Stacey Geyer responds to the rumors that Holdsclaw isn't playing just because she doesn't like Adams: "this is where the silence about her illness truly hurts Holdsclaw. It makes plausible the implication that she is not truly sick."

Voepel made a related point last week: "You know, maybe Holdsclaw should have just used the old 'back spasms' line."

Mique apparently has some condition that she wants to keep private for whatever reason, so she didn't want to make it public. Perfectly understandable. But you do sort of wonder, especially in retrospect, why she didn't just pull a Serena, say something like "My back is hurting, and my doctors say I'm risking permanent injury if I keep playing, so I'll have to sit out."

Maybe it wouldn't have been entirely honest, but it probably would have ended some of the rumor mongering. Probably the Washington Times would have never even gotten interested in the story, and neither she nor anyone else would have faced the endless questioning.