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All-Star Action

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Posted: Tuesday July 13, 1999 03:24 PM

 

Game of the Week

Inaugural WNBA All-Star Game, Madison Square Garden, New York City, Wednesday, July 14, 7:30 pm ET, ESPN

Van Chancellor of the Houston Comets and Linda Hill-MacDonald of the Cleveland Rockers will direct a phenomenally talented cast of WNBA players in what should be an explosive offensive performance. "There are players on both teams who can score," says Hill-MacDonald. "I anticipate that there will be a lot of shots taken and a lot of shots made. We'll try to give the fans a show they'll enjoy."

Prediction: The West has superior firepower and -- as long as they don't fight each other for the ball -- should win easily. Sheryl Swoopes , who led all players with 84,632 votes, will be the MVP.

All-Star notes

  • Hill-MacDonald will have to choose a replacement for New York's Rebecca Lobo , who was selected to start despite suffering a season-ending knee injury on opening night. The coach says she will look at the fan voting to help her pick a sub. This means Vickie Johnson , also of the Liberty, may get the nod after finishing fifth on the ballot for Eastern Conference forwards (21,423 votes).

  • After mistakenly wandering into a women's restroom en route to New York and then checking into the wrong Manhattan hotel, Chancellor finally got settled late Monday afternoon and had time to reflect on what being part of the All-Star Game meant to him. "What better place to have an All-Star Game than New York City and Madison Square Garden?" he says. "When I walk in that dressing room with all those great players I'm going to think I'm the luckiest coach alive. I'm in New York, I'm an All-Star coach, what else could you want in life?"

  • The the disparity between the WNBA and the now-defunct ABL was never more apparent, at least in terms of marketing, than during the All-Star voting. Fans left no doubt as to which league did a better job of promoting its athletes. Not one player who participated in the ABL's final season was elected to be a starter in the WNBA All-Star Game -- despite the fact that émigrés like the Monarch's Yolanda Griffith and the Lynx's Tonya Edwards have put up All-Star numbers for their teams this year. Five former ABL players -- Griffith (Sacramento), Edwards (Minnesota), Shannon Johnson and Taj McWilliams (Orlando) and Natalie Williams (Utah) -- were eventually named to the 23-player roster by the coaches.

    Hit and Run

    Brandy Reed 's last-second shot on Sunday afternoon did more than lift the Lynx to a 58-56 win over the Liberty. It also helped ensure that Minnesota would catch its flight to Cleveland. Reed's basket ended the game just before 6 pm. Minnesota's plane was scheduled to depart at 7:40, leaving barely enough time for the team to shower and dash to the airport.

    Reed's only other career buzzer-beater occurred while she was a junior at Balboa High School in San Francisco. She wasn't surprised, however, when she repeated the feat in Madison Square Garden. "This is my favorite place to play," said the 6'1" forward after the game. "The rims are always kind. You put it up there soft and a lot of times it goes in."

    The Chamique Holdsclaw Watch

    The Mystics may be a season away from playoff contention, but every WNBA fan will be keeping an eye on one player in Washington this season. Now that she's in the big leagues will Holdsclaw live up to the hype and be the marquee player that the WNBA is hoping she will be? CNN/SI charts her progress throughout the season.

    Stats

    Last game: July 12 vs. Charlotte Sting
    Points: 22 (Season: 262, 18.7 avg.)
    Rebounds:     8 (Season: 124, 8.9 avg.)
    Turnovers: 2 (Season: 56, 4.0 avg.)
    FGs Made-Attempted: 8-18 (Season: 97-214, 45.3 percent)
    Result: 74-71 Mystics win (5-9 record)
    This week: Inaugural WNBA All-Star Game, July 14 (Holdsclaw was the top vote-getter in the Eastern Conference), July 16 vs. Detroit, July 17 at Charlotte; July 19 vs. Orlando.

    Check back to siforwomen.com each Tuesday throughout the season for a new WNBA Insider.

     
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