In her WNBA debut game in the US Airways Center versus fellow rookie Elena Delle Donne and the Chicago Sky my Houston homegirl Brittney Griner did something that no other WNBA player in history has ever done.
She dunked twice in a WNBA regular season game.
Lisa Leslie was the first to do so, Candace Parker the first to do it twice in her WNBA career, and there have been five players total prior to tonight to execute dunks in the WNBA's 16 seasons.
Brittney is the first to do it twice in a game. The first one came with 7:52 left in the game and the second thunderous one came with 2:18 left in the game after she stole an errant pass and went to the rim two handed.
Despite the dunks and 17 points, 8 rebounds and four blocked shots in 27 minutes, the key stat for Griner was the third foul she picked up with 2:30 left in the first quarter. It forced her to be a spectator for the rest of the first half as the Chicago Sky ran up a 24 point lead by halftime enroute to a 102-80 win.
Elena Delle Donne played a major role in building that big Sky halftime lead as the Mercury elected to guard her one on one.
The 6'5" Delle Donne, who routinely got triple teamed in college must have felt as though she received an early Christmas present and made the Mercury pay for their lack of basketball vision.
Delle Donne ended her night with the sixth best debut by a WNBA rookie player with 22 points, eight rebounds, four blocked shots, was 2-2 from 3 point land and dished out two assists in a team-high 34 minutes.
But my Houston homegirl chalked this game up to being a learning experience and made a little WNBA history in the process despite the loss.
And yeah, the Team USA women are going to be fun to watch at the FIBA World Championships next year.
The number one overall pick in the 2013 WNBA Draft that is!
Wasn't a big surprise, but my Houston homegirl was snapped up by the Phoenix Mercury with the opening pick of this year's draft. Another Houston homegirl in Texas A&M's Kelsey Bone also went in the first round at number five to the New York Liberty.
It was a draft class that contained Skylar Diggins (Tulsa Shock) Elena Delle Donne (Chicago Sky) and A'dia Mathes (LA Sparks) (boo, hiss still can't stand the Sparks) and should be fun to watch when the season starts May 24.
Hey WNBA President Laurel Richie, when the league decides to expand again, how about putting a franchise back in H-town?
But congrats Brittney and best of luck in your WNBA career. Hopefully I'll get to see you wearing the Team USA jersey next year during the FIBA World Championship for Women in Turkey.
While I'm disappointed my Houston homegirl won't be playing for another NCAA women's title this weekend in New Orleans, I'm keenly aware of the fact that Ms. Griner will be the number one draft pick in the WNBA draft and the Phoenix Mercury can't wait until April 15 to call her name.
Interesting news out of Dallas is that Mark Cuban is considering drafting her in the second round for his Dallas Mavericks and if he doesn't,. giving her a tryout for the Mavericks summer league team to see if she can play ball at the professional level with the NBA fellas
"If she is the best on the board, I will take her," Cuban said before
the Mavs Tuesday night game against the Los Angeles Lakers.
"I've thought about it. I've thought about it already. Would I do it?
Right now, I'd lean toward yes, just to see if she can do it. You never
know unless you give somebody a chance, and it's not like the likelihood
of any late-50s draft pick has a good chance of making it."
Brittney's intrigued by the idea. "I would hold my own! Lets do it." she wrote on Twitter Tuesday night in response to the Cuban NBA chatter.
You all know of Brittney's awesomeness in the NCAA women's ranks. She finished as the second all time scorer in the women's collegiate ranks with 3,283 points, blocked 748 shots and threw down 18 dunks with 11 of them happening during her senior year. She would be the second woman after Ann Meyers to get an NBA tryout. Meyers was a women's hoops star at UCLA and got a tryout with the Indiana Pacers in 1979.
Can Brittney play with the NBA boys? And will she hear her name called in the WNBA and NBA drafts?
I'm late with this post, but in the midst of the news about the NBA canceling 2011-2012 season games no thanks to the lockout, had to show the WNBA and the Minnesota Lynx some TransGriot love.
I was a proud season ticket holder during the Houston Comets dynasty (sniff sniff) from 1997-2000 when they won four consecutive WNBA titles. The Minnesota Lynx joined the league in 1999 along with the Orlando Miracle as an expansion franchise.
