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Indiana Fever guard Erica Wheeler is supposed to participate in the 2024 WNBA Skills Challenge Friday night, but she might not be able to get there.
The same global cyber outage that brought the Paris Olympics preparations to a standstill on Friday is now wreaking havoc with Erica Wheeler’s ability to get a flight to Phoenix.
“Flight DELAYED! Y’all better not cancelled this flight to Phx @Delta I better not miss participating in the WNBA Skill Challenge cause if I DO, I need $55K in flight credit or that Delta 360! Let’s talk about cause YAAAA,” Wheeler wrote on X (Twitter) alongside a ESPN promo photo of her being a participant.
Things haven’t gotten any better for the 33-year-old Fever star in the couple of hours since her first tweet.
“UPDATE: FLIGHT CANCELLED,” Wheeler wrote in a follow-up post. “So yaaaaaa no airlines have flight leaving out in time to make it to PHX in time for the Skills Challenge!
“The one friend I have that have a PJ, pilot has maxed out on his hours to fly til Tuesday so wow! WHAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!”
Wheeler, the 2019 WNBA All-Star Game MVP, is supposed to take on Brittney Griner, Sophie Cunningham, Allisha Gray, and the recently traded by demand Marina Mabrey in the WNBA Skills Challenge Friday night at 9 p.m. ET.
They will be competing in an obstacle course that tests a variety of basketball skills: dribbling, bounce pass, chest pass and outlet pass, in addition to shots including an elbow jumper and three-pointers from atop the arc and the corner,” a WNBA press release explains.
Who's got it in the bag? 💰
Brittney Griner, Sophie Cunningham, Allisha Gray, Marina Mabrey and Erica Wheeler will take the stage to compete in the 2024 KIA WNBA Skills Challenge!
Don’t miss it. Friday at 9pm/ET on ESPN 📺#KiaSkills pic.twitter.com/gUGh2RH05w
— WNBA (@WNBA) July 18, 2024
Wheeler’s participation in that may now be in serious danger of not happening.
The three-point shooting contest (without Caitlin Clark and Sabrina Ionescu) as well as a 3×3 competition between a team consisting of WNBA players Dearica Hamby and Rhyne Howard, former WNBA player Cierra Burdick and current collegian Hailey Van Lith and the USA 3×3 U23 National Team of Christina Dalce, Morgan Maly, Cotie McMahon, Lucy Olsen, Mikaylah Williams and Serah Williams will also take place Friday night.