Dream Lose in Chicago on Friday Night

The Associated Press already has their story, along with a gallery of pictures. The Chicago Tribune also reports.

Obviously, I'll be writing more about this and about my Chicago Sky Network/NBA TV experiences.

The All American Red Heads: "Play Ball!"

RebKell poster Luuuc has helped put together this YouTube clip of the All American Red Heads in action with footage provided by All American Red Heads historian John Molina.

Let me set it up before you: before there was even the inkling of women's basketball, there was the barnstorming All-American Red Heads.

According to their Wikipedia article, they played from 1936 to around 1986. Their season consisted of about 200 games a year.

Part basketball players, part entertainers, the clip below only gives you a hint of what they were capable of and provokes the saddest of questions: what might have been?

Major Announcement on the Way From WNBA Commish?

This is from Phoenix Stan's Bright Side of the Sun blog. The article is about Nicole Ohlde, but there's a little kernel of information at the bottom.


"Almost forgot...word is that there will be another "major announcement" involving the WNBA commish this time coming out of the Connecticut Sun."

Very interrrrresting. If it's announced on a Friday, it will probably be bad news - if on a Monday, probably good news.

Pleasant Dreams Makes the Local News

A feature article by Dyana Bagby at the Southern Voice addresses the equation of the WNBA and its lesbian fanbase. Why don't players come out of the closet? Is the WNBA trying to specifically downplay the image of the "butch" athlete?

Lots of people get interviewed for the article, including former Dream player Chantelle Anderson and several Atlanta Dream fans....

...including a blogger that you might be reading right now. (Yep, the blog gets a mention!)

The article's definitely worth a read, if not necessarily to hear my words of wisdom then to hear Chantelle's. You know that Chantelle would never hold anything back!

Dreaming (Literally) On the Way to Chicago

"zzzzzzzzzzz"

There's a "veritable plethora" of pictures posted by Tamera Young and Chamique Holdsclaw. You can't stop their cameras! You can only hope to contain them!

1. Izi and Erika share a moment. (Chamique "Big Smooth" Holdsclaw is the phootgrapher.)
2. Mining nose candy? (Big Smooth took this one.)
3. Shalee Lehning, down for the count? (Another Big Smooth production? - posted above)
4. Michelle Snow can't stay awake either. (From Little Smooth.)
5. Angel can't stay off the phone. (From Big Smooth)
6. Jennifer Lacy catches up on a movie at the airport, but we know how it ends. (From Little Smooth.)

Angel in the Film Room

Angel McCoughtry blogs a nice long blog entry about adjusting to life in a higher league:

"...and when we got to D.C. they didn’t have our rooms ready, talking about they had some people check in the day before. We were like we had reservations so why the heck aren’t our rooms ready. So they put us in some basement, and we were all tired being up from two overtimes the day before, trying to prepare ourselves and focus. And me being a rookie, you know in college you really don’t have back-to-backs."


"For example, I had the ball when we played the Mystics and I tried to rip through on Alana Beard. I went to rip the ball through so I could take it to hole and she just took it right out of my hands.... It gets to me when I just give somebody else the ball like that. That gets to me. So I’ve been working extra hard. I’ve been watching film. I’m trying to be a student of the game. If you notice Kobe Bryant, he watches film, he studies himself, he does all of those things and those are the things I’m doing. I’m studying myself to see how I can get better. Because the only way I can help this team become better is by helping myself become better individually."

Keep working Angel, and keep watching that film.

On the Way to a Long History

I noticed in two places - the "13 Teams, 1 Journey" blog and the Rebkell message board - that someone remarked that the WBNA has just passed the All American Girls Professional Baseball League of "A League of Their Own" fame for the longest enduring women's professional sports league of any sort. The AAGPBL lasted from 1943 to 1954 for a total of 12 years. This year is the WNBA's 13th year, putting it at the top.

What's not noticed is that the WNBA is as far as I can tell the third longest running professional basketball league of any kind outside of European teams. It's currently tied for third place and in 2010 it will hold third place in longevity all by itself.


64 years NBA 1946-present
64 years CBA 1946-present (*)
13 years WNBA 1997-present
13 years National Basketball League 1937-49
11 years American Basketball League (I) 1925-35

Not bad. Maybe we can get a movie with Geena Davis and Lori Petty?



