Yolanda Griffith Retires

The Indiana Fever report that there will be no comeback for Yolanda Griffith after her season-ending injury this year. She played two minutes of a game on June 9, 2009 in Indiana against Seattle before a torn left Achilles tendon finished her career. She is now officially retired, and hoping to become a coach at either the college or pro level.

The argument could be made that Griffith was the greatest player ever to play the game. She's the WNBA leader in Adjusted Wins Score, and second to Lisa Leslie in (regular) Wins Score. She was a seven-time All Star, the WNBA MVP in 1999, the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year in 1999, and the WNBA Finals MVP in 2005 when the Sacramento Monarchs won their only WNBA championship. Griffith would also win gold medals for the United States women's basketball team in 2000 and 2004.

Hopefully, she can put her wealth of experience to use as a coach for some deserving college. Good luck, Yo.

Jennifer Lacy - Chinese All Star?

According to the linked article, Jennifer Lacy was just named the starting center of the North Team for the WCBA All-Star Game.

Guess Jennifer won't be coming home until after February 15th. Supposedly, there was some ballot-stuffing by Beijing fans - Yolanda Griffith of Henan ended up sixth or seventh. (Hands up - which one is better?) I enjoy the following commentary:

This shows that Internet voting is sometimes mischievous. However, Yolanda people do not attach importance to this, she is already the two Olympic champions, have been WNBA championship WCBA All-Star selection can not, can only say that the way this selection is very ridiculous.

Unfortunately, the WCBA faces a lot of problems of the WNBA: "WCBA All-Star Game to develop in February 15, 2009 held, but the venue has not yet been determined. It is understood that the Chinese Basketball Association wanted to get organized to give them 300,000 yuan to the contractor the race, but women's influence is limited, so far nobody wants to take over."

That Was Yo

According to a blog entry from Tangela Smith, Yolanda Griffith is playing in the WCBA. So I guess that that was Yolanda Griffith in the Henan-Jiangsu game.