Top Atlanta Dream Moments of 2009

Women Talk Sports has asked its members to come up with the “Best of ‘09”, the best moments in women’s sports in 2009. I’ve had some difficulty in completing this example for two reasons:

1) Real life. Normally, real life isn’t something to be condemned. We all want as much of a real life as possible, the alternative being several orders of magnitude worse. However, this month might be the month when Real Life (all caps) has made the most demands on my time. I don’t believe that I’ve ever abandoned the blog for 10 days before, and trust me, it wasn’t because I was somewhere on a Caribbean shore drinking a glass of orange juice on a sandy beach. November and December have been months of encroachment – good encroachment and bad encroachment combined.

2) A “Dream centric” approach. The problem is that even though I religiously follow the WNBA, I have not only barely kept up with anything going on in women’s sports, I have neglected the entire realm of sports outside of the WNBA and possibly Georgia Tech women’s basketball. If you were to ask me the “Best of ‘09” in women’s sports, I would be at a loss. I don’t know who is leading the LPGA. I don’t know who won women’s singles at Wimbleton. Did North Carolina win another NCAA women’s soccer championship?

You got me, sister. Only so many hours in the day.

On the other hand – I know about the Atlanta Dream. You might have heard of them, you know, that organization where thousands of people meet on weekday nights that completely escapes the eyes of the Atlanta sports media. And I think that I can tell you what the best moments for the Atlanta Dream were in 2009.

1. The acquisition of Chamique Holdsclaw. In their inaugural 2008 season, the Atlanta Dream finished with a 4-30 record, after starting out with 17 straight losses. Undoubtedly, the hope for 2009 was simply not to finish at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. Those WNBA fans in it for the long haul thought that the Dream might contend in about five years.

However, the Dream were about to make a bold move. In December of 2008, the Dream traded the 13th draft pick in the 2009 draft to the Sparks for the rights to Holdsclaw. Would she even play? She returned from Poland in February with a bad knee and for many Dream fans, they would believe that The Claw was back when they saw it.

Well, they saw it. And how. Holdsclaw only averaged about 14 points a game, about four points off her career average. She only played in 25 regular season games and injuries limited her effectiveness. However, Dream fans saw flashes of the old Holdsclaw, who might be one of the best players in the WNBA in moving the ball. Rumor has it that Holdsclaw’s presence returned stabilitiy to the locker room after a contentious 2008 season that saw two players (Camille Little and Stacey Lovelace) essentially jump ship.

2. The drafting of Angel McCoughtry. In 2009 it was, “in with the old (Holdsclaw) and in with the new (McCoughtry).” Despite their 4-30 finish, the Dream could at least look forward to securing the #1 draft pick in the 2009 draft. There was much discussion regarding that choice, which would have an immediate impact on 2009.

Should it be Renee Montgomery? Or Marissa Coleman? Or Courtney Paris? No, it would be Angel McCoughtry out of Louisville. McCoughtry managed to lead her Cardinals to the NCAA title game in her senior year, and this got the attention of Dream head coach Marynell Meadors, who was impressed with McCoughtry putting the team on her back. Perhaps McCoughtry could do the same for the Dream.

In Meadors’s universe, rookies – even super-rookies – don’t start. Dream fans were treated to McCoughtry coming off the bench, and when she came on the floor the game of the entire team picked up. The hard part for McCoughtry was to learn not to do too much by herself – not just yet, anyway.

It became obvious that despite any perceived deficiencies in Meadors’s coaching, Meadors knows how to evaluate talent. McCoughtry scored 12.8 points a season and was the only high point of a playoff sweep by the Detroit Shock, averaging 19 points a game over both losses. The question was whether or not McCoughtry would finish in front of DeWanna Bonner. McCoughtry triumphed with a Rookie of the Year Award, was named to the United States Women’s Basketball Team in the off-season and last I heard she was tearing it up in Europe.

