USA Today's March sports blog picks up the Elaine Powell story. They were able to get in touch with Powell's agent Mike Cound, who released this statement from Elaine:

I am extremely sorry about what happened. The game just got out of hand and both sides were fouling hard and I overreacted to Jelena kicking me after that play. I don't even remember hitting her really … I'm so sorry she's injured and I'm trying to contact her to tell her that. I hope she will let me visit her and apologize in person. I have been playing professional basketball for almost 10 years and I've never once gotten into a fight and hit someone. I always control my emotions and I just did not in this case. I would hope that any fans of Lotos Gdynia, the Detroit Shock or the WNBA understand that I do not condone how I reacted in this instance and I'm sorry for any negative effects of my reaction. I am especially sorry to Jelena.

Elaine did well to apologize like that.

While we're back on the subject... a couple people have written in to suggest that this isn't as big a deal as I and others made it out to be. They say: basketball gets heated, the game was rough, she just lost her cool for a second, etc.

That's fair enough. In general, things like trash-talking, profanity, and ordinary chippy play don't bother me much. It's always best to walk away when a heated game boils into a physical altercation, but I know that even the calmest among us are often unable to do so. Throwing a punch in the heat of the moment is a forgivable act.

And yet -- it's one thing to punch someone in response to serious provocation or in defense to a proportional threat. It's quite another to sucker-punch someone, and that's what Powell did. It's not as if Skerovic had squared off and advanced on Powell. Skerovic was lying on the floor, she posed no threat, and she was basically defenseless.

That and the incredibly bloody result are what make this case particularly bad in my mind. Anyone who judges Elaine should consider the mitigating circumstances and her sincere apology, but she still committed a serious transgression that deserves a proportional sanction.