WNBA All-Stars Ready to Show Their Stuff
P H O E N I X, July 17, 2000 -- The WNBA is keeping American players home, andcreating interest around the world.
The league’s All-Star game at America West Arena tonightwill feature the WNBA’s best players and be broadcast to 154countries in 23 languages.
“We consider ourselves the premier women’s sports league in the world,” WNBA president Val Ackerman said. “Our players are truly the best in the world, and in women’s team sports no other league has what we have — the quality of athletes, games live inprime-time and the support of global sponsors.”
TV, Fans Helped WNBA Grow
The overwhelming success the league has experienced in its fouryears has given women the opportunity to play professionalbasketball in the United States, rather than having to go overseas.
“I’m just happy to continue playing with a team in theStates,” said Minnesota’s Katie Smith, a first-time WNBA All-Star. Smith was a two-time All-Star in the now-defunct AmericanBasketball League.
“I hope we can really promote this and keep this thing going,because it would be great for myself to finish my career at home,”she said.
Smith, the league’s second-leading scorer, said she couldn’thelp but notice the difference in the two leagues.
“There wasn’t as much ink,” she said. “The fans, the promotions, the TV and all this are just so much better in theWNBA.”
Foreign Players Also Joining League
So is the quality of play in a league which has no domesticcompetition and is steadily adding top foreign women, who make up25 percent of the league’s 220-plus active players.
“The league now isn’t even recognizable to me from a basketball standpoint from where we started,” said Seth Sulka, vice president of the host Phoenix Mercury.
Three networks televise WNBA games, and the audience for thisprime-time game on ESPN is up from the 125 countries — in 20languages — that watched the inaugural All-Star game last year inNew York.
The league expanded to 16 teams this season, teams play in someof the nation’s top arenas and sales of team merchandise aregrowing.
Although attendance is down, Ackerman thinks that may be due toan earlier starting date this season to avoid conflicts with theSydney Olympics. Starting play on Memorial Day threw the WNBA intoconflict with NBA and NHL playoffs, and Ackerman thinks the leagueis ready for a stronger second half.
Another positive is that nearly twice as many fans participatedin All-Star balloting from last year.
Early Start, Low Attendance?
Four of the West’s starters — Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper andTina Thompson of the Houston Comets, and Lisa Leslie of the LosAngeles Sparks — started last year’s 79-61 win over the East. Thisyear, Ticha Penicheiro of the Sacramento Monarchs is the pointguard, replacing Michele Timms of Phoenix.
Chamique Holdsclaw and Nikki McCray of the Washington Mysticsare repeat starters for the East, along with Teresa Weatherspoon ofthe New York Liberty. Taj McWilliams of the Orlando Miracle, areserve last year, will start at center and the Liberty’s Sue Wickswill make her first start at forward.
But the West has more newcomers — five of its seven reserves,including Smith, Brandy Reed of Phoenix and Lynx guard BettyLennox, the only All-Star game’s only rookie — are first-yearAll-Stars, compared with three of the East’s six.
The roster imbalance exists because of Reed, who ranks among thetop 15 in scoring, rebounds, steals and free-throw shooting but wasleft off the team by both the fans and the coaches, who picked thebackups.
That forced Ackerman into the unprecedented step of adding a12th player to the West to get Reed on the team and avoid abacklash in a host city without an All-Star player.
“I think it shows how deep the league is as far as talent,”McWilliams said. “There could have been any number of All-Starspicked that weren’t even on the ballot, and that’s a great thingfor the league.