11/17/2023 0 Comments Wnba arizona![]() Players are also often treated like first-class athletes overseas but continue to travel economy class in the U.S.īut the monetary gap is dwindling, and players are re-evaluating their offseason options. Jonquel Jones, the 2021 WNBA MVP who previously competed in Russia and is playing in Turkey this offseason, told ESPN she earned the equivalent of her WNBA paycheck in one month overseas. Top players could earn seven figures in Russia, and China paid between $50,000 and $200,000 per month. In recent history, international salaries have far outpaced those of the WNBA, driving players’ decisions to choose international competition over a restful offseason at home. This year’s tally indicates a change: Only 66 players (give or take) selected the overseas route, meaning more than half of the WNBA decided the overseas life isn’t for them, at least for now. A year ago, league data estimated 77 players appeared in international leagues. The most popular path historically has been playing overseas in the fall and winter, where WNBA players earn the bulk of their income and get to play full schedules that mimic the length of college or NBA seasons, before returning stateside for the summer WNBA season. The WNBA offseason has existed as a sort of choose-your-own-adventure exercise for the league’s players. The drain of having no time off is a feeling many WNBA players can relate to. So I thought it was in my best interest to come back home and just take a couple of months off and find myself again.” ![]() I haven’t had a break in years from basketball, I haven’t got time to rest my body and my mind. ![]() I didn’t have that good of a rookie season. “I talked to my parents, my husband about it, I prayed about it, and I’m just like, no. “I came back home early because I was kinda burned out on basketball,” McDonald says. So even when Barnes offered an attractive coaching role last year, McDonald knew it was time to rest. Sixty-nine games of basketball over the previous 12 months with no end in sight was too much to handle - physically and mentally. She went to Hungary to play for UNI Györ, but just three contests in, it was clear she was spent. ![]() She played in 30 games in her first WNBA season, then did what most women’s basketball players in her situation do and crossed the Atlantic Ocean for her third season in a calendar year. ![]() Less than two weeks after losing the national championship, she was drafted by the Atlanta Dream and immediately transitioned into the professional game. But at that time, McDonald just needed a break. This time McDonald joins Barnes as part of her Wildcats coaching staff, serving as a director of recruiting operations.īarnes had tried to lure her best player back to campus a year ago after McDonald completed her rookie WNBA season. And after three remarkably successful seasons with the Wildcats, culminating in the program’s first trip to the national title game in 2021, McDonald is back at Arizona and with Barnes, yet again. Then to Arizona as a transfer when Barnes took the head job at her alma mater. Aari McDonald can’t stop committing to Adia Barnes.įirst, it was to the University of Washington, where Barnes was an assistant coach, when McDonald was coming out of high school. ![]()
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