Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White made it clear what she thought about the injuries plaguing teams around the league, as the Dallas Wings are forced to rely on an “extreme hardship” clause to avoid forfeiting a game.
Coming into Friday’s matchup, the Wings had only seven available players to play, as Paige Bueckers‘ Dallas squad was ravaged by injuries throughout the season. In order to avoid forfeiting their contest against the Atlanta Dream, the Wings signed Christyn Williams to an “extreme hardship” contract.
With each team being swarmed with injuries, White, who has had to deal with her own squad, has had to deal with a number of players being out. Speaking to reporters, the Fever head coach explained how she feels the league could help curb injuries moving forward.
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“Plural: Extra spots,” White said, according to Front Office Sports. For White, seeing more roster sports being implemented would have been a godsend for the team, as the Fever have been devastated with injuries, particularly to their guard rotation, with Sydney Colson, Aari McDonald, Caitlin Clark, and Sophie Cunningham all dealing with their own injuries.
Colson and McDonald suffered season-ending injuries in the same game, while Cunningham suffered a season-ending torn MCL injury. Clark continues to have no timetable for return as she navigates through a groin injury, with the team being careful not to rush back the superstar guard.
White added: “Last year when I was in Connecticut we had multiple times where we had to have hardship contracts. Especially at the end of the year, it’s hard to get players to come in on hardship contracts. They don’t know the system, you’re teaching them things on the fly. I think [roster expansion] is important. I think it’s the next step and the natural next step.”
Before Los Angeles’ matchup with the Indiana Fever, Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts spoke on the injury situation plaguing the league and what the WNBA can do moving forward to help curb instances where teams are forced to rely on “extreme hardship” signings.
“I was just talking with our staff about that we were talking about like, ‘I wonder what it is – why is there so many injuries?’ and there’s probably a lot of reasons,” she told reporters before the game.
“I think it’s probably a 12-month [season]. I think you have to look at the whole calendar year for these athletes not just the W season because they’re playing overseas … they’re not getting that break that most professional athletes get in the offseason.
“There really is no offseason so I think you can look at that. You can look at the physicality, you can look at the way the games have over the past few years – just the time in between games has shrunk.”
Roberts continued: “I’m not the person in the room to make those decisions but I think it’s a great question.
“I think everyone’s asking it and I’m certain the league and the owners and all the powers that be will evaluate, peel back the layers as to what’s going on because nobody wants that.
“And franchises don’t want it, the league doesn’t want so hopefully we can find a fix but I don’t know the answer but it’s interesting you bring that up because we were just talking about it.”
Currently, WNBA rosters are capped to 12 players, while the NBA has 14 to 15 players on its team rosters in the event of injuries and other unforeseen instances.