The frightening thing? McCoughtry will be better this year than she was last year. I don’t want to put the “game-changer” label on McCoughtry just yet; that might have to wait until 2010.

3. The surprise of Shalee Lehning. Over the course of the off-season, the Dream stocked up. They picked up Carol Ross, formerly head coach at Mississippi, to join the coaching staff. They picked up big time free agents in Sancho Lyttle and Michelle Snow. And of course, they added Holdsclaw and McCoughtry as well.

When Shalee Lehning of Kansas State was drafted in the second round, the fan reaction was “nod pleasantly”. Lehning wasn’t considered a top rank point guard, although she did score high on the Senior Prospects Metric. There was certainly no buzz about Lehning, no hint that she was overlooked – second round seemed a correct assessment. She’d most likely either get cut at training camp, or, if she was lucky, she’d ride the bench.

Then the bombshell went off in June when Meadors announced that popular point guard Ivory Latta failed to make the cut – and Lehning was going to be the point guard behind Nikki Teasley. The sound heard in Kansas was the sound of swear words from Latta fans across Atlanta. Lehning? The Dream’s starter? Realllly?

Oh yes, really. And even though her role seemed limited to pushing the ball into the post, Lehning would become the dream’s starting point guard. Lehning had a devoted following from Kansas State, each of whom became long distance Dream fans. Lehning supporters in and out of Kansas attributed to Lehning the qualities of an athlete out of a story book – soft spoken, saying “yes m’aam” and without any flash, the prototypical Selfless Athlete.

Latta returned when Teasley was dealt to the Shock – but Lehning stayed, and kept her starting role. A severe shoulder separation denied her the chance to go to the playoffs, but she was with the team to the bitter end. 2010 will reveal if Lehning has more surprises for us.

4. The Twin Towers. It seems that if you put two post players together that are each taller than 6’2”, you can call them the “Twin Towers”. I always thought of Ruth Riley and Ann Wauters being San Antonio’s version of the Towers; but Sancho Lyttle and Erika de Souza deserved that name.

Lyttle came to the Dream from the Houston dispersal draft. For Lyttle, who grew up overseas and learned basketball late in life, it seemed that she was following the quick trajectory of a person who was making quantum leaps in her acquisition of basketball knowledge.

As for Erika de Souza, Dream fans were denied seeing much of de Souza in 2009, due to injuries. What they saw surprised them. De Souza, who had come off a grueling season in the Spanish League, and who had the added burden of Euroleague games with Ros Casares, seemed to play with fresh legs every night. Meadors said something to the effect that “she is a beast”, and the Beast from Brazil was born.

The combination of Lyttle and de Souza in the post added two things that the Dream didn’t have in 2008. The first was height – with Michelle Snow as a back-up post, the Dream were the tallest team in the league. The second was toughness. In 2008, Dream opponents could waltz into a combination of Mattera and Lacy and come up with two points; in 2009 opposing teams ended up terrorized.

Lyttle and de Souza made it to the 2009 All-Star Game, their first seasons as All-Stars. Lyttle and de Souza were exactly as important to the Dream’s playoff season as Holdsclaw or McCoughtry were; all of the pieces needed to be there for it to happen.

5. Dream 106, Mercury 76. The Dream were already having a much better season, but there was still talk of the awful 2008 season. The old joke was that one person would say, “last night, the Dream were up 15 points in the fourth quarter” and the response would be “wow! Did they win?”

The Dream’s 106-76 demolishment of the Phoenix Mercury killed the ghost. There would be no asterisk next to this win – it wasn’t as if Diana Taurasi was in jail or Cappie Pondexter was recovering from a bad perm. The Dream blew out the Mercury in the first three quarters, had a 40-point lead late in the game, and near the end the Dream were trying impossible shots just to see if they would go in.

It was the first time that the Dream had not merely beaten a quality opponent – but whipped them. Granted the Dream had beaten opponents before – they beat the Sparks late in the 2008 season while on the road – but sometimes, you can stumble into a win. There was no “yes, butting” the 106-76 victory. One game doesn’t normally prove a season, but this game did. It meant that the rest of the league could no longer count on the Dream being an easy win.