Back in the day we Comet fans would watch our Big Four of Cooper, Swoopes, Thompson and Janeth Arcain blow them out in WNBA basketball mismatches, make jokes about the Minnesota Missing Lynx or as a nod to the then popular game show at the time, call them 'the Weakest Lynx'.
Well, fast forward a decade to the WNBA's 15th season. My beloved Comets, one of the Original Eight WNBA franchises that started play in 1997 have been extinct for several years while the expansion team I gleefully made jokes about while ensconced in my Section 117 Compaq Center aisle seat is still in the league and is now the 2011 WNBA Champion.
And oh yeah, Compaq Center is now the sanctuary of Lakewood Church
Putting a new Houston Comets expansion team in the WNBA would be a nice start, but back to discussing 2011 WNBA ball and the new WNBA champs.
The Lynx drafted UConn's Maya Moore with the number one overall pick and rolled to a league best 27-7 record in the always tough WNBA Western Conference
They faced the fourth place San Antonio Silver Stars in the opening round best of three series and won it 2-1 to advance to the Western Conference finals against the Phoenix Mercury, who upset the defending WNBA champion Seattle Storm 2-1. Minnesota swept Phoenix in the Western Conference Finals 2-0 to advance to their first WNBA final against the Atlanta Dream.
The Dream finished third at 20-14 and one game behind the Eastern Conference regular season winners the Indiana Fever and Connecticut Sun. Both teams had identical 21-13 records but Indiana was seeded first due to winning the regular season series against the Sun.
The Angel McCoughtry led Dream got hot in the playoffs. They swept the Connecticut Sun 2-0, won the Eastern Conference title and advanced to the WNBA finals for the second straight year by getting past WNBA MVP Tamika Catchings and her Fever teammates 2-1.
The dream of a WNBA title for the ATL-based WNBA ballers died once again as the Lynx swept the Dream in the best of five WNBA Finals 3-0 with the help of Moore and WNBA Finals MVP Seimone Augustus to claim their first WNBA championship.
Maya Moore was also named WNBA Rookie Of the Year to cap off a marvelous rookie season.
The WNBA tipped off its 15th season last night and the rest of the league's team get in the action today.
But when Laurel J. Richie took over as the third president of the WNBA on May 16, one of the things that escaped the notice of most media outlets is that she became the first African American (male or female) to head a major American sports league. She's not only the first African-American president of the WNBA, she's also the first one who wasn't a basketball player herself.
Richie's roots are in the business world as a veteran marketing executive who last worked as the Chief Marketing Officer of the Girl Scouts of
America. She also worked for the national advertising agency, Ogilvy
& Mather and developed advertising campaigns for such companies as American
Express and Pepperidge Farm.
Those skills will suit her well in her current position as WNBA president. One of the jobs she'll have will be to continue marketing of the WNBA to the mainstream sports audience.
"The WNBA is comprised of the best female basketball players in the
world, and I'm looking forward to working with these talented women as
they strive to achieve their professional goals both on and off the court."
As when y'all finally get around to expansion, hope Houston's at the top of the list for cities to return to.
Lost in the blizzard of news I've been covering this month was the WNBA draft. Now that they've hired a new president for the league, I'm somewhat ready to forgive them for screwing my Comets since Donna Orender resigned in December.
And who was the WNBA's overall number one pick in the draft. Give you one guess who it was, and UConn Huskie fans can probably tell you.
Yep, it was UConn's Maya Moore, .who will be spending her WNBA summers when she's not playing for Team USA next summer in London playing for the Minnesota Lynx.
I'm still pissed at the WNBA for allowing my beloved Houston Comets to die without giving local peeps a chance to put an ownership group together to save a team that has two displays in the Basketball Hall of Fame and four consecutive WNBA titles.
But I have to take a moment to congratulate Tina Thompson for passing Lisa Leslie on August 8 to become the all time leading scorer in WNBA history.
Leslie spent her entire WNBA career playing for the (yecch) Los Angeles Sparks and scored 6,263 points before retiring last year.
Tina surpassed her by scoring 23 points in an 92-83 loss to the San Antonio Silver Stars in a game played in Los Angeles.
A Thompson 16-footer with 5:01 left in the third quarter gave her the all time WNBA scoring lead.
"Basketball started here in LA for me," said Thompson. "Anything I'm able to accomplish here is a pretty big deal because it's in front of my family, my friends and the people who supported me."
