Friday, May 31, 2013

Tina Thompson to retire after this season

The last of the original players of the WNBA's 1997 season - Tina Thompson - will retire after this season.

It's a sad day.

Check out the beautiful photo montage tribute on this message board thread.
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

One of my favorite W ballers. Wish she could have retired from LA.

May 31, 2013 at 7:28 PM
Abacus Reveals said...

The WNBA schedule is baffling -- not only have the Lynx been sitting around for over a week now, they'll play back-to-back this weekend. (A young team like Tulsa would have benefited more from such an extended training camp.)

Overall, play seems to plod along until mid-August, teams getting barely more than halfway through their schedules -- then the other half happens in just about a month or so.
Please excuse my ignorance, Ms. Favor, but I have a couple of questions:
a) Is this standard operating procedure for a non-Olympic year?
b) WHY?? Is there some marketing or competitive advantage to this approach?

Lastly, is there some kind of league event scheduled for the last weekend in July? There are no games for five full days (Friday thru Tuesday).

June 1, 2013 at 5:55 AM
Sue Favor said...

Hey Abacus,

Honestly, I have no idea why the WNBA schedules games as they do, and this is nothing new. Players also seem to be baffled. The Lynx situation this year is odd, but frequently you'll have multiple back-to-back games staggered with days of no games for a team. It seems designed specifically to fatigue players.

The All-Star game has always been in mid-July, but it looks like they've moved it up a couple weeks this year. All Star players will go to that, and remaining team members get a few extra days off to rest.

June 1, 2013 at 8:24 AM
Abacus Reveals said...

Thanks for the prompt and informative reply, Ms. F -- and my apologies for posting on the wrong item.

Another scheduling anomaly is that there are several, for lack of a better term, two-game series, ala Major League Baseball. (Also several home-and-home series.)

Assuming that attendance holds up in those second games, perhaps the powers-that-be could consider a schedule comprised entirely of two-game series. (The NBA gave brief consideration to this concept back in the mid-80's, if I'm not mistaken.) Wouldn't that cut down on operating/travel expenses?

Or maybe they could schedule some doubleheaders -- four teams, one gym, one night! My old bones might be induced to drive from Houston to San Antonio for two games.

Thanks again, and enjoy tonight's games.
Go Red Rondo (with the gold 'hawk)

June 1, 2013 at 12:07 PM

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