Rantings of an Insane Platypus - 25th April 2004
Sunday 25 April 2004
No signings today, just a bunch of waivings/retirements. Ujhelyi and Butler were the weakest posts on already post-heavy teams and reportedly Butler is still not fully recovered from her torn ACL suffered before the 2003 season. I'm not sure why Crockrom was wavied a month after she was signed with camp yet to start but maybe the Sparks want to bring in somebody else and thought she was expendable. Crockrom is one of those players who were good in college but couldn't adjust to the physicality of the pro game. The retirement of Sylvia Crawley opens up the competition for backup 5 on the San Antonio Stars with players like Jessie Hicks, Mandisa Stevenson and Erin Batth in the mix (I know, not a particularly inspiring list of names).
Invitees to camp not listed on the transactions page but present on team roster pages
Minnesota: Chanel Wright-Greene
Sacramento: Christelle Jouandon (a French 6'0" wing averaging 13.2 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.8 assists a game for Nice in the French league), Constance Jinks
Phoenix: Tatum Brown
New York: Chavinia Broussard, Carolyn Moos
Los Angeles: Nicole Funn, Rometra Craig
Also in case you missed it, Lalum to Seattle and Mendiola to Sacramento
I don't think the above players have much chance of making their respective rosters. If Mendiola could get over the fact Seattle didn't draft her, she'd realise that she'd have a decent shot at making the Seattle roster because of their lack of guards. She has a minute chance of making the Sacramento roster.
Lisa Harrison is the new second assistant coach for the Mercury
No, she won't be a player-coach. A fine choice - Lisa is very knowledgable and is popular with the Mercury fans.
Bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch (another ranting Minnesota columnist)
Looks like Whalenmania has inspired some Minnesota columnists to start bitching about the WNBA all because of Whalen not ending up in Minnesota. This is yet another example. Let's analyse the points presented in the article one by one:
#1 LJ's jaunt to Russia being more than her WNBA salary. So? I wasn't aware there was some rule saying that American pro leagues have to pay the highest salaries in the world. Also it's a lousy example because the LJ deal is not a common thing. While top stars get better money overseas than in the WNBA, it's the reverse for role-players and bench players. The WNBA is more equitable overall even if the top salaries are capped.
And of course the WNBA is still trying to find its niche - that's not out of the ordinary. All the current established sports leagues took a significant period of time to establish themselves when they were starting up and even now, some of them are still having problems. The WNBA will find its place over time.
#2 The "we must sacrifice everything for Whalen and other Minnesota players" belief. We've gone through this before.
#3 The WNBA might fold next year. I doubt it. The WNBA will be around for some time yet but the Lynx probably will be as well. Unless the people in Minnesota think like some of their buffoon columnists.
An interview with Kristen Veal
Mainly about ABA stuff but one thing of note related to the WNBA
Q: With your former Canberra Capitals coach Carrie Graf currently over in the WNBA, do you have any interest in following her over to join some of your Australian team mates?
KV: No, not in the near future.