The WNBA might not currently be in season, but some players have been facing the COVID-19 crisis head-on for quite some time.
Theresa Plaisance was playing for Shaanxi in China in Dec. 2019 when she suddenly didn’t feel right. The Connecticut Sun forward had begun exhibiting symptoms of the coronavirus: fever, cough, body aches, vomiting, chills and, of course, difficulty breathing.
But Plaisance had no idea what she’d contracted at the time. Doctors in China diagnosed her with “pneumonia and an unidentified virus,” which she now believes was the coronavirus.
“It was the sickest I’ve ever felt in my life,” she told Bleacher Report.
Plaisance spent the next few days in a local hospital, losing eight pounds in the process. But Plaisance was forced to play a road game roughly 24 hours after being released from the hospital.
The 27-year-old posted a whopping 51 points and 31 rebounds that day, though her lungs felt ready to explode.
“(The coaches) don’t really believe in rest,” she said. “They didn’t really care. It was all about winning.”
Plaisance returned home to Louisiana when the Women’s Chinese Basketball Association’s winter break began Jan. 2. She refused to return to China after the break ended Feb. 13, however, after seeing how the virus had impacted.
Plaisance isn’t the only WNBA that believes they contracted the coronavirus while in China. Las Vegas Aces star Liz Cambage also believes she caught the virus in Dec. 2019 while playing in China, as well.
