more thoughts on the women's game

Last Friday the LA Times published in its online edition the response I wrote to a poorly-written column the week before, slamming the WNBA. (It was written by a young woman, no less, which was one of the things that most offended the offended). I researched for it and wrote the piece, after which I edited it about four times. It turned out pretty good, I think:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2008/09/the-wnba-anothe.html

I've been writing since I was 4, which is why I'm a perfectionist about the art form. If I'd had a little extra time the column could have been better, which is why I responded to my own work on the site. I had to outline a few story ideas I've had for the WNBA for a long time, in light of the original columnist's jab. The women of the league have to go through so much to play the sport they love and make a living. Wouldn't it be nice to read about their lives in other countries? Wouldn't it be interesting to find out a bit more about the new Sparks owners?

Even at my age, there are times when I marvel at what a cruel and unforgiving world this is. It took Title 9 to get a level playing field for women in sport. Women's basketball has been an Olympic sport only since 1976, and the sport wasn't seriously practiced collegiately until the early 1970's. The WNBA is all of 12 years old, and some people criticize its players and teams for not playing like the 62-year-old NBA. It's like so many other things in life: that's the breaks, kid.

Last summer I got into an email argument with one of the Times' female sports staffers. This was her closing paragraph in her first reply to me:

As for your assertion, "If you would write something uplifting about women's basketball, it might help the sport rather than tear it down. You are contributing to the problem by writing columns such as yesterday's," it is not my job to be the public relations person for the WNBA. It is not my responsibility, because I'm female, to praise a female-dominated enterprise that I know to be flawed and that I find less than compelling. As a columnist, it's my job to voice an opinion based on my experience and knowledge. I't's my opinion that the WNBA is at a crossroads and may need to alter its business plan to survive.

She's right in that it's not her job to be a public relations agent for the WNBA. But the other comments are illuminating. It's obvious she doesn't like the WNBA, and neither does the rest of the sports staff. And it's easy to attack it in this Kobe and Lakers-obsessed town.

I used to be a newspaper reporter, and when an editor and/or a reporter like something, they'll write about it; they'll push it. Don't let anyone tell you differently. Did anyone see the column following the Olympics that praised Kobe Bryant for his behavior at the games, i.e. giving him props for acting like he should have been acting all along? I hope no one did, because it was vomit-inducing. It's obvious the Times has its collective head too far up Kobe's rear to care about other types of basketball. High school games barely get any play in that paper, either.

But I have to give the Times sports editor credit for letting me speak out, and take a few jabs at the paper in the process. I hope someday the Times will give women's hoops a fair shake on their pages. In the meantime, I'll fill in the blanks as best I can for all the great things they're missing.

Vols pics!!

One of the great people who I've met on the Summitt message board, Mike, has helped me with quite a few pictures the last few months. Now he's allowing me to share some of his.

The lucky homey goes to all the Lady Vol events, and has taken a lot of pics lately of our new team. I'm getting excited. I mean, I barely know them, but I'm excited for the future. I have good feelings about it. An inside source at Tennessee told me today that "Everyday in practice is a new adventure unfolding on the court. Like a soap opera, you've just gotta tune in tomorrow to see what happens!"

Try to keep me from doing that.

The thing that strikes me are the similarities between the new team and the team that just left. Mike says there's another beautiful one, like CP, and Brianna Bass is just as short as Bobbitt and wears her hair similarly. Mike's letting me share his photos, so I thank him.

The new Vols sign autographs after the football game a few weeks ago. Bass is the one in the stutters.

Being introduced at the game.

Get used to this sight: the huddle.

At practice......

At practice 2......

The new Nikki Caldwell, aka Daedra Charles.

Did I say I'm excited???!!!