(*) - The CBA has suspended operations. This might be it for the Continental Basketball Association.

Under the Weather

The writer of the "13 Teams, 1 Journey" has a new blog entry which deals with two subjects: his current bout of illness...and the abuse he's taken on YouTube for videoblogging about his goal to visit all 13 WNBA teams this year.

Mind you, I knew that even before I started my journey, I would get some negative reactions and posts from the WNBA haters out there. I’ve seen them on you tube and facebook. I tend to ignore them, as I think paying them attention is a waste of my time. But over the last few weeks they seemed to build, to a point where I just could not take it anymore. Why people take so much time to express negative and hateful words I will never know. But the sad thing is, it is nothing new.

He states that most WNBA criticisms come in three varieties:

a) the "automatic discount" ("The WNBA is crappy basketball because they're women. Girls can't play ball!")
b) the "double-standard" ("I saw someone turn over the ball during a game I caught briefly in 1999 while changing channels. Clearly, the WNBA cannot meet the august standards of NBA basketball.")
c) one I like to call the "social outlier" argument ("The only fans of the WNBA are (feminists, lesbians, freaks).")

My first comment is that he should never have opened up his YouTube comments. Trust me, YouTube comments are as Ben Kenobi might put it, "a wretched hive of scum and villany". I have a little YouTube account but trust me, I've never activated the commenting feature. The rule of commenting goes:

V = m*a*d

where V = value of comments
m = level of moderation of the forum
a = anonymity of forum users
d = difficulty in posting to the forum

This is just the statement of the rule that on the internet, it seems that everyone's an asshole. A unmoderated place that allows hit and run posting will attract assholes. It's not his fault that that happened..."It's Chinatown, Jake."

That being said, the fault clearly rests with the chavs and not with Alex C. I will not get on a soapbox and claim that my following the WNBA has made me a better, wiser, or even more sober human being. I will not claim that I understand the female psyche, or that this WNBA fandom has made me an expert on issues involving gay women, or black women, or any women in sports.

What I will say is this: after following the WNBA for a year and reading the comments that sportswriters and so called "experts" write about it: I finally understand what feminism was all about. I understood it on an intellectual basis, but never on a visceral one. Jesus, nobody should have to put up with that kind of shit on a daily basis. As men, we should all thank the first women we meet - not because of their contributions to history, but in sheer gratitude to the female gender for not killing every man within 15 miles.

Shalee Is Blogging!

At the Garden City Telegram in Southwest Kansas, they have a new writer. Her name is Shalee Lehning. You might have heard of her.

Her blog entry is here. Warning: this is a very long blog entry. (The only warning is in finding the time to read it all...trust me, we love long player blogs.) Shalee writes about her experiences in making the team.

"Before every game, home and away, organizations offer optional chapel to the players from both teams. It is completely optional but I think it is so neat to see players from both teams gather together before the game for a greater purpose. None of us would even have the chance to play basketball if we wouldn’t have been blessed with a gift so I love seeing players who realize and recognize it for what it is. "

Another quote:

"When my dad got here I told him I had a surprise for him. I took him downtown to a place called Atlantic Station which has a lot of great eating places and some places to shop. Then I took him to the Atlanta Braves baseball game. It was such a fun evening for the two of us. We don’t get to spend a lot of alone time together like that so we really enjoyed it. He kept saying, “I can’t believe you are a professional athlete just like these guys are!” I was like I know it is hard to fathom huh dad?"

And:

"I do have one rule though. If you watch the game on the Internet I still expect you to YELL and SCREAM just like you would if you were actually at the game. I don’t think that is too much to ask! I’m planning on doing a Blog for the rest of the summer so I will keep you updated."

I hope that's a promise, Shalee!

2009/2 - Mystics 77, Dream 71 - Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Just a brief finish up regarding the game on Sunday. Let's look at some numbers.

For the Mystics:

Alana Beard: 27 points, 5 rebounds and 5 steals. She scored so much because she took a large number of shots - 16 field goal attempts and 13 free throw attempts. Her plus-minus is -11, which casts doubt on how much she actually contributed if Washington slid backwards when she was on the floor.
Crystal Langhorne: 10 points, 8 rebounds. However, a -8 plus/minus.
Marissa Coleman: 9 points.
Tasha Humphrey: 6 points, and the highest plus/minus at +11.