The people in Houston who supported you would have rather seen you break the record while wearing a Comets uniform instead of a (barf) LA Sparks one, but it's all good.
We know that four of your championship rings have Houston Comet logos on them.
My Comets may no longer be around (and I'm still pissed about how that transpired on the eve of tomorrow's WNBA Draft) but it was nice to hear during the Final Four that Cynthia Cooper is one of the peeps who will be part of the 2010 Naismith Hall of Fame Enshrinement Class.
The others joining Coop are LA Lakers owner Jerry Buss, Bob Hurley, Sr., Karl Malone and Scottie Pippen, along with the 1960 USA Men's Olympic team and the 1992 USA Basketball "Dream Team." Three players who are part of the 2010 Class are posthumously being inducted: Dennis Johnson, Gus Johnson and international star Maciel "Ubiratan" Pereira.
Interestingly enough, I discovered during my 2008 visit to the Hall of Fame that the Rockets and Comets have a joint exhibit in the Hall for the six combined NBA-WNBA titles won from 1994-2000.
She's now the coach of the Prairie View A&M Lady Panthers, but I had the pleasure of watching her work her magic during that Comets dynasty that dominated the initial years of the WNBA from 1997-2000.
Congrats Coop. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving player, and I'm looking forward to the day when Tina Thompson, Sheryl Swoopes, and Janeth Arcain join you there.
"No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal aid."
Ever since President Richard Nixon signed Title IX into law on June 23, 1972 it has had a far reaching effect on the numbers of women earning postgraduate degrees.
Before Title IX, many schools refused to admit women or enforced strict quotas in postgraduate programs. That was reflected in the fact that in 1972, the year Title IX became law, women only received 9% of the medical degrees awarded, 7% of law degrees and 25% of the US citizens receiving doctorates being women.
By 1994, those numbers increased to 38% of medical degrees, 43% of law degrees and 44% of all doctoral degrees awarded to US citizens were women.
One of the prominent effects of Title IX besides the increase in the percentages of women receiving postgraduate degrees is in the world of sports.
Athletics has also created the most controversy regarding Title IX, but its gains have also been noteworthy.
It's not unusual on any given day to turn on the television and see women's intercollegiate sports on TV. There's infinitely more attention focused on women athletes during the Olympics and on high school level girls sports compared to when I was growing up in the late 70's.
But one thing that bothers me as a sports loving person is the dismissive attitude some women have toward all things athletic. It gets to the point when in some cases, women who love or participate in sports are greeted with less than complimentary verbal epithets or have their femininity questioned.
Last year Seventeen magazine in conjunction with the WNBA partnered for a comprehensive survey that was published in the magazine's September 2008 issue.
WNBA President Donna Orender stated, "We are pleased to partner with Seventeen magazine on this important survey as we know first hand how the role of sports can develop young girls into leaders.
"The women of the WNBA are strong, passionate and determined individuals who exhibit these traits both on and off the court. As a result, we are true believers in the significance of participation in sports for all girls and women."
The Seventeen/WNBA survey revealed that 83% of teen girls play sports with basketball ranked as the number one participatory sport.
Girls play sports for a variety of reasons, but the top reason found in this survey is to exercise (68.4%). Other top reasons included forming friendships, competing and representing their schools.
Challenges that young female sports enthusiasts endure include insecurities; 33% of girls who don't play sports say it's because they're worried that they wouldn't be good at it.
In addition, 35% of girls also say their teams don't get as much equipment or field time as the boys' teams and 35% of girls have heard their peers make homophobic remarks about female athletes.
The Seventeen/WNBA survey also revealed that 66% of teen girls believe that cheerleading is a sport, not some sideline event, and 71% think female cheerleaders should cheer at girls' sports events.
Despite these factors keeping some girls from playing sports, teens today are able to look to inspiring women professional athletes and Olympians such as Lisa Leslie, Mia Hamm, Diana Taurasi, Serena and Venus Williams, Candace Parker and Florence Griffith-Joyner.
As young teens hone their athletic skills, they look upon these women as they endeavor to take women's sports to a whole new level and dismiss outdated stereotypes about the women who play them.
You also have young women such as Brittney Griner who are following in their role models footsteps and preparing to exceed even their lofty performance standards.
But despite the overwhelming evidence of the benefits of sports participation for girls and women, you still have mind-numbing fluff coming from women's magazines such as Cosmo that spout erroneous, outdated stereotypes.
