
I heard the shocking news today that another one of the Original Eight WNBA franchises bit the dust. Unfortunately it was my hometown team.

It was reported that my hometown WNBA team was suspending operations for the 2009 season. The current players, with the exception of unrestricted free agents Latasha Byears, Mwadi Mabika, Hamchetou Maiga-Ba, Michelle Snow and Tina Thompson, would be eligible to be selected in a dispersal draft being conducted on December 8.

"It's a sad, sad, sad day for me," said Van Chancellor, the former Comets coach and GM who now coaches the women's team at LSU. "I just feel bad for everybody. I hate to see the city lose such a great franchise. I have so many memories.
"Houston is losing a big piece of its history. The Houston Comets' four championships will always be a big piece of WNBA history and a big piece of the city's history."

Okay Donna. If the league's flagship franchise, first dynasty and a team that has a display at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA dedicated to it just folded due to lack of stable ownership since Les Alexander sold it, what does that say for the rest of the WNBA?
And for the sake of those loyal Houston fans, you and the WNBA leadership should have tried harder, helped and allowed more time for a local ownership group to get put together and purchase the team in time for the 2009 season.

But my love of the Comets is beyond just the basketball. The Comets dynasty is intertwined with my transition as well. I was three years into transition when the WNBA started, and being that an estimated 10% of the WNBA fan base was GLBT, Comets games were some of the first sporting events I attended post transition.

While transition was a small part of my love for the team and the league, it was also the excitement of watching sports and WNBA history unfold before your eyes and being a part of it. It was the joy of watching the Comets take four straight titles to follow up the ones the Rockets won in 94-95 for a championship starved city.
It was being part of the 'Sea of Red', the noisy, boisterous Compaq rocking home crowds that screamed 'Beat LA' at the top of our lungs during the 1999 and 2000 WNBA Western Conference Finals versus the hated LA Sparks.
It was watching the Big Four of Cooper, Swoopes, Thompson and Arcain take on all comers and swat them aside during the dynasty years. It was also a city wrapping its collective arms around the team and mourning along with them the untimely death from cancer of their feisty point guard Kim Perrot during the 1999 season as they threepeated in her memory.
I'm looking at my Comets sweatshirt, 1998 championship hat and other WNBA memorabilia and I'm feeling mixed emotions right now.

I'm sad over the fact that this franchise isn't going to be around to pursue that fifth ring and WNBA Championship trophy. It's also the realization that when the 2009 season starts, it will be the first time in 12 seasons a WNBA campaign will kick off without a Houston team involved in it.

To everyone ever associated with the Houston Comets, thanks for the memories and thanks for representing our city with not only consummate skill, but more importantly, with dignity and class.
TransGriot Note: The quotes used in this post come from a Houston Chronicle story by Jenny Dial and the WNBA.com website.
2 comments:
There was barely any mention made of this on ESPN, which was ridiculous.
What's also ridiculous are the BS excuses being given by Orender and the WNBA. A sports team is like real estate: when you buy it, it's yours until you sell it. The low-rent furniture bozo who bought it from Alexander should have been forced to operate the team until he could sell it. He can't just decide 'I don't want to anymore.", but obviously Orender let him. I also doubt they tried very hard to find a buyer, which would have been tough with the credit crunch right now. Still, the deadline was unreasonable, and the team should have been run through next season.
Unless the WNBA, as a league, is bankrupt, too.......which I will bet it's close to being, or this wouldn't have happened. I sure hope not. These girls can teach the men how to shoot and pass, how to play fundamental basketball, since they don't seem to teach the basics in the men's game today.
Guess we have to root for the Indiana Fever now. Tamika Catchings is great fun to watch. Have to catch Seattle (Swoopes plays there), or whatever team Tina Thompson ends up playing for. Keep yer Comets gear and wear it forever.
They have to get the attention of male fans as well. That starts with coverage on ESPN and other sports shows.
If young boys see ESPN anchors (or any sports anchor) making dismissive jokes about the league, spending more time running highlights of some poker match instead of a WNBA game, it reinforces the perception in their mind that 'this isn't a major league sport' when it most definitely is.
And Hilton Koch....I don't even want to comment on him right now.
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