Chanel Mokango Premieres in Los Angeles

Last night, Chanel Mokango took the court during Phoenix's visit to Los Angeles. With Phoenix up 67-64 in the third quarter and 1:01 left, Mokango replaced Noelle Quinn on the floor while Delisha Milton-Jones was taking a couple of free throw shots. Milton-Jones hit the first, and missed the second. Both teams attempted a couple of shots, with Brook Smith sinking a 3-pointer for Phoenix, giving Mokango a raw plus/minus of -3.

Mokango's box score line was a "billion" - a number of minutes played followed by a row of zeroes.

However, Mokango had one accomplishment. By earning a brief amount of time on a WNBA court, Mokango allows Molly Creamer to retain her record of being the highest-ranked player never to appear in a WNBA regular season game.

(The above picture is Mokango at the game. You can see some great full-sized pictures over at the They're Playing Basketball blog. Go check it out!)

New Atlanta/Los Angeles Gallery; Sparks Autograph Woes

Hoopalonious at the They're Playing Basketball blog also has a gallery of pictures from the Atlanta/Los Angeles game. They aren't the zoom photo courtside shots you'd see at Sports Page Magazine, but I think they're good pics nonetheless.

Hoopalonious also bemoans the way the Sparks have treated the season ticket holders:

There have been almost no post-game autograph sessions this year. And tonight I got home to see a tweet by the LA Sparks that there had been a player appearance at the ESPN Zone from 5-7 p.m. I went back and checked my email, but there was nothing sent to MVPs about that.

It's an inevitable fact that when a franchise gets going and/or new owners take over, there are more perks, and that those opportunities slowly dissipate as the years go by. But I think the Sparks should re-establish more of a connection with their fans. If they did, I bet what happened last night wouldn't happen again: when I got up to leave with 15 seconds to go, I turned around and saw that everyone in the eight rows behind me had already gone.

At least we send a couple of Dream players out every night post-game. It might take them a while to get out of the locker room, but they're there.

Fantourage

Sue F in her blog "They're Playing Basketball" talks about Fantourage, a plan used by the Los Angeles Sparks to sell season tickets. Sue F explains:

Fans arriving last night walked into the patio/event area were greeted by the entire Sparks sales staff – and a boa-clad Coach Michael Cooper – taking their pictures, as if fans were the stars and the Sparks staffers, the paparazzi. Fans received an information packet, and the mingling began.

But who invented "Fantourage?" It was a brainchild of Atlanta Dream staff. Wow.

I wonder how the Fantourage of the Atlanta Dream turned out. Did the Dream try it?