I worry about players choosing Europe - the season is significantly longer and the number of different competitions leads to many more games - I think the competition is likely better as well making the games more demanding (?)
While it may be less money and less prestige to play in asia, I think it has allowed players like Maya to get consistent breaks between foreign seasons and the WNBA seasons that allows their bodies a bit of recovery time between the leagues. I think it is significant that she seemed to break down during the WNBA season the year after she switched back to Europe from china, and that she failed to answer the USA basketball call for the first time in her career.
There is more money in China than in all but the absolute elite clubs in Europe. When Maya was winning all the championships in China, they had it strategically figured out that they would lose the battle in the post, but nobody could stop her so they had the overall advantage. Once that stopped working, the team went in another direction so her value in China compared to Russia plummeted.
There will be some rules changes in China this season so we have to see how they go. Expect a few former Huskies to be there. Before there were only around 10 jobs for foreigners there, but this season that will jump to 17. They are changing from a multi-stage league to one regular season followed by the playoffs. That means that the practice of signing two foreign players and having one start the season and then replacing them with the other one for the playoffs is no longer possible. That had allowed Sylvia Fowles to rest after the WNBA season and then join Beijing to help them win the past few championships. It would be interesting to hear perspectives from players on which is more grueling. Most weeks in China have three games in five days as opposed to the one or two games per week in Europe. Like in Russia, teams are generally too far apart to not travel by air, which I have heard can be a little scary, while most domestic leagues in Europe do all travel by bus. Practices in both are supposed to be relatively intense. Historically in China, foreign players were expected to play all 40 minutes of the game, which is not a common practice at higher levels in Europe.
South Korea is other Asian league that draws WNBA players. The pay there is not as high as the richest clubs around the world, but is about $150,000 after taxes and unlike most places, they always pay on time plus the clubs provide excellent accommodations in a very modern country and provide a full time translator. Just like China, since there is no other competition, the season is more compacted than Europe. Unfortunately, this offseason they cut the number of foreigners per team from two to one so six jobs were eliminated.
Australia has an even shorter season, but the money is not as good there. A lot of spots go to non-WNBA players, including to a few Americans who play and live year-round in Australia in their local leagues.