It's over

I'm not sure if anyone else felt this way, but I was way more hurt after yesterday's game than today's. Yesterday I was pacing around like a crazy woman afterwards, and finally left the house not really knowing where I was going. (I ended up at the gym, of course). Today I was just sad. Things weren't going our way, and the Silver Stars are a very good basketball team. They have some incredible defense, great ball movement and amazing shooting. It also didn't help that the referees were horrendous again, and were letting Becky Hammon foul away freely. I was pretty OK when the game ended, but got a little sad about an hour and a half ago. I haven't been this sorry to see a season end before.

I don't know if we could have handled it if we would have made it to the finals. There are still too many glaring holes in our game. One of the biggest for me all season long as been the lack of offense geared towards the posts. There is no high-low game, and that's one thing I thought would be a staple for sure, given that we have the two best posts in the league. Secondly, why can't we shoot the lights out from outside, like San Antonio? We should be able to do that. And why aren't we experts at the free throw line? Finally, where's our stifling defense?

These questions will undoubtedly be answered over the off-season. In the meantime, I'm really concerned about our two rookies - both of whom have played non-stop for a year now.

Candace Parker dislocated her shoulder six months ago, and has kept playing on it. She is about as mentally tough as they come, but I sense she's not only physically but emotionally drained, because sometimes lately she'll seem to zone out briefly during games.

I'm a sensitive schmuck, and I pay attention. Unless I'm really exhausted, I notice just about everything, and saw a couple things our rookies did the last two games that gave us a brief glimpse into where their heads are at.

Yesterday, as that last shot went in, Sophia Young started rolling around on the floor. A few feet away, Parker sank down to her knees on the same floor and put her head on it. The camera was focused on the Stars, but you could see Parker on the bottom right of the screen. For a woman who pretty much always has her game face on, that was amazing to see, as was her reaction to a foul called on her today late in the fourth quarter. The camera showed her, dead on, in complete disbelief. She was just standing there saying "what?" over and over, and I thought she was going to start crying, for real. Here's the side view:

http://sports.yahoo.com/wnba/photo?slug=61c14e843f5c4ac097be9d17c0cdd173.correction_sparks_silver_stars_basketball_txeg109&prov=ap

She seemed to be completely torn up about it, which bothered me.

Then there is Shannon Bobbitt. The girl is a real rookie, unlike her teammate, but she didn't get much of a chance to be treated like one. She was thrust into the starting position when Temeka Johnson left the team to care for her dying grandmother, and the others weren't performing as expected. Bobbitt shouldn't have been put in the role, though, because she wasn't ready. She should have been groomed for it, but she found herself in over her head. No doubt she was feeling pressure, and fans and journalists were relentless in criticizing the Spark guards all season, including today.

Cooper had told his guards to step up and shoot today, and Bobbitt tried. She did score a couple times, but she also missed some shots. I thought I read defeat on Bobbitt's face today, and then came her last foul in the fourth quarter. She was chasing Hammon toward the left corner, and Hammon tumbled out of bounds:

http://sports.yahoo.com/wnba/photo?slug=67205187790c58dc90c128b9f4aef3f0-getty-829800710ce017_spark_sstars&prov=getty

Bobbitt landed on her stomach, and Hammon's lower leg slightly brushed her head as she flew into the camera zone. Bobbitt looked up at the ref who had whistled the ball dead, and then she put her head down on her hands and just laid on the floor, face down, for several seconds.

Our poor girls. I am worried about them both, for different reasons.

I wanted to open up the floor for discussion and observation. Was there anything anyone saw in either this game or the New York-Detroit games this weekend that provided insight into the state of mind of the player? Please share. Because I've always believed that it's this kind of stuff that is the most important thing in life: figuring out the real stories behind the fronts.

SASS 67, Sparks 66

So painful. So very incredibly painful. I can't even think of a word right now that matches the hurt in my gut. I've been sitting here for almost 20 minutes and may be able to get up in another five, I don't know. I'm trying to visualize the Sparks locker room right now. Maybe not.

I need to get out of the house and not think about basketball until 2 p.m. tomorrow. Seriously.

Ouch.