In addition, women athletes in addition to having to battle feminine gender policing also have to contend with the sexist attitudes of male sports fans.
Led by the male dominated sports journalism world, the dismissive attitudes of sports talk radio and sports journalists about the level of play filter down to the potential male fan base and male athletes.
We should insist upon and demand consistent, professional coverage of women's sports from the male dominated sorts journalism culture.
Why am I so adamant about it? Sports teaches important life lessons that non athletes often miss out on. You learn that even if you practice hard and execute your game plan flawlessly, sometimes you come up short. You learn how to work well with others as part of a team. You learn how to lose with grace and win with class.
It's a pride builder when you come from a zero skills base to a higher skills level in your chosen sport and you see it translated into better performance on the field.
It's also a major self esteem boost when you kick the winning goal, get the key hit that wins the game for your team or you dig deep, pull yourself out of a love-40 hole in a critical game in a tennis match and come back to win, or run your personal best time to win a medal.
These are lessons that the male population has had ample opportunities to absorb (and some peeps need to reabsorb) and enjoyed through sports competition. The Women's Sports Foundation seconds my thoughts on the matter as well.
We should not only enthusiastically support the young girls and women in our lives who participate in sports, we should also take it upon ourselves to support women's club, high school, intercollegiate and professional sports as well.
I was a proud Houston Comets season ticket holder back home for several years during their championship run and it was the best money I've ever spent.
I saw the money I spent on my season tickets it as my investment toward keeping the WNBA viable and alive for future generations of sports loving girls. Those young girls who marveled at the play of WNBA pioneers such as Cynthia Cooper are now grown up and getting their opportunity to play in the league.
Even though I'm still pissed about the WNBA leadership not doing enough to give a local group enough time to organize and keep my hometown franchise alive, I still support the league.
Far from being something that women should ignore, sports and participation in them by their daughters should be embraced and encouraged.
Angel McCoughtry may have been the best player on the second best team in the nation behind the unbeaten UConn Huskies, but she's number one in the hearts of the Atlanta Dream.
Despite my still simmering pissivity over the madness that led to my beloved Houston Comets not playing this summer, I took a few moments Thursday to check out the 2009 WNBA Draft. The Atlanta Dream after a 4-30 expansion season used their number one overall pick in the 2009 WNBA draft to take Angel. She averaged 23.1 points this season for the Lady Cardinals and is Louisville’s career scoring leader among women and men ballers at Da Ville..
“I feel on top of the world right now,” said McCoughtry,
“I’m on cloud nine. After I get off cloud nine, it’s time to work and get things started for Atlanta.
I enjoyed watching Angel play for the Cards. Best of luck with the Atlanta Dream.
Some people are erroneously stating that what transpired in Detroit last night is the first WNBA oncourt brawl.
Nope, it isn't. The LA Sparks and Houston Comets tangled back on August 30, 1999.
As a Comets fan, I have no love for the Los Angeles Sparks. I have to guard against allowing the sarcastically nasty nickname some Houston fans have for that LA WNBA franchise from drifting into my WNBA posts from time to time.
Much of the dislike of the Sparks from a Comet fan's standpoint stems from not only the fact it was the hated Sparks that ended our attempt to fivepeat in 2001, but the 1999 WNBA Western Conference Finals.
During that final our emotions were still raw and reeling from the untimely cancer death of beloved Comets point guard Kim Perrot. The Comets flew from burying Kim in her hometown of Lafayette, LA straight to LA to play the Sparks in Game One and got beaten badly 75-60. In the process Lisa Leslie, DeLisha Milton and the rest of the Sparks were saluting each other and whooping it up on the bench as they took a 1-0 lead in the series.
They forgot they had to play Games 2 and 3 at Compaq. The Sea Of Red was angrily watching the hijinks in LA on TV back in H-town, interpreting the salutes as disrespect and circling August 29 on the calendar.
A sold-out and surly Compaq Center crowd awaited them. Every time Lisa Leslie touched the ball we booed her. We spent most of a very festive night hollering 'Beat L-A' and cheering about the 83-55 beatdown we put on the Sparks that evened the series and Comet fans saw as payback for the events of August 26.
