Among trends in WNBA waivers this season, European players being waived ahead of the Eurobasket tournament have been prevalent. The tournament is similar to the AmeriCup in North and South America, but a European version. The difference is that players in Europe are generally very committed to their international teams. Whereas you will see countries like Canada and the USA send players who don’t play in the WNBA, European players will sometimes leave their WNBA teams to participate in Eurobasket.
Players who have bigger roles on championship-contending teams, like Gabby Williams of Seattle and Marine Johannes of New York, who both represent France, or Satou Sabally in Phoenix, who represents Germany, have already opted out of Eurobasket. It would just be too much to leave their WNBA teams, play a whole tournament, and then come back and have to be reintegrated. They’ve decided to just stay focused on the WNBA season.
Yet, players who don’t have as big of a role in the WNBA and are big parts of their international teams have decided to go. As a result, WNBA teams have opted to waive some of these “end of the roster” Eurobasket players. Instead of holding a roster spot for them, they just waive them to free up space and gain more depth.
Sevgi Uzun was waived the other day from the Phoenix Mercury for this purpose, and now, on Wednesday, the Minnesota Lynx have done the same. Marieme Badiane, who plays for the French National team, has been waived. Badiane had only played 11 minutes total over three games this season in the WNBA, not scoring any points.
The Lynx will likely sign another player in her place once she clears waivers, and there is a strong pool of free agents for them to pick from. Players like Aari McDonald, who was waived by the LA Sparks and is now playing with the Indiana Fever or Haley Jones, who was picked up by Phoenix, are good role players who were just edged out for WNBA roster spots a few weeks ago. Other names in that group are Laeticia Amihere, Grace Berger, Serena Sundell, and many more.
As EuroBasket approaches, we could see more players being waived by their current WNBA teams, which could create even more spots for players currently out of the league to get back in.