As for the Dream....

Best Players

Sancho Lyttle: With the first team sitting on the bench, someone had to step up from the second team, and it was Lyttle. 13 points on 11 chances, 4 rebounds, and 4 blocked shots gives her the edge over Coco Miller for the Dreamer of the Game.
Coco Miller: 17 points on 11 shooting atttempts, 5 rebounds, 2 assists. +12 in the plus/minus column for the best plus/minus of the game. Miller really turned it on in the second half.
Erika de Souza: It's actually a substantial drop off from Miller to de Souza. De Souza was good for 8 points and 6 rebounds, but fouled out of the game.

The Murky Middle

Chamique Holdsclaw: Big Smooth had a lot of highlights: 12 points and 3 rebounds in just 21 minutes of play. She also scored her 4,000 points - Holdsclaw could score points at the bottom of a coal mine. However, her -14 in plus-minus is a bit scary. Of course, that could just be the fault of her supporting cast.
Angel McCoughtry: 10 points, with 6 points coming in the fourth quarter. However, Angel turned the ball over five times and fouled out - her 11th foul in two games.
Jennifer Lacy: Lacy actually worked her way up into the middle. 6 points, 4 rebounds and a +3 plus/minus with the second team.
Tamera Young: Only 3 points in 12 minutes, but a +6 plus/minus.
Nikki Teasley: Zero points in almost eight minutes played. Five personal fouls limited her effectiveness in the game.

Not Up To Snuff

Shalee Lehning: How can you play 22 minutes of basketball and not score a single bucket? Lehning only attempted one shot, implying that she either loves the assist or just couldn't get open. Assists: 4. Turnovers: 5.
Michelle Snow: Our starter only started eight minutes. Snow went 1-for-4 in shooting. What's going on with Snow?
Iziane Castro Marques: Just 12 minutes of play, no points scored, two personal fouls and three turnovers. Who was less effective, Snow or Castro Marques? I'm going to hang the Bad Dream award on Izi, and hope for better things from Izi on Friday against Chicago.

Diana Taurasi Instructs Becky Hammon in the Finer Points of Basketball

PShizzy: The Blog provides a prospective on the WNBA game from the photographer's point of view. It's definitely an interesting read.

He took this shot of Becky Hammon getting an arm in the face from Diana Taurasi. The author explains it this way:

She has this spin move, where instead of using her elbow against your body and spinning off, she goes high and catches people in the neck area. Stuns them while she spins. It’s great.

Interrrrrresting? Dirty play? Or just hard-nosed basketball?

Viewership Down for Women's Sports Last Weekend

Paul Sen at Sports Media Watch reported that the WNBA - and women's sports in general - struggled for viewers on the weekend:


The WNBA's season opener between the Shock and Sparks -- a rematch of their now nearly forgotten brawl -- drew a 0.6 overnight rating on ABC, down 33% from a 0.9 for last year's comparable Sparks/Mercury tilt, but even with Monarchs/Shock in '07.

(* * *)


The WNBA and LPGA accounted for the three lowest overnights of the weekend for live sports programming on broadcast. Even a relatively unheralded event like the Track & Field Prefontaine Classic managed a 1.2/3 overnight over the weekend -- double the ratings of the WNBA and LPGA.


Egad. Let's hope this isn't an ominous portent. Then again, given the quality of that Shock/Sparks game, maybe we should be happy about the low numbers.

A couple of interesting tweets from Paul Sen at Sports Media Watch

@paulsen_smw The Sparks wore their yellow home unis on the road at Detroit; does Farmers Insurance not allow them to wear purple?

@paulsen_smw Unbelievably misleading ad courtside: "WNBA Saturdays on ABC". ABC aired its only reg. season WNBA game of the season yesterday.

The Dream's Secret Weapon

Josh Bagriansky from Score Atlanta has his writeup ready regarding the first two games of the Atlanta Dream.

Is Erika the "secret weapon"? Definitely. No one thinks about her, but she has the potential during any game to drop a double-double on someone.