6. Playoff glory. Near the end of the 2009 season, the Dream were managing to hang on to second place – barely – behind the Indiana Fever. Behind the Dream was a pack of barking dogs – the defending WNBA champion Detroit Shock, the Chicago Sky, the Washington Mystics and the Connecticut Sun. (Only the Liberty had played themselves out of contention.)

Near the end of the season one needed a calculator to determine who went where in the post season with what combination of wins and losses. In the 33rd game of the season – just before the final season game – the Dream beat the Connecticut Sun 88-64 to clinch second place and home field advantage in the playoffs.

Then it all fell apart. Shalee Lehning separated her shoulder in a meaningless final game in Washington. The Detroit Shock won easily in Detroit. The Atlanta Dream was bumped out of its home court second game by Sesame Street, of all things. At Gwinnett Arena, Deanna Nolan came back on fire from a first-game injury. The Dream played listlessly, and proved that playoff glory can be fleeting.

Dream fans took the good with the bad. Bad to lose the playoffs – but worse not to even go.

7. Coach of the Year. Head coach Marynell Meadors has been called a lot of things – even by Dream fans – but she’s never been considered Coach of the Year material.

The argument, however, could be made that we’ve never seen Meadors with a good team. Meadors was one of the eight original coaches of the WNBA, and only got two years with the Charlotte Sting before being fired in the middle of the third season. After that, she served at the college and WNBA levels in supporting coaching roles until Ron Terwilliger hired Meadors for another building project in 2008.

Meadors’s 2009 Atlanta Dream won 14 more games than the previous model, and made the playoffs. Even if Meadors were not a good coach, she was a great GM. Perhaps the feeling around the league was that she deserved it more than (relatively) new coach Lin Dunn. Meadors was given the honor of Coach of the Year in 2009, which sets the bar even higher for 2010.

8. The Dream survive. With a bad economy, a disastrous previous season and the Atlanta media treating the Dream as if it were a contagious case of cancer, the Dream’s attendance and gate suffered. Ron Terwilliger, who made his money in real estate, could now longer afford the Dream when the real estate market plunged in the off-season.

The big question was if Terwillger would find a buyer. If he didn’t, the Dream would be dispersed after just two years, the shortest life span of any WNBA team. There was also the threat that the Dream would leave Atlanta and end up in Oklahoma, as Tulsa investors were searching for a team.

The Dream, however, would be rescued. Kathy Betty, the widow of the CEO of Earthlink and a successful businesswoman in her own right, purchased the Dream, guaranteeing the survival of the team to at least the 2010 season. With the Detroit Shock ending up in Tulsa and the Sacramento Monarchs outright folding, the Dream’s survival was a close call.


So from the Pleasant Dreams blog, here's wishing all WNBA fans and Atlanta Dream fans a Happy New Year. "Next year is trophy year!"

Atlanta Dream: Examining the Silence

I think if there's anything the season ticket holders and WNBA fans were unhappy about in the month of October, it was the silence from the office of the Atlanta Dream. If I recall correctly, there was only one official response from the club, and that was the one reported by Tara Polen at Sportspagemagazine.com, where fans were told by a Dream insider to be patient and wait. Finally, after about a month of waiting, after Danielle Donehew left for greener pastures, Kathy Betty purchased the Dream.

But why the silence? Why did the fans hear nothing from the DFO? (DFO = "Dream front office")

I've managed to piece together a few facts from sources of my own. Here's what I've managed to come up with:

* Supposedly, some front office sources knew there was going to be an actual ownership change before the information was known to the public. The club's front office couldn't sell tickets until the ownership change went through. (I wonder if when Ron Terwilliger said he was looking for other investors, it was just a euphemism for selling the club. In which case, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was right.)

* The ownership change was expected to have gone through sooner than it did...but it took longer than expected. Which meant more silence from the front office.

