All In Good Humor...I Think

The Women's Hoops Blog points to a link from USA Today about the joshing that comes when players from opposing teams come together on the National Team. Naturally, some one-upsmanship is expected....

"Let's talk championships," [Tina Thompson] demands.

"USC doesn't equate to anything," Taurasi scoffs. "What, Elite Eight?"

"Let's talk championships at the next level," Thompson says, leaning in for full effect. (She has four WNBA rings with the Houston Comets from 1997 to 2000.)

"We got rings," chimes in Sue Bird, the other UConn grad.

(Bird won hers with the Seattle Storm in 2004, Taurasi hers with the Phoenix Mercury last year.)

"Not four you don't," Thompson counters.

"Doesn't count when there's only four teams in the league," Taurasi razzes. "Hah! Whooh!"

"Dirty Girl! Dirty Dirty Dirty!"

It appears that the Australians are pegging the U. S. Team as "dirty players".

"We're used to playing against teams that are going to beat the crap out of us, because we are so good," said (Australian player Lauren) Jackson.

"People have to stop us somehow and that's the way they're going to stop us. People like Penny and myself and Belinda Snell you just can't let go to the basket because we'll kill people.

"So they're going to really stop us anyway that they can. And generally that's when black eyes and broken bones occur."

However, the U.S. players were unimpressed, choosing not to fan the flames before their opening game against the Czech Republic.

"Okay -- whatever!" shrugged American veteran Lisa Leslie, who will be attempting to win a fourth Olympic gold medal. "We gotta go get gold. Whatever it takes."

That was probably the best way to answer this criticism. I still remember this picture:



Hard to complain that your opponents aren't playing by Marquis of Queensbury rules when you've spent extended amounts of time marching around in army fatigues.

De Souza Named to Brazilian Olympic Team

From the Painel do Basquete Feminino (Women's Basketball Scoreboard) blog.

And, for reasons that we all know, Iziane Castro Marques was left off.

Érika de Souza (this is how she spells her name) is of course recovering from an injury. I'm sure the Brazilians hope that she'll be fully recovered by the time August rolls around. I'm hoping to see her in a few games for the Dream, myself.

Kelly Santos is a forward for the Seattle Storm.

PPG 1.3
RPG 0.5
APG 0.0
EFF: + 1.17

Hopefully, she'll get a chance to shine in Brazil and get that silver medal. Gold, of course, is ours. (/smile)

Any Publicity is Good Publicity...

...I guess.



I guess the people putting together the YaHoo! Front Pages didn't say, "WNBA? Who cares?"

Iziane Thrown Off Olympic Team, Coming Back to Atlanta

If you're unaware of where Iziane Castro Marques is, she was in Madrid, playing in the final qualifying round for women's basketball in the 2008 Olympic Games as a member of the Brazilian national team.

Twelve teams came to Madrid, but only five teams would get berths at the Olympics. (The U. S. has already earned its berth.) The twelve teams played series of round-robin games to go down to eight remaining teams fighting for the five spots.

With the quarterfinals set up, all eight remaining teams would find the initial quarterfinal game a critical one for their Olympic hopes. If a team won the first quarterfinal game, they clinched a berth. That made up for four of the five berths. The four quarterfinal losers would play a "loser's semifinals" to compete for that fifth and final berth.

With Brazil needing a win against Belarus in the quarterfinals, it all fell apart. The favored Brazilian team fell behind Belarus, and in a shocking turn of events, Iziane Castro Marques, the premier player on the Brazilian women's team, refused to take the floor for the second half after an argument with coach Paulo Bassul.

(Bassul tells his side of the story at this link, in a video interview.)

As far as Bassul is concerned, Iziane is off the team for the rest of the qualifying tournament. Could Iziane get back on the team if she apologized and if Brazil earned that hard-to-get fifth berth? Bassul didn't want to commit to anything. "That's out of my hands."

We don't know what Izi's side of the story is. Given the spotty coverage of international women's basketball, we might never know.

I've tried to use Google translate on some Brazilian pages, and the impression given is that Iziane Castro Marques will be back in the United States on Sunday, just in time to suit up for the Dream against the San Antonio Silver Stars. Izi says that she was story, but she also says that this isn't the first disagreement that she's had with Bassul. Izi says the feeling between the two is mutual, and that she will refuses to play for Bassul ever again. Breaking down and crying, she said that if she couldn't be happy playing, then it wasn't worth it to play even if it was for Olympic gold. She thought that the other players wanted her back, but that they couldn't convince the coaching staff to change their minds.

So Izi will be back with the Dream next week. Hopefully, she can put her experience at Madrid behind her, no matter whose fault it was. And hopefully, she'll find the happiness in Atlanta that she couldn't find in Brazil.