Edit to add that I understand Coach Michael Cooper, Lisa Leslie and Candace Parker were very upbeat in the post-game interview. Good sign! Because if the Sparks can play well through all four quarters tomorrow, rather than collapsing in the second and third quarters..........you know.

College previews coming up

I realize that I've been going on and on about the WNBA lately, and obviously, because it's the playoffs. One of the best series in years, too. But I love the late season this year because almost the minute it's over it will be time for college ball. Basketball year-round, baby!

I've been asking for and getting women's basketball team prospecti (at least I think that's the plural for prospectus) from the PAC-10 and SEC conferences. I may do a few other schools, but there are many conferences in the US and I'm not sure if I'd have time to preview every single program. The PAC-10 is of interest to me as it's our main West coast league, and because my friend and I are new UCLA season ticket holders. The SEC conference is a gimmie for me (duh). So those are my main focus points for now. But if anyone would like to see a team outside those conferences previewed, please drop a comment and I'll see what I can do.

It's interesting to see how fast some schools respond to requests for prospecti. Some media relations reps respond almost immediately; they check their email on weekends. Others take a few days. Some have to be asked again. And again. One school so far hasn't responded to three email requests and a phone call from me, and that is Stanford. If they end up ignoring me completely, who knows what I may write about the Cardinal.

*evil laugh*

Pondering changing teams, and the meaning of fandom

As long as there has been WNBA basketball, I’ve been watching it. But this season has been strange for me because I’ve crossed a bridge I never thought I would cross, and I’ve become a raving fan of a team I used to dislike. What’s more, I predict I’ll be a fan of this team for at least the next 16 years or so, or until Candace Parker retires – whichever comes first. And knowing me, by then I’ll be so attached to the team I’ll never be able to let go, so I might as well say “lifelong fan”.

Have I lost my mind? I’m trying to sort it all out. It doesn’t help that my former team and present team have always had something against each other, though I sense that the Seattle Storm’s grudge is bigger.

I was a Storm season ticket holder for that team’s first five years. During that time I was as passionate as the next Storm fan. From the get-go, for whatever reason, Storm fans got to hating the LA Sparks, and a rivalry was born.

Back in 2001, 2002 and 2003, the Sparks were the bad girls of the WNBA. Latasha Byears, Mwadi Mabika and Tamecka Dixon would do anything to win, including throwing punches and/or shoving or throwing objects at the opposition. Lisa Leslie and Delisha Milton didn’t go that far, but they did use elbows a lot. Storm fans called Leslie “horse face,” “diva,” and other names. They didn’t like Milton, AKA “D-Nasty,” either.

I remember the night that the “Beat LA” chant in Seattle became routine procedure. It was July 12, 2002, when the Sparks came to visit. On a running play, Storm guard Michelle Marciniak fouled Byears hard on purpose, and Byears turned around and threw the ball at her head. Marciniak, furious, pushed Byears, and Byears responded by shoving Marciniak to the floor. Storm teammate Amanda Lassiter stepped between the two, and then the refs intervened. Both Byears and Marciniak were ejected, and both walked off the court to the deafening chant of the crowd (myself included) screaming “BEAT LA!!!” It’s been modus operandi ever since to chant that when the Sparks come to town.

Fast forward to 2008 and you have a completely different LA team. The only two left from that 2002 championship squad are Leslie and Milton – now Milton-Jones. Both players are a little older and a lot more mellow. There are also three new Sparks players from my beloved University of Tennessee. But the “thing” between the Sparks and the Storm remains.

This past Sunday during playoff game two in Seattle, “Beat LA” was flashed on the jumbotron to incite the crowd to chant it. The Storm powers that be also ran some kind of video in which they compared Sparks Coach Michael Cooper to Grover on Sesame Street. The Sparks organization objected, and apparently the WNBA asked the Storm to stop running the videos.

Seattle fans then complained after the Sparks won game three and lingered on the Key Arena court celebrating after the game. No doubt the Sparks did it because of the videos, so I guess they got even. But I guess I don’t see the point of hating the Sparks so much anymore.