* The staff was taking a lot of time off (sometimes as long as a week), treading water and waiting for a conclusion of the sale. The message from the higher ups in the office was for no one to say anything, lest the deal be damaged by something inadvertenty said. Therefore, no contact with the season ticket holders.

* The old management group of the Atlanta Dream was called Women's Professional Basketball Atlanta (WPBA). Sometime in mid-October - I can't find out when - the employees of WPBA were told that WPBA would be shut down. New ownership would not be purchasing the WPBA and in essence, were going to start their own management group. The result was that everyone was, in effect, fired.

Which meant that for two weeks there was no communication from the Dream organization, because essentially, there was no staff.

* My understanding is that some of the old WPBA staff is being rehired. I assume, however, that DFO II will approach things differently than DFO I.


So, if you wanted to know what happened, that was it. It's just the way business re-orgs go, I guess, though it must have sucked for the former DFO employees. There was a lot that couldn't be told, and may never be told...but at least, Dream fans now have an inkling of what explains those cold, silent weeks of October.

Ownership Change Rumored for Atlanta Dream

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Kathy Betty, widow of former EarthLink CEO Garry Betty and a major contributor to Georgia Tech's basketball teams, has emerged as the top prospect to buy all or part of the Atlanta Dream, Central Atlanta Progress President A.J. Robinson said.

"Talks have involved into her taking that role or taking a bigger role in the team," Robinson said late Friday morning.

Current Dream owner Ron Terwilliger told the WNBA in August that he wanted to relinquish his position of primary owner of the two-year old professional women's basketball team. Terwilliger, chairman and chief executive officer of Atlanta-based Trammell Crow Residential, said he intended to remain an investor in the team.


More information on Betty below:

Kathy Betty was the wife of Garry Betty, known for taking dial-up Internet company EarthLink public in 1997, a year after he joined the company. He died of cancer in 2007 at age 49.

Betty is a major contributor to the men's and women's basketball programs at Georgia Tech and is on the board of the Jimmy V Foundation.

(Note: I can't do anything about the AJC's slow-loading links. Linear B was deciphered more quickly than waiting for those pages to load.)

Associated Press 1, AJC 0

The Associated Press gets the story right on Ron Terwilliger and the Dream:

Atlanta Dream owner Ron Terwilliger is looking to sell part of the second-year WNBA franchise.
A team statement says Terwilliger has been seeking investment partners before the Dream started their inaugural season in 2008. The statement also says Terwilliger still wants to remain an investor, even if other investors buy a large part.

Funny, you'd think a local news service would have clearer and more accurate reporting than a national one, particularly regarding a matter close to home. But as far as the AJC is concerned, the Dream is as mysterious as a Mongolian water dispute.

Terwilliger Out of Town? AJC Obfuscates

I just noticed this yesterday in the article about Ron Terwilliger looking for new investors. Maybe it had been there all along, or maybe it was edited in later:

Terwilliger has relocated to New York and has had unspecified changes that prevent him from being actively involved with the team and in the Atlanta community, according to Hope.

Didn't the Dream meet at Terwilliger's house this year for a dinner before the season started? Didn't I see Terwilliger at the Dream/Liberty game? (I might have been hallucinating that last one.) Suddenly, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution implies that Ron Terwilliger isn't living in Atlanta. (That's what a "relocation" sounds like to me - when I visit my mother in Kentucky I'm not "relocating".)

Furthermore there's that "...has had unspecified changes that prevent him from being actively involved with the team and in the Atlanta community". Talk about your investigative reporting; that sentence just asks a bunch of questions that it doesn't have the courage to answer. If he's no longer actively involved, then how much involvement does Terwilliger have?

"Unspecified changes?" Like what changes? Is there some WNBA clause that prevents Terwilliger from being involved with the Dream? Does this mean that Bill Bolen now has final say for what goes on with the franchise? Or is this just the Atlanta Journal-Constitution misunderstanding things again?

