Chicago Sky players Diamond DeShields and Azura Stevens have left the WNBA bubble, the team announced Saturday ahead of their game against the top-ranked Seattle Storm.
DeShields, who has been dealing with injuries all season, participated in practice as normal Friday, a team source said. She left the “Wubble” for personal reasons, the team said. Meanwhile, Stevens left after suffering a season-ending left knee injury.
“We were sad to see them go, but we just have to make do with it,” coach James Wade said before Saturday’s game.
DeShields was the team’s leading scorer last season, averaging 16.2 points. However, she hasn’t been full strength all season as she dealt with knee inflammation. She played only two minutes in her last game against New York on Aug. 20 before leaving with a right thigh injury.
DeShields has been outspoken about social injustices in the U.S. She played a big part in the development of the team’s social justice campaign, “Sky Takes Action.” She’s also a part of former Bears linebacker Sam Acho’s “Athletes for Justice” and joined forces with some of the biggest athletes in Chicago to turn a liquor store in the Austin neighborhood into a pop-up grocery store run by kids from the club’s after-school program.
Wade said he doesn’t expect DeShields to return this season.
Meanwhile, Stevens, whom the Sky acquired in an offseason deal that sent 2019 first-round pick Katie Lou Samuelson to the Wings, was in the midst of her best WNBA season to date. The third-year pro seamlessly filled the void left by injured forward Jantel Lavender and averaged 11.5 points and 5.9 rebounds this season.
Stevens missed the team’s last two games while dealing with soreness in her left knee. The Sky said she’ll be evaluated by a cartilage specialist to address an osteochondral defect in her left knee.
“We saw them this morning and wished them well and we just have to continue to play,” Wade said.
Stevens and DeShields’ departures are the latest blow for the fifth-ranked Sky (10-5) who have been riddled with injuries all season. Lacking frontcourt depth without Lavender and Stevens, the the Sky were forced to deal Lavender to the Indiana Fever for Stephanie Mavunga hours before the league’s 7 p.m. trade deadline. The Sky on Friday also sent their second- and third-round picks in next year’s draft to the Fever.
Coming off her best season in four years, Lavender didn’t join the team in Florida last month after she had season-ending foot surgery in June.
With Lavender unable to play and on an expiring contract, it made perfect sense for the Sky to go after a young player with a high upside such as Mavunga, who’s missed the last eight games with a broken nose.
Mavunga averaged five points and four rebounds — both career highs — in five games this season. She’s been cleared to play, but is currently in quarantine as part of the league’s coronavirus protocol. Wade said she could be available as soon as next Tuesday.
“She’s a good player,” Wade said. “[She’s] going to give us a healthy body, young, a lot of energy that hasn’t reached her potential yet. We think she’s going to fit really well in our system.”
