It is probably not a good thing when the first question asked of an athlete after months of invisibility is “How are you?”
Not as in the routine, polite manner of greeting, but as in “Is your body working again?”
But that is how it is for the Indiana Fever’s Lauren Cox these days. She was supposed to become a member of the Fever, not catch a fever.
The WNBA team’s No. 1 draft pick before the 2020 season, Cox was a big-time All-American at Baylor University, where she was the linchpin of a team that won an NCAA title. Then things went somewhat haywire last season to the point she had to pause and carefully choose words to review it all.
“It was unique,” she said of 2020, “frustrating, interesting, crazy.”
In college, the 6-foot-4 Cox was an all-around player, top scorer and fierce defender. Her only flaw seemed to be whatever difficulties arose from coping with Type I diabetes. But even in that, she had turned a negative into a positive as someone who became a spokeswoman for the cause, to show youngsters and adults, too, what they could still accomplish despite struggling with the disease.
However, if having a plate fuller than one loaded with every Thanksgiving dinner option was not enough, a rookie trying to break into the next level and a woman battling diabetes, life got even more complicated.
Being 22 years old, instead of in the high-risk senior citizen category, Cox still got ill and was on the outside of the bubble looking in for the start of the season. This put her behind picking up on the offense and developing. As soon as Cox got more PT, she hurt a knee and missed the last stretch of the season.
The real heading describing Cox’s 2020, as it was for many, is summed up by the if-anything-can-go-wrong-it-will analysis.
A native of Texas, Cox was in Indiana for some workout sessions in January testing the knee, looking ahead to what might be termed a do-over rookie season. There is only one rookie of the year per league, some rookies who make an impact and some who ride the bench. But not many rookies in any North American professional sport had more bad luck than Cox.
“I’m feeling good,” Cox said during this workout period. “I’m getting back in the swing of things. I’m ready to keep making progress.”
Cox appeared in only 14 games, and between starting late because of one physical problem and finishing early because of another, she averaged 3.6 points and 3.3 rebounds a game.
She said she was prepared to “flush my rookie season. No one really got to see what I can really do. They saw bits and pieces of it.”
Fever coach Marianne Stanley said she can understand why Cox feels that way and agrees what people saw was not the real Cox.
“We really saw just the tip of the iceberg,” Stanley said. “I know she’s capable of more. She just doesn’t want to be good. She wants to be great.”
Cox never had such a discombobulating season and said the biggest lessons learned were about life more than basketball.
“The biggest thing was dealing with whatever life throws at you,” she said. “No matter how hard it is, you’ve got to stay the course.”
Much like the men of the NBA, the women of the WNBA raised bubble living to an art form, all teams playing out their truncated season in Florida. Cox can probably open a consulting business for sports teams that must cope with such situations because of the pandemic.
Time filling is a major element for players who spend more time than they ever imagined in their hotel room, could not go out on the town and basically lived to practice and play games.
“I would say to just keep yourself busy,” Cox said of her main advice.
Play cards with teammates. Call friends on the telephone. Play electronic games. She didn’t mention reading books, but someone could do that, too.
One book to study, of course, would be the playbook.
The offseason for pros can be critical. There is no limit on how hard they can work, how much time they can use wisely to get better. That’s something the Fever need to do after a 6-16 season.
Wins would be welcome, but so would being able to play in a home arena in front of fans without a deadly disease hovering in the background.
“I hope we can have a somewhat normal season,” Cox said.
How little to ask for.