Josh Bagriansky, we need some of your skill. You're a paid journalist for Score Atlanta, you should be able to figure some of this stuff out for us.

A Parable

So you go to the doctor. Up until this moment, he's been telling you that you're probably about as healthy as anyone else whenever you've visited him. This time, however, he puts on his "business face".

"I have to break some bad news to you," he says. "You have a potentially fatal condition. It's a very strange malady, one that is usually cured by a transfusion. Furthermore, I can guarantee that you'll survive until say, September or October. After that...I don't know. The condition might resolve itself. The transfusion will save your life, but you might even survive without it. However, if you die...it will be before May or June of next year."

"How will I know if I'm going to live?" I ask.

"If you get the transfusion, the chances are 99 percent that you and I will be talking here next year. If you die...it could come any way. You might have fair warning, or you just might keel over and drop dead in a heartbeat. You'll definitely live for a few more weeks, after that, you need that transfusion. I can guarantee you this, though...if you do die, you'll probably have little or no warning."

"Are these transfusions easy to get?"

"No," he says. "Now, I know of some successful cases. There was someone in Los Angeles and someone in Seattle that got the transfusion, and they're thriving. Someone in Houston got a transfusion, but a year later they needed another one. We had to put them on life support. They didn't get another transfusion, and they didn't survive."

"What are my chances? Can you give me any odds?"

"No. Absolutely none. Your chances of being here next year are anywhere between 0 percent and 100 percent. All I can tell you is...take precautions, and keep your hopes up."

(* * *)

By now, you've guessed the meaning of my parable. The "patient" is the Atlanta Dream and the "transfusion" needed is a major investor or even a new owner. My question: what does the patient do?

The first thing the patient should do is to live his or her life as they normally have. No need to fall into the pit of despair. That doesn't help anybody. You look at life as if you're guaranteed to be here next May or June. It might be foolish optimism, but the other alternative is to start digging your own grave.

The second thing to do is to get that transfusion. Season ticket holders need to show up to games. They need to invite friends to games. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution won't help us; they're more interested in writing our obituary than about our miraculous cure. There are six home games in August and we need to attend as many of them as possible.

There's one game in September: September 11th. Don't let this be the Dream's 9/11. You'd better go to that game, because it could be the last one we see. When you go to games, you show people that there's a fandom in Atlanta that cares about this team and it's success.

To quote Lou Brown of Major League:

"All right people, we got 10 minutes 'till game time, let's all gather 'round. I'm not much for giving inspirational addresses, but I'd just like to point out that every newspaper in the country has picked us to finish last. The local press seems to think that we'd save everyone the time and trouble if we just went out and shot ourselves. Me, I'm for wasting sportswriters' time. So I figured we ought to hang around for a while and see if we can give 'em all a nice big shitburger to eat!"

The third thing to do...is make your will. We must prepare for all of the scenarios. I wrote about scenario building earlier this year and there are basically four of them.

The most likely case: This case automatically assumes that all current trends will continue. Franchises in this position of suddenly looking for new owners end up doing one of two things: finding them, or not. Your guess is as good as mine. There's really not another example with which to compare.

The best case: We find a new principal investor, and find him or her very soon. Next year, Dream fans are laughing about this and saying, "boy, we dodged a bullet!"

High impact but low probability:

* It is announced immediately that the Dream will relocate or will fold. This makes the Dream a dead franchise for the rest of the season. Attendance suffocates. Low probability for this one.
* Things are worse than Terwilliger claims, and the WNBA takes over the team.
* Things are worse than Terwilliger and the WNBA claim, and the team folds in mid-season, the first such folding in WNBA history.

The worst case: The Dream stays on the death watch for months, and finally the WNBA announces the folding of the team, or possibly the team's relocation to Tulsa. Since there's more cash in starting a team than moving one, moving one is the unlikely option.

