Pat Summitt defends Chamique Holdsclaw and the Washington Mystics.

A few eyebrows were raised when Holdsclaw chose not to join her team on the sidelines during Wednesday night's loss to the Indiana Fever even though she had told club executives that she felt well enough to practice the next day. It's customary for injured athletes to offer teammates support by sitting with them during games.

"She was at the game," said Summitt, who coached Holdsclaw at Tennessee during the late 1990s. "She sat with me in the skybox."

As to why Holdsclaw appeared to suddenly recover the day after going on the injured list, Summitt said that the player informed the club "well before" Wednesday that she would return to practice on Thursday.