Blue Christmas: How homesick WNBA players create holiday traditions overseas

SCHIO, Italy — Last week, Amanda Zahui B., a center for Famila Wuber Schio and a member of the Los Angeles Sparks, visited her local Italian nail technician with a festive idea she wanted to try. She sought to showcase her excitement for the upcoming Christmas holiday by having some of her nails painted green, others red, others striped and two with the Grinch on them. “He’s so opposite of me,” says Zahui B. of the Dr. Seuss character. “He hates Christmas, but I love him.”

There have been times throughout Zahui B.’s more than half-decade professional career overseas she hasn’t had the holiday off. This year, though, not even the Grinch can steal Christmas from her — the Italian club is idle for a few days around Natale.

In the landscape of overseas professional women’s basketball, a late December break — even a brief one — is far from guaranteed. For instance, in Turkey and Israel, where Islam and Judaism are each country’s most prominent religion, winter holidays don’t lead to stoppages in the season. Games are sometimes even played on Christmas itself. “You kind of just spend that day wishing to be home,” says Jillian Alleyne, a California native, who currently plays in Israel for Maccabi Ironi Ramat Gan.

In 2017, Alleyne spent her first professional season abroad with Spain’s IDK Gipuzkoa. That year, she was already in San Sebastián when she learned she wasn’t traveling back to the U.S. at the end of December. Alleyne, who has played in the WNBA with the Washington Mystics and the Minnesota Lynx, recalls feeling heartbroken. Missing Christmas, she says, “doesn’t get easier.”

“You would think it would, but it doesn’t.”

Instead, for Alleyne, and countless others, new holiday traditions are created. Alternatives are made. In Alleyne’s case, this December, she found comfort decorating her room with multicolored Christmas lights around her dresser vanity and hanging red stockings on her wall.

Guard Chelsea Hopkins has played in Israel for a decade. For the past several seasons, Hopkins says, American friends and players she knows have gathered together on Christmas at someone’s apartment and held a potluck dinner. Members of Istanbul’s Fenerbahçe who are away from their families for the holidays often create fellowship in a similar manner, coming together for food and a white elephant gift exchange.

Every year, Kayla McBride, an All-Star guard for the Lynx and a member of Fener, gets her hands on a fake Christmas tree. She’ll then decorate it like it was once real. Christmas, she says, is her favorite holiday, and no matter where she is in the world — McBride has also played in Russia and Hungary — she tries to bake sugar and peanut butter blossom cookies.

To cope with holiday homesickness, some players host gift exchanges. Others decorate their apartments. Amanda Zahui B. receives festive nail designs. (Ben Pickman / The Athletic)

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