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WNBA players look to move on from Turkish League contracts in wake of Istanbul attacks

Shavonte Zellous, with the New York Liberty. (Getty Images)
Shavonte Zellous, with the New York Liberty. (Getty Images)

From the outset of the introduction of women’s professional basketball as a major North American sport, the one and now two leagues that feature the product (with the WNBA outlasting the ABL) have long had to contend with international women’s leagues paying American players far more to play in the “offseason” than they earn at home.

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In many cases, this isn’t as easy an option as it would seem – jetting overseas to play for an enhanced salary during the months spent away from the WNBA’s summertime season. Players not only have to work outside of their country of origin, but also deal with the myriad social and sometimes political differences that leave the workers abroad feeling threatened and unsafe.

With the recent attacks in Istanbul on New Year’s Eve and the perpetual unrest in the area, some American-born WNBA players working in Turkey have begun to reconsider their move to the country to compete in the many arms of its Turkish Basketball League (TBL).

The Associated Press’s Doug Feinberg recently documented the unease:

But amid violence in nearby Syria, and after a deadly nightclub attack in a neighborhood where some players celebrated on New Year’s Eve in Istanbul, some players are reconsidering their contracts. A handful of WNBA players told The Associated Press they want to come back to the U.S. as soon as possible. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of contract negotiations and out of fear they could become targets if they said publicly they wanted to leave.

New York Liberty guard Shavonte Zellous, who recently penned a column at the Players Tribune about the needed sanctuary that clubs like Orlando’s Pulse provided the LGBTQ community in the wake of 2016’s shooting in Florida, discussed her understandable fears:

“It’s been an honor to play there, but this year now it’s getting fearful and scary with stuff that’s been happening,” Zellous said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. “Coming into the season you heard things were going on, and some players were like, ‘I don’t know if I want to continue playing over there.'”

She said she initially thought it wasn’t that bad.

“But now being over there, it’s like, ‘Oh my God.’ It’s never been like it’s been now.”

Zellous, 30, said that her Turkish teammates are scared. No one wants to go out anymore for fear of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Literally, our life now is go to the gym, go to the store, go home,” Zellous said. “That’s not how I want to live.”

The move to hand star-sized salaries to WNBA players doesn’t end with the stars.

Most of us are aware of Diana Taurasi deciding to sit a season out with the Phoenix Mercury as a nod to the relatively well-compensated work she puts in with her club in Russia during the WNBA’s “down” months, but the competitive pro culture overseas often means that starters or even role players can make salaries that dwarf their WNBA pull. Without a salary cap, many competitive team owners ravenously compete against other owners in spite of financial losses to pay for a winner.

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The WNBA, mindful of its (not-comparatively, mind you) slow ascent even two decades into the league’s debut, is aware of this and is intelligently working with its players abroad as they move to take advantage of the too-short window that a professional athlete’s career provides. Hannah Keyser at Deadspin detailed as much on Thursday:

Even if you’re not getting compensated to rest your legs, foreign leagues provide the women in the WNBA, where the average salary is $75,000, a chance to make many times what they do back home. The league doesn’t discourage this and, in fact, recently debuted a security app to help players abroad better communicate with the WNBA’s security team. But for the roughly two dozen WBNA players playing in the 14-team Turkish league this offseason, the recent violence in country has many of them considering coming home early.

That line of connection can only go so far, though, in the wake of unrest and the potential for escalated violence. Zellous (who has played in Turkey since 2009) told the Associated Press that WNBA players in Turkey have their own group chat via text in order to keep the string, but at some point players might not find these modern communication benefits enough.

“I’m not saying America is a great country where we don’t have things that go on,” Zellous said. “I want to be home rather than a whole different country. Being from Orlando, it hit hard for me.”

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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!