Sports Talk: Globe-Trotting to the Sideline

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THE WASHINGTON MYSTICS played around the world this offseason, but the experience might actually hurt the team during this summer's WNBA campaign.

Washington returns with the squad that went 18-16 and set a franchise win record last year almost entirely intact. The team's familiarity with coach Richie Adubato's complicated system, which includes around 40 offensive sets, bodes well, but Washington's injuries, fatigue and nearly nonexistent preseason should temper optimism.

Adubato said that, after their WNBA season ended last August, nearly all the Mystics headed for foreign leagues, where most played for six or seven months.

"There's no question that there's a fatigue factor when you get back ... mental along with physical," Adubato said, adding that four of the team's top players returned from abroad last week — giving the whole team just a week of training camp.

The experience of Mystics guard Nikki Blue, who played in Turkey, epitomizes the mixed blessings of international play. "I feel I got better," Blue said. "I turned into a shooter." But Blue found the Turkish game far more physical and injured her right knee, making her availability for Saturday's opener against the Connecticut Sun a game-time decision.

Playing abroad is "not really worth it," Blue said, "but you have to, because of the money."

Similarly, the Mystics will be without all-star guard Alana Beard on Saturday. Beard played for a Korean team in the offseason and then attended a USA Basketball camp in Italy — where she strained her left shoulder.

When the squad hosts Connecticut, who knocked Washington out of the playoffs in the first round each of the last two years, the Mystics will "just hope that everybody's in the same boat," Adubato said.

Written by Express contributor Tim Follos
Photo by Joel Richardson/The Washington Post