Or even sadder, another investor comes in with big pockets, but wants the team in Toronto/Nashville/Kansas City/Denver/wherever. Just not in Atlanta. In any event, the Atlanta Dream enter WNBA history, and I start blogging about some other WNBA team.

(* * *)

So what do you do? You eat! You drink, and you enjoy every Dream win that we get! If we go to the playoffs, we Ride the Wax Tadpole to a WNBA championship. You get your friends to come to these games...and you always, always keep your chin up.

One Team, One Dream.

Dream Owner No Longer Wants to Be Sole Owner

Chris Vivlamore reports that Ron Terwilliger no longer wants to be sole owner of the Atlanta Dream.

The ominous looking headline at the AJC: "Dream owner seeks to sell franchise".

So, as Hermes Conrad would say, "This raises even more questions!"

* Will a white knight come and save the franchise?
* Will the Dream fold/be relocated?
* What the hell? I mean what the helly hell?
* Is there another investor lined up?

As soon as I find out anything, I'll tell you.

Dream Owner Hard at Work in Finding Many a Home

There a new article from islandpacket.com about the good works of Atlanta Dream owner Ron Terwilliger.

If you want to know what Ron Terwillinger does for living, and who he is, and how he got there, this article is a good place to start.

Atlanta Dream Owner Gives $100 Million to Habitat for Humanity

If the recession/depression is hurting the real estate business, it must not be huring Ron Terwilliger, the owner of the Atlanta Dream. Terwilliger just gave the largest contribution to Habitat for Humanity in its history.

To which I respond, "Good job, Mr. Terwilliger."

Dream Owner Hosts Meeting of Urban Land Institute

Ron Terwilliger, chairman of Trammell Crow Residential and good friend of the Urban Land Institute, chaired something called the ULI Spring Council Forum. Among the dignitaries there were Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and the current Secreatory of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan.

The conference was three days long and 2,400 people attended.

What was Terwilliger looking forward to after the conference? "What I really want to talk about is the Atlanta Dream," he said.

I guess he's looking forward to the upcoming season just as much as we are.

Home Sweet Home

This link, provided by the official Atlanta Dream blog, gives us a tour of Ron Terwilliger's Atlanta penthouse. Terwilliger is the owner of the Atlanta Dream.

I notice that among the thirty pictures of Terwilliger's digs, picture #6 indicates that the penthouse is for sale. With the trouble the Comets are in, you can imagine how this has triggered the most paranoid of delusions in this Atlanta Dream fan.

It's On Wikipedia, So You Know It's True

Less than 12 hours until the first WNBA game post-break. And tomorrow, the first Dream game in over a couple of fortnights. I'm psyched, I'm psyched.

Until them, I've been fooling around with Wikipedia. You can check on my most recent work here:

Atlanta Dream -- This article isn't entirely my own work, but I substantially expanded on it.
Ron Terwilliger
Marynell Meadors

Hopefully, either Mr. Terwilliger or Coach Meadors won't go to those articles and say, "That rat bastard petrel! He got everything wrong!" Hey, I did the best I could do with what I had to work with.

(Now, to get to that Chioma Nnamaka article....)

WNBA Owners - Where the Cash Comes From

The Dream is his, in more ways than one.

As part of the never-ending quest for knowledge and as the proud possessor of an obsessive-compulsive disorder, I wrote a small run-down of each of the WNBA owners. Hope you enjoy.

Atlanta Dream -- Ron Terwilliger

Terwillinger is not only a homebuilder, he's been one on a massive scale for more than 20 years. He's the chairman/CEO of Trammell Crow Residential, which builds apartments and condominiums, and invested $10 million dollars in the new Atlanta Dream. A philanthropist, Terwilliger is said to be "very rich". However, he's also 67. I suspect that Terwilliger can float the Dream as long as he wants to. He has at least enough money to have made a bid at owning the Braves.

Chicago Sky -- Michael Alter

Alter is another real estate developer, in Alter's case, commercial real estate. (The company runs about $750 billion in projects.) Alter was also well off enough to throw down $10 million for the Sky.