Last season, which Leslie took off after the birth of her daughter, the Sparks lost more games than they ever had before as a franchise. Fans of other teams made comments on message boards that it was “hard to hate LA now” that Leslie was gone and the team was losing. When Leslie came back this year, some of those same people went right back to hating the Sparks.

Leslie, they say, is a popular villain. So no matter who else is on the team, they will hate the Sparks. That seems pretty stupid to me, but hating on certain teams for the duration of your life is an American tradition.

I was raised by a father who hated the Dallas Cowboys, the New York Yankees and UCLA Bruins (I will spare the particular cusswords he attached to each team). Thirty years later, everyone that was associated with any of those teams are either retired or dead, but my dad still hates them. There are a lot of people around like my dad.

Personally, though, I don’t see the point. I don’t care what the Sparks did to my team six years ago. Grudges aren’t useful.

Take a look at the Sparks now and you see a group of close-knit women who are trying to figure out their high-low game, among other things. I still see a few elbows here and there from Leslie, but that’s about it. The Sparks are a team of which I can be proud, and I am. I have passion for them, and while I still like the Storm, I lost what was left of my passion for that team when they traded Betty Lennox last winter.

Then there is the issue of fandom. Somewhere between the two extremes of Storm fan and Sparks fan, there has to be a happy medium. And I want it to eventually happen in LA.

Last winter, fans at Mac Court at the University of Oregon in Eugene taunted UCLA forward Kevin Love when the Bruins came to town. Mad because the Beaverton player chose UCLA over the UO, Duck fans held up signs with Love’s cell phone number on them, and signs that accused him of being gay, among other things. It was a horrible display of bad sportsmanship. Seattle Storm fans come close to crossing that line sometimes, too.

Sparks fans, on the other hand, need to yell louder, bring more signs, and all stand up until the team scores at the beginning of each half without having to be reminded. They’re too nice. Hopefully, they/we can find that balance.

Which brings me to my final thought – actually, a question. Is booing the other team before the game acceptable? Or is it in poor taste and an example of bad sportsmanship?

The reason I ask is because before last night’s game, when the Silver Stars were being introduced, several fans booed most of the players. They hadn’t done that before this season, and I was surprised.

Personally, I don’t like it. You’ve gotta respect the other team, because without them there would be no game. But I want to hear from others. What do you think about booing the other team? I’d sincerely like to know.

Round 2, Game 1

The Sparks organization did a great job of simulating the Staples Center last night at USC’s Galen Center.

They put the Sparks’ home court down, the bright yellow contrasting a little with the rust-colored seats. Fans were each given a Sparks rally towel at the door, and people really waved them hard during the team’s surges in the second and fourth quarters. It was a pretty sight.

Just inside the entry was also a table full of Sparks merchandise for sale, including T-shirts, beads, car flags, and other things usually found in the team store. (Owners Kathy Goodman and Carla Christofferson are no dummies). The goods were being peddled by USC students, who had to look up the price of everything before they sold it.

The ushers also were young and didn’t take the militant stance the Staples ushers do, so theoretically all of us season ticket holders could have sat wherever we wanted. But the Sparks staff did such a good job of arranging for us to all sit in the same area we would have if at Staples, that we didn’t move. Daniel and I were right where we usually are, behind the Sparks bench.

I guess I don’t need to go over much of the game, since it was broadcast, but we were pleased. Marie Ferdinand-Harris looks like she’s returned to her “old” self, i.e. someone who scores. Temeka Johnson had the hot hand, putting in points, and Lisa Leslie looked like the aggressive center who was missing for a time. San Antonio started strong and went on a run in the first quarter, but after that it was all Sparks.

Though Galen Center is a beautiful facility, it’s much smaller than Staples Center, so it was a little strange being there. But in the end, a W is a W, and I’ll take it.

My only complaint was having referee Kurt Walker officiate – the third out of four games this week that he’s done so. His calls have always been questionable, and I think they need to send him to the Eastern Conference for a while.

