Mercury star Skylar Diggins-Smith expecting second child

WNBA star Skylar Diggins-Smith is pregnant and expecting her second child, the Phoenix Mercury guard announced Monday.

“New addition loading,” Diggins-Smith posted on Instagram along with photos showcasing her pregnancy.

“Ommmggg WOMENS NATIONAL BABY ASSOCIATION… oomggg moreeee babbiiessss,” tweeted Dearica Hamby of the Aces, another WNBA player who recently announced that she played part of the 2022 season while pregnant and is expecting her second child.

When two regular-season games remained this summer, the Mercury announced in August that Diggins-Smith would not return to the WNBA this past season due to “personal reasons,” ultimately levying a partial season suspension of her contract.

Against all odds with Diana Taurasi out with an injury and Brittney Griner detained in a Russian prison, Phoenix still managed to eke into the playoffs, where they were swept by the eventual champion Las Vegas Aces.

Diggins-Smith’s body of work for the 30 games she did play — 19.7 points per game, 5.5 assists per game, and 1.5 steals per game — earned her a nod for the 2022 First Team All-WNBA, her fourth such honor. She was also deemed an All-Star earlier this summer.

Diggins-Smith previously missed the 2019 WNBA season — when she was still a part of the Dallas Wings, the franchise that initially drafted her No. 3 overall in 2013 when it was located in Tulsa — after giving birth to her son that spring. She later said that she played while pregnant during the 2018 campaign but “didn’t tell a soul.”

At the time, she claimed via a flurry of tweets that she had “no support from [her] own organization” and the “people called me a quitter, said I gave up on my team, etc., etc… not knowing I took two FULL months away from everything because of postpartum depression. With limited resources to help me be successful mentally/physically.”

Thanks to the WNBA’s new CBA from 2020, players receive their full salary while on maternity leave, as well as an annual child-care stipend of $5,000 and a guarantee of two-bedroom apartments for players with children.

Well prior to her pregnancy announcement, some questioned whether Aug. 4 was the last fans would see of Diggins-Smith in a Mercury uniform following apparent conflict between Diggins-Smith and first-year Phoenix coach Vanessa Nygaard this summer.

The 5-foot-9 guard and former Notre Dame star is under contract with the Mercury through the 2023 season and set to be paid a touch under the player supermax at $234,350.