June 1, 1999

The following is not a typical athlete's journal entry. You will not read about how many points were scored, who won, or who was difficult to guard--especially because now it's the offseason. So, you will not find a box score or read about the officiating, either. Instead, you will experience The World According To Me. Each week, I'll be posting another entry, so stay tuned...

We finished our "preseason" with one win and one loss. Now we have two weeks to work out the kinks before our season opener on June 10th. Until then, the Knicks will provide all the excitement hoop fans can handle in Madison Square Garden.

The excitement continues off the court as well for the ladies of the New York Liberty. Kym, Coquese and I signed autographs for a couple of hours the other day at a store in NYC. We signed for two season ticket holders who live in Boston and commute five hours to each game. Now that is fan support!

We had 13,000 fans in the Garden for our first pre-season game versus the Houston Comets. I just wish the fans had the chance to see my teammates off the court the way I do. This is a really fun and interesting group of women. From our "matriarch" Kym Hampton to the young-uns, our squad is full of interesting personalities. Spoon pretty much wears her heart on her sleeve on the court, but some of the other girls break out of their shells more slowly. Alicia Thompson came to us last year from Texas Tech and was quite shy at first. Now, she is obviously very comfortable around the team and not nearly as reserved as she used to be.

The crop of rookies this year will probably take a little while to bust out of their shells, too. Tamika Whitmore has earned the nicknames "Hoss" and "Big Country" because of her strength and the fact that she spent a lot of time on a farm growing up. She has provided some of the best one-liners of training camp. Before practice one day, some of the players were talking about the WNBA's new 401K plan and also investing in the stock market. Tamika let us know that she isn't too keen on risking her money in the market. As only she could say, she threw out "the only risk I take is takin' down cows." When asked to elaborate, Tamika explained that sometimes on the farm she had to grab a cow by the neck and wrestle it to the ground. I think I'll stick to stocks.

The team had a chance to spend time filming a video in a music studio last week. We all pretended to play instruments to accompany Kym's vocals for a song that was written about the New York Liberty. Vicky Johnson was the guitarist, Crystal Robinson handled the bass, Coquese played the baritone, Alicia the trumpet, and Sue the drums. We all faked the best we could. Sue did her best impression of a drummer. I must admit that she looked like Animal from the Muppets. The video was filmed for the open of our games on MSG& check it out.

We flew as a team to Houston for our second pre-season game. I must express my disappointment in Continental Airlines' food selection. They served us barbecued pork sandwiches, potato chips, and carrots. Honestly, who serves barbecued pork sandwiches on an airplane? Needless to say, the whole team ordered room service upon arrival at our hotel. Which brings me to another point& room service charges. The bottom of the menu read, "For your convenience, an 18% service charge and sales tax will be added to your check." How can they possibly think that 18% is a convenient charge for me? Especially on top of the $2 service charge already added . I think that the hotel conveniently payed Continental Airlines to serve nasty pork sandwiches so they could conveniently charge me 18% on their food.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: After reading an article about black holes in the science section of the New York Times, Sue Wicks asked me, "Isn't it scary that these scientists can figure out things about black holes using all kinds of math formulas& and I have a hard time remembering the offenses&?"

THINK BEFORE SPEAKING: An upset Houston fan yelled "go back to New York" after someone from the Liberty fouled Sheryl Swoopes. Sue looked to me on the bench and said, "of course we're going back to New York. Where does she think we're going to go? Cleveland?"

Now it's time for my SHOUT OUT section ... I wanna give a shout out to :

 all the folks at Kym's cookout
 the kids from Louisiana we met in the airport (including JJ) who were on their way to a speech tournament in Chicago
 the two men holding hands on the plane ride back from Houston
 the ball girls and locker room attendants in Houston who put up with some undeserved hostility
 my post-game dinner companions in Houston