Can Delle Donne stay healthy for whole season?
I'm keeping my fingers crossed with Elena Delle Donne.
The Chicago Sky forward has been sizzling hot so far, off to a better start through seven games than any other player in WNBA history with 221 points.
Delle Donne leads the WNBA in scoring with 29.4 points per game. She's also tops in the league in free throw shooting (97.3 percent) and blocks (2.9 bpg) and is third in rebounds (9.9 rpg).
Not to be a buzzkill, but it's hard to forget about what happened to Delle Donne last season.
She missed 18 of 34 regular season games due to a flare-up of her Lyme disease, a chronic condition that can rear its ugly head at any time and for no reason.
Lyme disease was not a factor during Delle Donne's rookie season in 2013. The $64,000 question for the Sky is what will the disease do this year?
Staying healthy for Delle Donne means not only taking her many medications, it also means being vigilant about eating well and getting plenty of rest.
Delle Donne has been a tireless workhorse for the Sky so far.
She ranks third in the WNBA in minutes per game at 35, 10 more minutes per game than last season. Meanwhile, she has scored nearly 40 percent of the Sky's total points this season.
On Wednesday, she scored 45 of the Sky's 100 points in an overtime win over Atlanta. In that game, she also drained a WNBA-record 19-of-19 free throws.
Can Delle Donne continue to shoulder so much of the workload and keep up this torrid pace, which might have hit its first hiccup with Friday's 14-point performance at Indiana? And if she can, will she be able to do so while keeping her Lyme disease at bay?
It's a question that will follow Delle Donne for the rest of her career.
Sky fans should join me in keeping those fingers crossed. Because when Delle Donne is healthy, she's one of the best women's basketball players in the history of the game, the kind of special, Jordan-esque type of player who could lead her team to multiple championships.
Thomas put on ice:
The WNBA has kicked the can down the road with former Detroit Pistons guard Isiah Thomas.
Thomas, who was involved in a sexual harassment lawsuit that was settled in favor of the plaintiff, is the president of the WNBA's New York Liberty.
The Liberty also sought an ownership interest for Thomas. Both moves were criticized by women's groups.
The WNBA and the Liberty this week agreed to indefinitely suspend consideration of the ownership application, which was being vetted by a committee of six owners from the WNBA's board of governors. The WNBA says Thomas' role of team president is a team decision.
Brittney is back:
Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner will make her season debut on Saturday in Minnesota (7 p.m., ESPN2) after being involved in a series of troubling off-court episodes.
The 6-foot-8 center had been serving a record seven-game suspension after a domestic violence arrest in April.
"Basketball is my safe zone, being back on the court means everything for me, basketball is my life," Griner told the Associated Press on Tuesday. "I'm ready to go. I definitely have been watching and I have been doing everything off the court to be on the court."
Besides the WNBA suspension, Griner pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and agreed to undergo 26 weeks of domestic violence counseling.
If she completes it, the charges will be dismissed. Griner and her then-fiancée Glory Johnson were arrested April 22, then got married about a month later, and have since filed to have their marriage annulled, just days after announcing that Johnson is pregnant.
pbabcock@dailyherald.com
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