Women’s National Basketball Association star Skylar Diggins-Smith revealed Saturday that she played an entire season for the Dallas Wings while pregnant. And she’s furious the WNBA didn’t support her this year when she took two months off in the spring for post-partum depression, Diggins-Smith expressed in a series of tweets.
Diggins-Smith, 29, said she played while pregnant throughout the entire five-month 2018 season and “didn’t tell a soul.” She was still a leading player in the league and averaged 17.9 points and 6.2 assists. She also earned a fourth All-Star slot.
But Diggins-Smith said when she took two months early this season with a newborn son and post-partum depression, she was slammed as a “quitter” who was giving up on her team.
Diggins-Smith first publicly revealed she was pregnant with her first child last October, almost two months after the Wings ended its 2018 season with a loss against Phoenix in August.
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Diggins-Smith practiced with the Wings before the 2019 season started in May and expected to play but never did.
Team president and general manager Greg Bibb told the Dallas Morning News during the season that it was “100% up to Skylar” when she played. “We’re going to support her and her timeline and when she says she’s ready to go, we’re going to welcome her back,” he told the newspaper. She “needs to focus on getting herself healthy and getting her family situated and feeling good about all of that,” he added.
It’s unclear if the talented guard, who’s a free agent, will return to the team next season.
Under the WNBA collective bargaining agreement, players who become pregnant under contract are to receive half their salary, and their medical expenses are to be covered by insurance, according to Yahoo Sports.
It wasn’t immediately clear what Diggins-Smith received. But she tweeted that she had “limited resources to help me be successful mentally/physically.” At the same time she was expected to “keep that same energy” on the basketball court, she added.
Neither the WNBA or the Dallas Wings could immediately be reached for comment about Diggins-Smith’s complaints.
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