The Comets beat them 72-62 on August 30 to clinch the WNBA Western Conference title in a game that was closer than the final score. Once it was clear the Comets would be moving on to the WNBA Finals and the '3 for 10' bid was still alive, after Sheryl nailed a three to expand a late Comets lead, Tina Thompson and Sheryl Swoopes saluted each other as they were running back up court. Lisa shoved Tina and it was on like Donkey Kong. It added more gasoline to the rivalry and for several years we couldn't stand Lisa Leslie in Houston.
So it didn't surprise me when I heard that one of the teams involved in a rare WNBA brawl was the Sparks. It also didn't surprise me it happened in Detroit. The Shock lived up to their nickname and derailed the Sparks bid to threepeat in 2003 (to the eternal gratitude of Comets fans).
So I would probably surmise that the Sparks have a heightened dislike for the Shock and the feeling is probably mutual. The Shock are also legitimate WNBA title contenders as well. With the early season headlines being grabbed by the Sparks after drafting all everythang player Candace Parker and the media practically giving them the crown before a game had been played probably generated a lot of resentment in WNBA locker rooms outside of Los Angeles.
With this game being nationally televised, the Shock not only wanted to prove that they were a championship caliber club, but wanted to set a physical, intimidating tone for what would happen if the two teams meet later this fall in the WNBA Finals.
Oh yeah, don't forget the Detroit head coach is 'Bad Boy' Bill Laimbeer.
The Sparks won this game in Auburn Hills 85-81, but everybody's going to remember the last five seconds of it.
Who cares if the NBA playoffs have reached the conference finals unless you live in Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, New Orleans, San Antonio or LA. Let the real basketball playing begin!
I'm a big basketball fan and love the WNBA. I'm signed up again for the WNBA league broadband pass so I can watch my girls and other WNBA games throughout the season on my computer. I used to have Comets season tickets when I lived in H-town and was in Compaq for the 1997, 1999 and 2000 title games during the Comets dynasty years when they won 'ahem' four consecutive WNBA titles.
I make a road trip to Indianapolis every summer to see my girls play the Indiana Fever, but won't be able to make it this year. I have a previous engagement in Northampton, MA on June 7 when they're scheduled to be in Indy.
Today the WNBA opens its 12th season of play with a marquee matchup between the defending champion Phoenix Mercury and the team that 'errbody's' picking to win it all, the Los Angeles Sparks. But don't think that Diana Taurasi, Cappie Poindexter and the Mercury are just gonna hand the trophy over to their Western Conference rivals. There are a few teams in the Eastern Conference such as the Detroit Shock that may have objections to a premature coronation of the Sparks as WNBA champions as well.
LA hit rock bottom with a 10-24 record last season while their Olympian center Lisa Leslie was on maternity leave. They not only ended up winning the WNBA draft lottery, but got a bonus when Candace Parker decided to forego her last year of eligibility and enter the WNBA draft after her Tennessee Lady Volunteers won their second straight NCAA title.
As for my favorite WNBA team, the Houston Comets, change is in the air as well. In addition to moving to the smaller Reliant Arena, for the first time since the team began play as one of the Original Eight franchises, we won't have Sheryl Swoopes in a Comet uniform. She signed a free agent contract with the Seattle Storm in the offseason. The Comets open the season on the road with the defending Eastern Conference Champions Detroit Shock.
While we still have WNBA All-Star and Olympian Tina Thompson, we've added Rutgers Matee Ajavon and LSU point guard Erica Wright to a squad that along with vets Tamecka Dixon and Mwadi Mabika and centers Michelle Snow and my fellow Cougar Sancho Lyttle has a tantalizing blend of youth and experience for coach Karleen Thompson's squad. I've watched Comets 3rd round pick Crystal Kelly play ball since I moved here and I was saddened to hear she just missed making the Comets opening day roster.
But like the NBA's Western Conference, the WNBA Western Conference is brutal as well. The question for us Comet fans is does this team have not only what it takes for us to be one of the four Western teams to make the playoffs, but celebrate winning a fifth WNBA title when this extended season is over?
In August the league will be taking an Olympic break so that players can join their Olympic squads for the Beijing Games. It'll be interesting to not only see who makes Team USA, but how many of the WNBA players from other countries stay home as their national teams prepare for the Games.
