Coming Back To Work After Twins Was The Hardest Thing DeWanna Bonner Has Ever Done

Since 2009, Connecticut Sun professional basketballer DeWanna Bonner spends her typical WNBA “off-season” still playing hoops — just in a different country. Her overseas resume is stamped with places like Turkey, Israel, Russia, China, and Spain. This continued even after giving birth to her twins, Cali and Demi, in 2017. Mom’s gotta work.

“I’m usually overseas for six or seven months. I'll get a little week break where I can come home and see the girls," Bonner, 36, tells me over video chat. "I'm just kind of living by FaceTime and trying to catch as many memories as I can.”

Like Bonner, the majority of professional women’s basketball players compete overseas because America’s pro league, the WNBA, pays so badly that to earn a decent yearly take-home salary, there is no off-season; players ball year-round.

It’s a grind, and Bonner has been doing it for roughly 14 years straight. But this off-season, spent in San Antonio, looked different than the rest. “I've been so selfish with my time this off-season and not in a mean way. It was the first off-season of my whole basketball career where I’ve been able to be home with my kids,” Bonner said. She and her 6-year-old girls recently returned from a memorable family vacation, a Disney Cruise. “It's just been so fun and so refreshing. It made me realize I would never leave them that long again.”

Bonner isn’t a regular mom, she’s a two-time WNBA Champion and five-time All-Star. She’s dominated in over 540 games — that’s more than 16,400 minutes played, eighth all-time. At 6 feet 4 inches tall, the forward-guard has a killer jump shot and her 7-foot-4-inch wingspan makes it nearly impossible to shoot over her.

“I don't think people really understand what it takes to have a baby and come back and play. It felt like I've never played basketball a day in my life.”

Growing up, kids weren’t originally a part of Bonner’s basketball dream. But over time the idea of nurturing a little DeWanna grew. After the 2016 season, her contract with the Phoenix Mercury ended, and before she re-signed, she felt like this was the right time to start a family with her then-wife and fellow WNBA star, Candice Dupree.

The plan was set to do in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and have one child, but on the drive to the appointment, Dupree — who is a twin herself — pleaded one more time to go for a pair.

“She talked me into it and that's how we got the twins, and I wouldn't ever do it again,” she laughs. “I love my babies but no, one at a time is enough for me.”

At the recommended post-birth six-week mark, to the day, Bonner was back on the court preparing for the 2018 season. Getting back into game shape, she says, was the hardest thing she’s ever done.

“I don't think people really understand what it takes to have a baby and come back and play,” Bonner tells me. “It felt like I've never played basketball a day in my life. I lost everything completely. I couldn't jump. I couldn't run, my knees hurt so bad. My hips were gone. And I'm breastfeeding a little bit, too.”

Bonner had to be put on bedrest in the hospital for over a month before giving birth to her twins because she was dilating too early. Her exercise included walking to the bathroom and then back to bed. She was so hyper-focused on keeping her babies out of the NICU (and, admittedly, doomscrolling) that she didn’t even watch a lot of basketball either. Bonner was starting from ground zero.

“She talked me into it and that's how we got the twins, and I wouldn't ever do it again. I love my babies but no, one at a time is enough for me.”

“I’d push the babies into the gym by myself because Candice was still playing [in the WNBA] at the time,” she explains. She didn’t even have a trainer. “I was just trying to figure out how to run again. I was doing whatever I could remember that was successful up to that point.”

It was all unfamiliar territory. The physical challenge was tough, but she said the mental part was even tougher.

“Postpartum kicked my butt. I kind of lost myself for a minute,” Bonner said. “I didn't talk to anyone, I kind of just pulled myself out of it because I didn't know that I needed to talk to someone.

“Like, I'm in the shower listening to the slow music because I'm that depressed, you know? It felt like nothing was happy in my life and I just had these two beautiful kids and I'm just like, why? What is going on?”

There was no outside pressure to return to the court. Still, she always knew she’d come back and hoop; her love for the game was never lost. Her newborns’ smiling faces became her motivation. Bonner came back the next season averaging 17.3 points per game (third-best on the team), made the 2018 All-Star team, led the league in minutes played, and led her Phoenix Mercury to the playoff semifinals. And to think, a few months earlier she could barely walk.

“I don’t think I gave myself enough credit,” she added. “I am an advocate for moms, and not just [moms] who are athletes. I’m talking about moms who are CEOs and go back to the office because you’re in a whole different headspace. It's a scary thing, but it's also the most rewarding process I've ever put my body through.”

“Of course, the ball is gonna stop bouncing one day. You want to make your money when you can, but at the same time I'm looking at them and I'm just like, there's no way that I can go thousands of miles away.”

Bonner hasn’t slowed down yet. Since her comeback tour, she’s made another trip to the WNBA Finals, has been a WNBA All-Star three more times, and, as she sets to start her 15th season in May, she’s only 15 points away from passing her ex-wife, Candice Dupree, on the league’s all-time scoring list for the fifth spot.

“I can’t wait for that day,” she jokes. Plus, the thought of Cali and Demi having the coolest fun fact in class — My mommies are both top-six all-time in WNBA scoring! — makes her laugh again. “That’s pretty cool.”

When she inevitably hits the shot that puts her over into that incredible career milestone and in the ranks of women’s basketball greats like Diana Taurasi, Tina Thompson, Tamika Catchings, and Tina Charles, the coolest part might be that it will happen when she's playing with her now-fiancé and teammate Alyssa Thomas. Maybe Thomas will be the one who passes her the ball.

Clocking into work every day with your partner isn’t for the weak, Bonner tells me. “We literally have to talk about it because after we leave that gym, there is no more basketball talk or we got to drop whatever happened on that court that day because our home is our peace,” she said about recent MVP candidate Thomas. The pair got engaged in July 2023. “I wouldn't trade it because she is the hardest-working player in the W so I mean, why wouldn't I want to step on the court with her? But I had to tell her, this year I'm having fun and so you need to tone it down a notch.”

When she thinks about the upcoming season, though, and all it entails, reality sets in: she has to leave her kids again and travel back to Connecticut to get ready for training camp. “That's like the hardest part for me about being an athlete and a mom, is the mommy guilt or you know, guilt about my job,” she said. “I know when I tell them I'll have to go it's gonna be the tears, but I know they're gonna be OK.

“I had a couple of opportunities to go play [overseas] and I was that close to going because, of course, the ball is gonna stop bouncing one day. You want to make your money when you can, but at the same time I'm looking at them and I'm just like, there's no way that I can go thousands of miles away.”

They’ll head to the East Coast once they’re on summer break from school, but still, Bonner attempting to balance a professional athlete's travel schedule with motherhood, co-parenting, and wedding planning is gold-medal worthy.

“It's a whole different world over here. Mom life is totally different from being just the everyday athlete; it’s so much more that goes on behind the scenes,” Bonner said.

Jordan Robinson (née Ligons) is a freelance writer, host, and podcaster based in Los Angeles. She covers women’s basketball, pop culture, and their intersections for places like GQ, ESSENCE, The Ringer, and more. She is a women’s college basketball host for The Pac-12 Network, and also co-hosts a weekly WNBA podcast called Queens of the Court with Hall of Famer Sheryl Swoopes for the WNBA and Audacy. Jordan also hosted Game On on the Women’s Sports Network, highlighting all women’s sports with analysis, commentary, and interviews with female athletes.