The Kryptonite Award of the night went to Candace Parker, who managed to score yet another double-double while suffering from the flu. She is one of the most mentally tough athletes I’ve ever witnessed, and even so, she continues to amaze. I hope she feels better soon.

Just wow

The Sparks came out with the energy tonight that was missing on Sunday. I was calling and texting people; they were calling and texting me. That fourth quarter was pretty damned scary for a minute, though. My heart was beating really fast. I'm so glad that my young neighbor (the high school student who I watched a lot of the Olympics with) came to watch that part of the game with me, or I would have screamed even louder and scared people.

Highlights for me:

- CP's wicked ass left-hand shot in the second quarter.

- Bobbitt's falling jumper on the right wing at the very end of the third quarter.

- The way the Sparks kept their composure.

- Bobbitt had no TO's, and CP was the high scorer with 20.

- When they showed the Sparks in the tunnel before the game and they were jumping up and down and screaming.

- Seeing the Sparks owners sitting right behind the bench, quietly slapping hands after the game was over.

- Bobbitt goosing CP in the post-game interview, while the entire team bombarded her and took her out of her interview persona.

- Ashley Robinson showing some spunk tonight; coming back to the huddle after a little pushing with Delisha Milton-Jones and saying to her team, "let's go, muthafuckas!" At least that's what I read on her lips when they bleeped it out. I didn't know the young lady had the chutzpah like that. It makes me love her more.

But it's a little sad, too. I will always love the Seattle Storm, and it was great to see the crowd at their screaming and hysterical best tonight. You could hear individual fans yelling weird crap when the rest of the arena was quiet. They are crazy, and I wish every WNBA arena could be like that. I also hope that someday the Storm can remain injury-free for a season and have another championship, because they've been so dogged by that problem the last four years.

I'm so happy to have another game to go to Thursday. I wasn't ready for the season to be over yet. Again, I have to give credit to the Sparks for believing it into reality. That stuff does work.

PS - Yes, I did know it - I knew the Sparks were going to win. I knew it right before I went to sleep last night.

Parity? Yes.

I haven't enjoyed a WNBA finals series this much before. I'm not usually compelled to watch every game, but I have been since Thursday.

Tonight the New York Liberty defeated Connecticut in a close game, which made me very happy for that young team. Right after that, San Antonio and Sacramento went to overtime, where the Stars prevailed. What a night! I ended up doing some chores during the SASS-Sac game, or I could have sat on my booty for four hours and watched it all.

Of course I am nervous for the Sparks-Storm final game of the series tomorrow night. But what I truly adore is the attitude of the entire Sparks organization. All season long the players and head coach have been unwavering in saying they would win a championship. Season ticket holders today got an email from team owners Kathy Goodman and Carla Christofferson talking about how the next games would be at Galen Center, and how they were so excited to be in the playoffs. And I got a personal email from a Sparks staffer asking me if I was going to be at the next playoff game (duh!). Their philosophy seems to align with that in several of my spiritual books, and one I also practice: believe it into being.

I love it.

When the WNBA first started, the Comets took the first four championships, and the Sparks the next two. Good teams were great and the new teams were bad.

Since 2003 there have been five different champions - a different one every year - and the teams that used to be bad are all playoff contenders. It's difficult to make a team and then stay on it for the season. And this is the first time in the league's history that all four opening round series have gone to three games and no one's swept anyone in two. Tonight's overtime was also the second one so far in this year's playoffs.

Now that's parity, baby. It's a beautiful thing.

Not much to say about that game

Refs were horrible. Sparks were bad. Seattle crowd was great. Swoopes played well, as did Bird. It was just no fun to watch at all. At least I was at a viewing party and didn't have to be in misery by myself.

I knew the Sparks weren't going to win when I got up this morning and felt it. It felt like a loss. So I'm going to pray really really really hard that Monday night or Tuesday morning, the feeling will be a good one.