2009/2 - Mystics 77, Dream 71

The Dream second team tries to make it work against Washington.

If a tree falls in the woods, but no one hears it, did it fall? And if you turn on WNBA's Live Access, but can't hear it, is it a real game?

This is the second time I've tried to watch a game with WNBA Live Access. The system works great if you have a good internet connection, but my internet connection gets spotty when someone twenty miles in any direction even says rain. However, I was very lucky and WNBA Live Access worked without a hitch....except that there was no sound.

With no radio coverage for the Atlanta Dream this year, this left me trying to make sense of things without any sound. My scribbled recollections:

1. Mom called. And since I hadn't called Mom in nine days, there was no way I could say, "Call me back later, the game is on." By the time I made it to the first quarter, 4:24 of the game had already taken place. The Dream were up 8-1. Sancho Lyttle followed with another bucket to make it 10-1, and then broke up a shot of her own.

Time to pose another question: "If you concede a nine point lead to the Dream, can you win?" Frisco Del Rosario might say that in chess terms, this was equivalent to being given rook odds.

2. Holdsclaw started out the quarter with eight points. When she scored her first basket, she hit the 4,000 point mark, becoming only the ninth player in WNBA history to score 4,000 career points.

3. One thing that surprised me: how fast the Mystics are. They don't waste any time moving. I suspect that this has something to do with Julie Plank, the Mystics newest head coach.

4. The Dream went on an 8-0 first quarter run and built up their lead to 22-8. The Dream looked good, and after a double-overtime win the night before and just maybe five or six hours of sleep - whereas the Mystics had had the advantage of starting their game the day before at 4:30 pm, and opening at home. With everyone exhausted on the Dream, players like Erika de Souza could take a rest and let players like Jennifer Lacy take her place without any fear...or so, the story goes.

5. Washington shot 3-for-18 that first quarter, only shooting 16.7 percent. My first thought: "No team keeps up a 16.7 percentage the whole game. The Mystics will come back." I still thought that things looked good. A friend of mine called me to tell me the day before that Washington was going to come on like gangbusters this year. With the Dream up decisively, a win would mean only good things for the Dream.

6. Then, Washington answered back with an 8-0 run of their own to start the second quarter. Soon, the Dream were looking at 22-16. McCoughtry came in and I thought she looked good initially, breaking up a play by Marissa Coleman with a steal of the ball. Holdsclaw came back in and I felt that the Dream had their kicks on the neck on the Mystics.

7. At 6:33 to go in the second quarter, the radio kicked in briefly. However, it was bizarre radio. Viewers of WNBA Live Access were picking up what I would call the "PA Feed". We got to hear the announcer announce who had scored the most recent basket, the "dah-dah-DAH-dah-dah-dah-DAH-dah" Jaws music was pumped into my computer but there was no crowd cheering. All I could hear were sound effects.

8. Remember that 26-16 lead? By some...mysticism...the Dream were suddenly transformed to last year's 2008 Atlanta Dream, at least in terms of game skill. Erika de Souza committed a foul after Nakia Sanford stole the ball from her. McCoughtry stole the ball from Coleman, but then she bounced the ball off her foot and before you know it, there was another turnover. The Mystics were starting a run, and all I could hope for was that the Dream would wake up.

9. Tasha Humphrey hit a 3-pointer to close the score to 26-22. My computer piped the sound of the opening bars of Digital Underground's "Humpty Dance" in mocking celebration. Stupid computer.

10. The lead fell to 26-25, and Marynell Meadors faithfully followed the Meadors Rule of 10 - when they score 10 against you, call a full time out immediately. While the Dream were pondering their predicament, Matee Ajavon was letting Mystics fans know that she has a dog named Sweepea, a Chihuahua-Pekingese. The thing you might not know about her? She's a poet.

My haiku:

The Dream start off strong
Drop ten points, coach calls time out
Bang your head against wall

11. Like Buddha, I have a sudden moment of illumination. I follow the DC Basket Cases Blog, and the writers take a little stuffed panda with them wherever they go. His name is Pax (I think).

So who do I see at the Verizon Center but a giant-sized version of the same panda? THE PANDA IS THE MASCOT! I now understand the meaning of the panda! I just thought he was an anonymous stuffed panda. That's when I did a face-palm.

