Last December was the primary time Sky ahead Jantel Lavender spent Christmas along with her household in three years. As she regarded across the desk, she couldn’t assist however understand how a lot she had missed.
Her younger cousins had been 18 and grown, and her mom and sister had all the pieces all the way down to a tee.
“People start doing things a certain way and it’s just like you’re not really tied into that,” Lavender informed the Sun-Times in a telephone interview. “So that was kind of hard seeing everybody in their routines or how things were kind of going for Christmas and stuff, and I was just kind of there smiling.”
Like most WNBA gamers, Lavender has missed holidays and different life occasions to pursue her profession, which consists of enjoying year-round. But in her eyes, it was price it.
However, for the primary time in 9 years, Lavender might be solely Sky participant who may have the posh of an offseason (although it didn’t come by alternative).
Lavender has performed in 17 consecutive skilled seasons, and he or she was planning to make it 18 this winter earlier than she had foot surgical procedure in August.
Sidelined for the ultimate stretch of the WNBA season, Lavender had ample time to mirror on her profession and what the longer term held.
Lavender all the time wished to pursue a profession in broadcasting however she by no means had the time. Unable to play, she turned to the Sky for a possible broadcasting internship. The subsequent factor she knew, Lavender was welcomed as a visitor analyst for the Sky’s final three residence video games this season.
The expertise was as nice as she imagined it will be and it opened doorways for her.
Lavender not too long ago signed a deal to be a girls’s basketball coloration analyst on the Big Ten Network for the upcoming season.
“I feel like I really didn’t have a choice [to play overseas] but I do think that it came at a time when I feel like I really need to home in and think about what I wanted to do after basketball,” Lavender stated. “God makes no mistakes.”
While Lavender preps for her new gig, Sky ahead Cheyenne Parker is making ready for her sixth season abroad.
Don’t get her unsuitable: Parker is happy about embarking on one other abroad journey. But as she will get older, the grind of year-round schedule is changing into harder.
“After awhile, it’s for one, a lot on the body and then for two, it’s a lot on your personal life,” stated Parker, who flew to China on Thursday. “Say you wanted to start a family or you wanted to open a business or just be in your nieces [and] nephews’ lives and watching them grow, you’re missing all that because you have to play a year-round season.”
In an ideal world, Parker wouldn’t must play abroad. And it’s time, she stated, for the WNBA to “make a change” and put money into its gamers.
Keeping gamers stateside would solely positively influence the league. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has stated increasing the league’s fanbase is a precedence. And an apparent method to do this is by having the WNBA’s star gamers lively within the basketball neighborhood and visual at NBA occasions all through the game’s pure season.
“It would give us the opportunity to not only be seen but also get active in other things whether it’s movies or business or you know basketball camps, appearances,” Parker stated. “They say the reason that we’re not getting the money that the men players are getting is because we don’t get the revenue, the attention, well that’s how you start by keeping our a–es in the country.”
But like most issues in life, cash is the basis of the WNBA’s downside.
“If they could give us the option to stay here, do events, do things to promote the league and we can still make money and we can still make a living and live a lifestyle that we become accustomed to living, than I think that would definitely be an option,” Lavender stated. “Until then, I’m one of those players who [doesn’t] mind going to Europe to make money.”