Physical Therapists in the WNBA

The 2019 WNBA Season is finally here!  Earlier this week, the WNBA announced their new Commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, CEO of Deloitte, after a search that began in October.  You can read about that here. She's coming into the WNBA at a time when the league and players' union are negotiating the collective bargaining agreement as well as a time when women's sports are on the rise.  Since the WNBA is the longest running women's professional sports league, they have a sizeable platform which comes with responsibility and opportunity.  The choice to use the title of "Commissioner" rather than President, which has been the historical title of the WNBA's highest leader, is, I'm sure, purposeful. Thanks to Wikipedia: "A commissioner is a person who has been given an official charge to do something."  Most men's professional sports leagues in the USA are directed by commissioners - Adam Silver in the NBA, Roger Goodell in the NFL, Rob Manfred in MLB... there are more.  Cathy Engelbert will be the first WNBA Commissioner, and while I can't really find a source that defines the difference between a Commissioner and a President, this choice makes her appear to be at the same level of Adam Silver rather than the previous title that made all WNBA Presidents look like they were a step below the NBA Commissioner.  Whether or not she reports to Adam Silver, I like the way this looks. 

Photo: Steven Yee

Also this week, the Seattle Storm played their two 2019 pre-season with games against the Phoenix Mercury and Los Angeles Sparks.  I love pre-season games because it gives all the recent college graduates who are trying out for teams the opportunity to play WNBA basketball.  The college game may look the same as the WNBA to some people when you're watching on TV, but truly, they differ.  The size, strength, and speed of these athletes - who are truly the elitest of the elite - just can't be matched by the college teams.  Both are excellent to watch, in my opinion, but they're different. Also, sometimes I forget in the off-season how big Brittney Griner really is... but then you see her on the court and remember.  SO BIG. Wikipedia says 6' 9" and 205 pounds... but basically she's a brick wall on the basketball court.

I also look forward to pre-season games to see how the staff gets into their game day routines.  Just like the players on the roster change and each person has to find their role among that list, the staff evolves and each person's roles may change from season to season.  With new medical staff on board this year, this was the first opportunity for us to all work a game together and see how everyone fits and what roles we will all play.  And every year since I started with the Seattle Storm, I've wondered how many physical therapists are on WNBA staffs this season, and what role do they play?  But this was the first year that I wondered how this compares to the NBA?  So... I did a search, and this is what I found:

In the WNBA - there are only two teams out of the twelve in the league that list physical therapists among their staff.  The Atlanta Dream have a Head Athletic Trainer who is also a physical therapist and the Seattle Storm have me on their list.  In addition, the Seattle Storm Head Athletic Trainer is also a physical therapist.  So 16% of WNBA teams list a physical therapist on their staff list and my google searching suggests that Minnesota may also has a dedicated team physical therapist, though she's not listed on their staff directory, but if we count her in the mix, it makes 25% of teams.  This number seems insanely low - but even more concerning to me was that there were three teams who don't even have a Head Athletic Trainer listed on their website!  We're in-season and it is required that all teams must have one. This concerns me because it gives the impression that the sports medicine personnel are not an essential part of the organization. While teams obviously do not have to announce who they are using, every NBA team has their athletic trainer listed. I realize the season is just starting and getting websites updated is time consuming so maybe the sites haven't been updated for this season. 

Let's assume that the WNBA team websites would be at least as frequently updated as the NBA lists.  Where I had to search extensively in the WNBA to see if teams even have sports medicine personnel at all, the NBA makes it pretty easy to search because they have professional organizations for their athletic trainers and strength and conditioning coaches.  The NBA Athletic Trainers Association (NBATA) and NBA Strength Coaches Association (NBSCA) list members from each team. I first went through all the NBATA members which showed that fourteen NBA teams (46%) have physical therapists on staff, most of whom are dual-licensed athletic trainers and physical therapists, and that about half of the teams had a head athletic trainer along with two more assistant athletic trainers.  Then I went through the strength and conditioning coaches association and found a few more teams, but some of these were duplicates with the NBATA because it looks like physical therapists are allowed to be in both. 

And then I did a google search and found that every single team in the NBA has an affiliated physical therapist.  100%.  Many of the teams that did not list them in their staff directories are clinic owners that consult for the team and likely aren't listed in their staff directory for this reason.  This might be happening a little in the WNBA, but more likely, injured WNBA players are not seeing someone designated to their team and with training specifically corresponding to training high level athletes.  I strongly believe that every team should have a physical therapist, but also realize that this would be a financially complicated situation.  Athletes of this caliber don't just show up in every neighborhood PT clinic every day, and most clinics aren't equipped with heavy enough equipment to adequatlely rehab people this strong!  Overwhelmingly, the medical staff lists in the NBA are much longer than those in the WNBA despite having rosters that are only 3 players larger than in the WNBA.  I suspect that there will be more and more physical therapists moving into professional sports in the upcoming few years as more athletic trainers pursue the dual degree designation.

Some interesting findings during my google searching: at least two NBA strength and conditioning coaches were previously strength coaches for the Seattle Storm.  There were at least six women listed among the NBA's High Performance positions.  For example, the San Antonio Spurs Director of Rehabilitation is a female physical therapist.  And finally, there were at least two graduates from the University of Connecticut working in the NBA, which is just another testament to the level of education the kinesiology department there offers.

I am hopeful that the new appointment of Commissioner Cathy Engelbert will also improve the medical staff opportunities around the WNBA.  The NBATA and NBSCA regulations do not allow WNBA medical providers to join them, but they offer really awesome continuing education opportunities, improved ability to collect data and publish research related to injuries and training, more opportunities for league-wide sponsorships, and shared resources that ultimately improve the safety and health of the league as a whole.  The NHL, NFL, and MLB also have similar groups, but the WNBA does not. Yet.  It's not because the providers in the WNBA have not tried to start their own organization.  They have.  And continue to do so.  As the WNBA moves forward with their negotiations looking towards better pay, better travel arrangements, better living accommodations, and a more realistic livelihood - I hope that their healthcare options might also be considered and that this component is taken seriously.   My best day working for the Storm is when no players are injured and nobody needs any care - but regardless of injury status, there's always room for players to gain strength and improve their performance.  Here's to a healthy 2019 WNBA season!