12. With 4:23 left in the second quarter, Nikki Teaslely scored her third personal fouls. Nakia Sanford came to the line and sank both free throws. The Mystics had the lead now, 27-26....

13. ...and they would just keep it up. There was three and a half minutes left and the Dream had only scored four points in the quarter. Izi came back in. De Souza got called for traveling for the Dream's 13th turnover of the game. The Mystics went on a 16-0 run, the longest run I've ever witnessed against the dream. Now down 32-26, a de Souza basket finally broke the run.

14. Marissa Coleman, however, hit a 3-pointer, the second three I remember her hitting in the corner. I began to think, "Hey, this Coleman woman might work out for the Mystics." Then, my computer locked up for a few moments. I suspect that it was trying to protect me.

15. Erika de Souza looked like the only player who had any sort of energy out there. This, after a long schedule in Spain and a late arrival to training camp. What on earth do they feed those Brazilian girls? Yohimbe? I think that if someone put a cape on Erika's uniform, she'd just fly home out of the arena.

16. At the end of the half, the score was 38-30. Despite the fact that the Mystics had scored 30 points to the Dream's eight, the Dream was still in the game.

17. During halftime, there was an announcement: "Welcome - Angel McCoughtry's Fan Club". I tell you, Angel must have some wonderful fans.

18. Here's a truth: it doesn't really matter how well you shoot, or even if you shoot well and dominate on the boards - if you turn over the ball a lot, you will lose ball games. The Dream had turned the ball over 15 times in the first half alone. Some teams don't go an entire game with 15 turnovers.

Holdsclaw had had eight points that first quarter. She still had eight points. Holdsclaw and Angel had plus-minuses of -10. Whereas Tasha Humphrey had a plus-minus of +20, the advantage of coming on to the court exactly when your team is on a scoring run.

19. The halftime entertainment? The Sky Riders. Yep, the same trampoline duo that had thrilled the crowd at Philips Arena the night before was wowing them at Verizon. Unless they Dream, they didn't look tired. I wonder if the Sky Riders were somehow hiding in the luggage compartments of the Dream's plane.

20. And now...the weirdness begins. As the connection on the computer got spotty, Iziane, Michelle, Chamique and Nikki took the floor for the second half. It might has well have been Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Zeppo, because Alana Beard was in the Zone, and not the ESPN Zone.

The Mystics went on another run, this time a 10-4 run that put the Dream behind a 48-30 rock. Of those 10 points scored by the Mystics, Beard score eight of them.

21. The Dream, however, had one player who put the reins in her teeth and pressed on. Last year, we didn't have anybody like that. This time, the hero was Coco Miller, who helped spark the Dream to an 11-0 run, with the last four points of that run being scored by the Georgia Girl.

Most of the starters were on the bench, and they wouldn't play much. They probably couldn't play for very long with their history of health problems and that killer double-overtime game of the night before. The leaders in minutes for this game would be Sancho Lyttle, Erika de Souza and Coco Miller.

Number of assists from Atlanta's starting five? One. They would have one more assist for the remainder of the game. That's it.

22. Not even Erika de Souza could stop the drought. She soon had four fouls, and Jennifer Lacy came in to replace her. Beard crossed the 20 point barrier before the third quarter was over.

23. End of the quarter: the Dream led in overall shooting and rebounds. But they had turned the ball over 22 times, and given the Mystics 22 visits to the free throw line.

24. The starting five for the final quarter: Lacy, Miller, Young, Lyttle, and McCoughtry. Good players, but no one's ideal of an All-Star team.

25. I could tell that McCoughtry was tired and confused. Young just looked horrible in the fourth quarter. McCoughtry's bursts of speed were turning into languid trots.

26. That was when I saw yet another Washington mascot! It looked like a lady rabbit. As it turns out, I think her name was Lucky. The Mystics might not have much of a history, but they have two mascots, no waiting.

27. At one point, Erika de Souza was hit with what she was told was her sixth foul. Marynell argued with the referees about it - she told the refs that they had miscounted. Turns out Meadors was right - Erika de Souza only had five fouls and returned to the court.

