The WNBA’s Top 15 Players will be announced Saturday at the 2011 WNBA All-Star Game in San Antonio.
“Each has made a unique contribution to the game,” League President Laurel Richie said of the 30 nominees. Current Minnesota Lynx players Seimone Augustus and Taj McWilliams-Franklin are among 22 Blacks on the list.
“It’s a good list to be on,” adds Dawn Staley, who has a good chance to make the league’s all-time dozen plus three. “I don’t even feel if I should be on the list,” admits Staley. But after I told the legendary point guard who played her best years overseas before the league began in 1997 that she deserves to be there as much as any of the others, she responded, “You’re probably right. Thank you — I appreciate it.”
As with most all-time, all-anything teams, the final top 15 all-time W players will also be debatable with no consensus ever reached. Nonetheless, my top 15 is divided into thirds: past (retired or former players), present-day, and future (most likely to be an all-time great someday).
Past:
Lisa Leslie (1997-2006, 2008-09): The WNBA’s all-time leader in points and rebounds.
Teresa Weatherspoon (1997-2004): Her half-court, game-winning three-pointer that sent the 1999 Finals to a deciding third game forever remains a signature moment.
Dawn Staley (1999-2006): The league named the Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award in her honor.
Cynthia Cooper-Dyke (1997-2000, 2003): The first W player inducted into Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Deanna Nolan (2001-09): The most athletic guard to ever play in the WNBA.
Present:
Katie Smith (1999-present): First woman in U.S. history to score 5,000 points.
Tina Thompson (1997-present): She was one-third of the troika (Cooper and Sheryl Swoopes) that guided Houston to four consecutive W championships.
Sheryl Swoopes (1997-2000, 2002-08; currently now in Tulsa): One of only three players to win league MVP three times.
Sue Bird (2002-current): First guard ever as No. 1 overall pick.
Tamika Catchings (2002-current): No other player has led her team in scoring, rebounds, assists and steals in each of her first six seasons.
Lauren Jackson (2001-current): The only foreign-born player to win league MVP honors — the Aussie has done it thrice.
Diana Taurasi (2004-current): The four-time league scoring leader is probably the league’s toughest player to stop.
Future:
Seimone Augustus (2006-current): Has been a scoring force since her arrival.
Candace Parker (2008-current): First player to win both rookie of the year and MVP in same season.
Cappie Pondexter (2006-current): the 2007 Finals MVP doesn’t get her Aretha Franklin — a little respect — but has made her presence known anyway.
The Lynx list
To be fair, I also tried to list my top 10 all-time Lynx players. I could only come up with five, however:
Tonya Edwards (1999): Scored the team’s first-ever basket and was Minnesota’s first All-Star.
Katie Smith (1999-2005): The best scorer on either the Lynx or the Timberwolves.
Betty Lennox (2000-02): First Lynx to win a post-season award (2000 Rookie of the Year).
Tamika Williams (Raymond) (2002-07): The Lynx’s all-time rebounder and perhaps the league’s all-time undersized center.
Teresa Edwards (2003-04): The only Minnesota point guard to lead the team to the playoffs. Fortunately, she is going into the Hall of Fame next month for more achievements than this.
Carolyn Jenkins: First Black assistant coach (2003-04) and first Black head coach (2005) in club history.
And Maya Moore…
Before it’s all said and done, Lynx rookie forward Maya Moore will be listed among the W’s all-time greats, but she’s not there yet. After the team’s first home game last month, Lea B. Olsen, the Lynx’s first and only Black member of its broadcast team, observed, “It’s amazing to see [her] on the court go against Tina Thompson, and watching the old school and the new school.”
“She practices and plays hard all the time,” says teammate Alexis Hornbuckle of Moore. “You have to respect a player like that.”
Moore this Saturday will be the first rookie All-Star starter since 2002.
Black-on-Black moves
It was “Black weekend” a couple of weeks ago when Tulsa Coach/GM Nolan Richardson “stepped down” on July 8 and Jennifer Gillom was fired in Los Angeles two days later. Both were replaced by their Black assistants: Teresa Edwards in Tulsa and Joe Bryant in L.A., for the remainder of the 2011 WNBA season.
Besides baseball, the WNBA might be the only other league where panicking front office types will pull the plug on a coach at a moment’s note: Either they outright fired them, such as Gillom, or convinced them to resign as I believe was the case for Richardson.
Although the Sparks has improved its record under Bryant, the Shock still hasn’t improved its one-win record since changing coaches because the slim talent still is in place. But it’s easier to fire one person than 11.
Read our “Another View” blog (www.challman.wordpress.com) for my 2011 All-Star Game reports from San Antonio, beginning Friday.
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.
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