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GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 28 • 21 BY KYLE CHARTERS KCharters@GoldandBlack.com K atie Douglas isn't yet antsy. Games in the WNBA haven't started yet — they will June 5 after training camps opened earlier this week — and that might leave the now-retired former superstar feeling a bit unsettled. "It's been funny, to be honest, to talk to all my friends and former teammates about training camp," Douglas said from her Indianapolis home this week. "No player likes training camp, so I've been laughing with them. But it will be weird watching games. But ultimately I wish friends and former teammates the best. I tell them all the time that I'll be their biggest cheerleader. "It will be a little weird, but something that I'll get used to after the games do start." Douglas is left with no other choice than to be accepting. The former Connecticut Sun and Indiana Fever forward was set to begin her 15th WNBA season this summer, before her health forced her to make the difficult decision to retire on May 1. It was a bad back — not the lower portion that she'd had surgery on following the 2013 season, but the mid that she'd hurt late last year — that forced her out of the game. It was in the third-to- last game last season, one in which she had averaged 13.1 points, that she felt something go wrong. "I just d i s c r e e t l y s u b b e d myself out of the game, got off the court and into the tunnel and about nearly collapsed," Douglas said, noting that she was nearly bedridden the last two games of the season due to the pain. "My back just couldn't take it any more." And rest and rehab wasn't helping. Months went by with little relief, until her doctor gave her an honest assessment. "I was starting to get worried and more worry came with another visit to the doctor," she said. "As he re-evaluated me, based on time and rest and rehab, I just wasn't making any progress. His outlook for my back just wasn't good, as far as the risk and reward and the quality of life that I would be risking if I continued to play this summer. There was an option for me to sit out this summer and play next summer, but at my age it's not worth sitting out another season, P R E S E N T S L A F A Y E T T E L E G E N D : K A T I E D O U G L A S CheckingMadeBetter.com Member FDIC More Account Choices. Checking options that fit your life. More Convenience. Ask us about Mobile Banking. More Freedom from Fees. Let us show you the options. Feeling Good Happy in retirement, Douglas looks forward to next step Tom Campbell Two-time All-American Katie Douglas, with host Bridget Perry (right), was inducted into the Purdue Athletics Hall of Fame in mid-April.