Change is also the word for the rest of the league as well. A new franchise joins the WNBA sorority and brings it back up to 14 teams. The Atlanta Dream will begin their maiden season playing in the Eastern Conference. There are the old faces in new places stories, too. Swin Cash will be joining Sheryl Swoopes and Yolanda Griffith in Seattle after she was traded. Katie Douglas was traded to Indiana. Tamika Whitmore will be wearing a Connecticut Sun uniform this summer. DeLisha Milton-Jones is headed back to LA.
But it's the new crop of rookies that has us WNBA fans excited. In addition to Candace Parker in LA, her Lady Vol teammate Alexis Hornbuckle will be playing for the Detroit Shock. Candice Wiggins will be playing for the Minnesota Lynx. LSU's Sylvia Fowles is Chicago Sky bound. Essence Carson will be playing across the Hudson River for the New York Liberty along with Erlana Larkins of North Carolina. Crystal Langhorne will be playing not too far from College Park, MD for the Washington Mystics.
The major questions in this WNBA season besides who will win the WNBA rookie of the year and make the WNBA All-Star team (no WNBA All-Star game because it's an Olympic year) are can the Phoenix Mercury repeat? Will the Detroit Shock return to the WNBA Finals? How nasty will the Western Conference be this summer? How many games will the Atlanta Glory win? Can the New York Liberty build on their surprise return to the playoffs and make a deeper playoff run in the East? Do the retooled Sparks have too much firepower to be denied a return to championship glory to the disgust of us Comet fans?
'Burp!' So what if I'm drinking Comet red Hateraid for the Sparks? Hey, old rivalries die hard ;)
But seriously, I'm happy to see the WNBA surviving and thriving, especially since they made the move a few years ago to become a separate entity from the parent NBA. It is the longest surviving women's professional sports league in the US and with the increasingly deep talent pool in women's college ball and the inquiries from more than a few cities for WNBA franchises, you'll probably see careful expansion to expand job opportunities for those college players over the next few years according to WNBA commisioner Donna Orender.
The future indeed looks bright for the league, and the new owners are committed along with league mangement and the WNBA Player's Association to ensure that the WNBA is around for its 20th anniversary and beyond to serve as an inspration to another generation of girls and young women.
On April 26 FIBA conducted the draw that set the preliminary groups for the upcoming Olympic Games Basketball tournament in Beijing from August 10-24. The USA men's and women's teams learned not only what groups they would be in, but what teams would comprise those groups as well.
On the men's side, preliminary play is scheduled for August 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18, with the quarterfinals action taking place on August 20, the semifinals on August 22 and the men’s gold medal game on August 24.
The 2004 Athens Games bronze medallist will be in Group B and so far they'll have their work cut out for them if they want to bring home the gold. In addition to having the host Chinese (and Yao Ming) in their group, they will have the defending FIBA World Champion Spain, the perennial Africa Zone champs Angola, and two teams yet to be determined after the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying tournament being held July 14-20 in Athens, Greece is completed.
Group A will consist of the defending Olympic champion Argentina, Lithuania, European champion Russia, Australia, Iran and one team that will be determined through the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament. The men's teams hoping to grab one of the final three Olympic spots at the tournament are Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Korea, Lebanon, New Zealand and Puerto Rico.
On the women's side, the three time defending Olympic champs will be seeking their fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal. Like the men, they'll also be in Group B and have the hosts from China in their group as well. They'll also have Africa Zone champ Mali, New Zealand and two teams that will be determined through the FIBA Women's World Olympic Qualifying Tournament that will take place June 9-15 in Madrid, Spain. The women's teams playing to grab one of those final five spots are Angola, Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, Chinese Taipei, Cuba, Czech Republic, Fiji, Japan, Latvia, Senegal and the host Spaniards.
Group A for the women will consist of the 2004 silver medallist and FIBA world champion Australians, the 2004 bronze medallists Russia, South Korea and three teams from the FIBA Women's World Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
The women's tournament at the Beijing Games will run from Aug 9-23 with preliminary play scheduled for August 9, 11, 13, 15 and 17. The women's quarterfinals action takes place on August 19 and women's semifinals play is slated for Aug. 21. The women's gold medal finals will take place on August 23.
The WNBA will start play May 17 and take a break for the Beijing Games. As of yet the final lineups for the USA men's or women's teams have been set. The men are being coached by Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, the women by Anne Donovan.
Hopefully both teams will be bringing gold medals back to the States when the Beijing Games are concluded.
Elena Delle Donne played a major role in building that big Sky halftime lead as the Mercury elected to guard her one on one.
