Elena Delle Donne will take a break from basketball & NBA trade deadline updates

The GIST: While the defending champ Las Vegas Aces are running it back after re-signing Candace Parker to a one-year deal on Wednesday, the rest of the pro hoops scene is about to look pretty different amid stunning WNBA and NBA news.

Elena Delle Donne will take a break from basketball: The two-time MVP and highly coveted free agent has decided to take time away from the game and not sign the one-year supermax deal her current team, the Washington Mystics, offered her. EDD led the ’Stics to their only title in 2019 and has seven career All-Star appearances but has struggled with injury in recent years.

• Delle Donne missed the entire 2020 season due to health concerns and has overcome multiple back surgeries across her nine-year W career. Wishing her nothing but the best.

Contenders load up at the NBA trade deadline: Most of the big names on the trade block stayed put, but yesterday’s deadline did see some sharpshooters and difference makers swapping jerseys. The surging NY Knicks made quite the splash, picking up double-digit scores Bojan Bogdanović and Alec Burks from the Detroit Pistons. Bing bong, indeed.

• Elsewhere, the Western Conference–leading Oklahoma City “how did they get there?” Thunder gained three-point specialist Gordon Hayward from the Charlotte Hornets and the injured Philadelphia 76ers added scoring of their own in former Indiana Pacer Buddy Hield. Let the playoff push begin.