District Fray Magazine // May 2020

Closed Courts D.C.’s Biggest Hoop Stars Talk Basketball’s Postponement WORDS BY TRENT JOHNSON On March 11, a Covid-19-sized shockwave rippled across the entire sports landscape when Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus. In an immediate response, the NBA closed its arenas indefinitely, halting an almost finished regular season and putting respective postseason hopes on ice. Other sports leagues followed suit, rendering all answers about when pro team sports in the United States would return up in the air.

“I was startled [and] shocked,” Wizards guard Bradley Beal says. “[I] definitely took some time to process and understand what we were facing.”

At the time of postponement, the Washington Wizards were ninth in the Eastern Conference standings, one back from a playoff berth. But on the flip side, the team was also 5.5 games behind the eighth seeded Orlando Magic, so if the NBA is forced to come back in late summer on a tightly condensed schedule, any chances of a late-season run for the postseason would probably be mathematically impossible. Despite this, Beal says he wants to play when the league figures out its return plan. “​We have unfinished business and the standings won’t stop us from competing,” he says. “[I miss] our fans, the bond with my teammates and the grind.”

Beal’s local WNBA contemporary, the Washington Mystics’ Elena Delle Donne, felt the same way when the call to postpone the 2020 season came down. The only difference between the hoop stars was that his season was wrapping up, while hers was just getting started.

Delle Donne, in the midst of celebrating the team’s recent championship and her contract extension to stay in D.C., is now focusing on her societal responsibility to be cautious.

“It was a bummer for sure, but it’s important we stay home for all of the essential workers who have to risk their lives and be exposed to the virus,” Delle Donne says. “I know we will have our chance. I’m excited to see a banner rise up at the arena. I’ve never really framed this season as defending a title. That title is ours and will live in history forever. I was looking at this season as hunting for the next one and I’m so hungry to get back and do that.”

Opening night for the Mystics was originally slated for May 16, which would have also included the championship banner ceremony and a showdown with the recently departed Kristi Toliver and the Los Angeles Sparks.

Delle Donne and Toliver joined the D.C. team together 46 | MAY 2020