28. By now, the real radio had finally kicked in to the broadcast. Down 67-52, the Dream began to come back. McCoughtry came to life, trying to will the Dream out of their hole. A couple of jump shots from McCoughtry and an assist by Young to Coco Miller suddenly put the Dream down by nine, 69-60, with 3:34 left in the game. Could the Dream start a miracle comeback?

29. A free throw by Sancho Lyttle put the score at 70-63 with 3:04. We were doing it. Somehow, against all odds, we had closed the gap to seven points with 3:04 left. Another layup by McCoughtry took the score to 71-65 with 2:20 left.

Six of McCoughtry's ten total points were fourth quarter points. Never count Angel out.

30. But it just wasn't to be. Between two minutes left in the game and one minute to go, McCoughtry picked up her fifth and sixth personal fouls, fouling out of her first WNBA game.

31. Even so, in that final minute, the Dream managed to put together three points. Jennifer Lacy turned the ball over - it was swatted away - but got a rebound and made a couple of free throws. Miller made a running jumper with 14 seconds left.

However, it wasn't enough. No miracle tonight. The Dream lost on the road, 77-71. Further post-mortem stuff later.

More Dream Pictures: The Season is Upon Us

The Atlanta Dream staff are twittering away and putting up some great pics:

1. Angel McCoughtry, Tamera Young, and Sancho Lyttle at the Verizon Center.
2. Izi moves the rock. (above)
3. Sancho Lyttle doin' work against the Fever.
4. Big Smooth all kissy-faced.
5. Angel up, up and away.
6. Erika de Souza passing out souvenirs.

Big Smooth also adds the following picture of Nikki Teasley and Jennifer Lacy at the Washington airport. It was probably taken after this morning after a night's sleep to forget that lost. Big Smooth also takes some film of Tamera Young catching 40 winks at the airport.

Laimbeer Implies Shock is Targeted by WNBA

Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Times writes about how the Shock is coping with the incident where Plenette Pierson was reinjured.

Laimbeer never holds back an opinion. As far as he's concerned, Tina did it on purpose. Furthermore, with players like Ford and Pierson injured and Braxton suspended, Laimbeer claims that the league isn't allowing him to replace any injured players with temp contracts.

From the article:

Laimbeer shared similar skepticism about the league. Consider the following exchange:

Laimbeer: "We asked the league if we could replace players and they said not the Shock. You have to be down to six or seven."

Reporter: "They said eight."

Laimbeer: "They won’t let us. That’s the way they are."

Reporter: "Why do you think that?"

Laimbeer: "We’re the Shock."

UPDATE: The Shock got to sign Britany Miller to a replacement contract. The squeaky wheel....

The Oklahoma Connection

From John Altavilla's blog at the Courant:

WNBA President Donna Orender was at the game, smiles and hugs for all. It is impossible not to like that woman. She was apparently escorting a contingent from Tulsa, Okla, around the Garden, so make anything you want out of that.

Well, Tulsa has been mentioned before as a possible landing spot for a WNBA team. Of course, it's tempting to build a castle out of this lone pebble Mr. Altavilla has presented us with, so hope springs eternal.

Funny, I thought that Clay Bennett at OKC didn't want "those kind of women" in Oklahoma. I guess Mr. Bennett might not be the final word on the subject.

Gonna Be a While

Another busy workday. So it might be tonight until I write about the Dream-Mystics game...but y'all seem to be doing just fine without me in the comments. ::grin::

Dream Lose Game Two in Washington

I'm sure a lot of you were watching on WNBA's Live Access, where the hometown Washington Mystics defeated the Atlanta Dream 77-71. It was just a strange game all around, but at least the Dream weren't blown out by 20.

The box score is here.

We still haven't beaten Washington. Game comments most likely for tomorrow.

UPDATE: Chamique Holdsclaw tweets about the loss:

@chold1 We had a tough 2day and believe me we will learn to keep folks down once we get big leads. Back to backs are hard. We didn't play our game.

Dream-Fever Gallery

Chamique is always looking up.

So where am I getting all these great pictures? From SPMSportsPage.com. And trust me, if you don't like Atlanta Dream pictures, they have a ton of WNBA articles and pictures you can check out.