Connecticut Sun -- the Mohegan Indian Tribe

The Sun is the only team in the WNBA that is owned by an ethnic group. Its primary money is from casino gambling, which rakes in over $1 billion a year.

Detroit Shock -- William Davidson

Davidson is the owner of the Detroit Pistons as well. He's a billionaire ($3.5 billion), so money is no problem for him. He got the money manufacturing architectual and automotive glass. The big problem is that Davison is 85, so if he were to pass away, what would happen to the Shock?

Indiana Fever -- Herbert and Melvin Simon

The Simons are billionaires, who also own the Indiana Pacers. They are pretty much America's biggest shopping mall owners. Although the Simons 81 (Mel) and 73 (Herb), Mel's oldest son David (46) is the current CEO of the company. I suspect the control of the Fever will remain in the hands of the Simons.

New York Liberty -- Cablevision (Charles and James Dolan)

The Dolans run the New York Knicks and Madison Square Garden as well. Cablevision earns about $5 billion a year, and a deal is in process to make the company private. I doubt that the Dolans are going to run out of cash anytime soon.

Washington Mystics -- Lincoln Holdings

The partnership known as Lincoln Holdings also owns the Washington Capitals, the Wizards, and the Verizon Center. The majority owner is Ted Leonsis. Leonsis's money is computer money -- he's an AOL executive. I would venture to say that he's financially secure. However, the team's president is another partner at Lincoln Holdings, Sheila Johnson. Johnson is the co-founder of Black Entertainment Television and a billionaire.

Houston Comets -- Hilton Koch

Koch acquired the Comets in 2007. He's the owner of a furniture chain in Houston that makes a lot of wacky ads. Like two of the other owners on this list, putting down $10 million got him a WNBA franchise. My suspicion is that the Houston franchise is in deeper trouble than anyone lets on. Paige Mann, an employee of the Comets under Kock, states that not only did she take a pay cut from the agreed-upon offer for her to assume a basketball operations role, but that she was simply not paid...at all. Oh well, if Koch fails, maybe Mattress Mack will take over.

Los Angeles Sparks -- Carla Christofferson and Kathy Goodman

Christofferson is a full partner at age 31 in the law firm O’Melveny & Myers, a major Los Angeles entertainment-industry law firm. Kathy Goodman helped start an independent production and finance company called Intermedia Films and was a former executive. She now works at a high school teacher. Together, they put up the $10 million it took to buy the Sparks.

Minnesota Lynx -- Glen Taylor

Glen Taylor is a billionaire and was an influential Minnesota politician, making his money from the manufacture of specialized printed materials, like wedding invitations. He owns the Timberwolves and would like to own the Twins and the Vikings. Worth over $2 billion.

Phoenix Mercury -- Robert Sarver

Sarver is the current majority owner of the Mercury. He was the founder of the National Bank of Arizona, which for a long time was Arizona's largest independent bank. He also acquired several other banks, serves as CEO of Western Alliance Bancorporation and is the owner of the Phoenix Suns. He is worth around $400 million.

Sacramento Monarchs -- The Maloof Family

Headed by Joe and Gavin Maloof, the Maloofs made their cash in hotels, casinos, and alcohol distribution. Each of the Maloof brothers is supposedly worth $100 million.

San Antonio Silver Stars -- Peter Holt

Holt made his cash in farm equipment, building up a small Caterpillar dealership into one of the largest in the country. He's worth $80 million, and thankfully for the Silver Stars, he's a big believer in supporting the San Antonio community.

Seattle Storm -- Force 10 Hoops LLC

Force 10 Hoops LLC is a group of four Storm season-ticket holders that wanted to make sure the Storm stayed in Seattle if the SuperSonics left. They are the only female owners in the WNBA. They range from a philanthropist to an ex-Deputy Mayor to two former executives at Microsoft. They pooled together the $10 million dollars it took to purchase the Storm.