always lose.”

After a physical game vs. Connecticut, Elena Delle Donne "so sick of being treated like a rookie with calls." pic.twitter.com/LcycpxNHNL
— NBC Sports Washington (@NBCSWashington) May 21, 2023

Natasha Cloud knows some people haven’t yet woken up to what’s possible for the Washington Mystics this year.

“Y’all can keep sleeping (on us),” the five-foot-nine guard said after the Mystics defeated the New York Liberty, 80-64, to open the 2023 WNBA season.

“We’re confident in what we have in this locker room and you can continue to talk about the super hero teams. But we know who we are and we know what we bring every single night.”

While the New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces made huge offseason moves, the Mystics’ path to the start of the WNBA season was more subtle. Elena Delle Donne, who has dealt with a back injury for three straight seasons, says she is as strong as she’s ever been. And she looked it on Friday night, recording 13 points, five assists, four rebounds, two steals against the Liberty. Cloud, Ariel Atkins, and Kristi Toliver also added double-digit points.

While Liberty fans might have been surprised by the result, Delle Donne wasn’t.

“It’s what we’ve been doing in training camp. And we don’t care about the outside noise,” the two-time WNBA MVP said. “We don’t care about the storylines. It’s not going to change how we show up every single day, take care of one another and get the work we need to get done each day.”

As for the New York “super hero” team?

“This was a huge lesson for us,” Liberty guard Courtney Vandersloot said.

“We can learn a lot from this,” echoed Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello. “The team with the most chemistry certainly won tonight. We were not very good, and they were very good.”

2023 WNBA All-Star Game Reserves