Off the Record - Feb. 2006
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Breakfast With the Prez
Posted on February 28
WNBA President Donna Orender visited Seattle yesterday and today in anticipation of the upcoming WNBA season. Yesterday, Orender made a presentation to the Sonics & Storm staff at the teams' business office before participating in an event for founding season-ticket holders at KeyArena. This morning, Orender held an informal media breakfast with local beat writers, including your humble scribe, and P-I sports editor Ron Matthews, before closing her time in Seattle by meeting with the Storm's marketing and ticket sales teams to update their progress.
A year onto the job (she was named president in February 2005), Orender remains as excited as ever about the future of the league, which this season welcomes its 14th franchise in Chicago. More franchises could be on the way, and the league is 
preparing to hold the 2006 WNBA Draft in Boston and to celebrate the WNBA's 10th Anniversary all summer long.
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"[T]he perfect sports figure also would have the maturity of 
Sue Bird," writes Levesque. "She's only 25, but the Seattle Storm's All-Star point guard could give seminars on leading by example. It helps that she has known success at every level, having won basketball titles in high school, college, the WNBA and at the Olympic Games. But spend some time around this athlete and you soon realize her teams have succeeded at least partly because Bird is smart, tough, dedicated, industrious and inspirational.
"So much of Bird's impact on her teammates isn't quantifiable in hard stats, yet her knack for bringing out the best in people through unselfishness and a deep appreciation of teamwork is already legendary. Former teammate Kate Starbird once said: 'It's so easy to play with her. She makes anyone look good.'"
Bird is also featured in an ESPN.com column by Miki Turner looking at WNBA players' experiences overseas.
"The best part is having to live in a new country," Bird tells Turner. "It can be hard at times with the language barrier, but it also forces you to learn new things. You also get to see other countries besides the one you are playing in, so I'm going to places that people dream of visiting."
LJ to Korea
Posted on February 22
Last Saturday's Grand Finals win over Dandenong will be
Lauren Jackson's last WNBL game for the foreseeable future. Jackson announced this week that she has signed a three-year contract with an as-yet unnamed team in the Korean League.
"I'm excited," Jackson told The Age. "I've had a great run in Canberra, but it's time to move on."
Jackson feels the Korean League will be a better fit because of the short season, which runs from mid-December to mid-March. She'll also be able to make more money in Korea than she did with Canberra of the WNBL.
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Simone Edwards and her team, Halcon Avenida Salamanca, open their Eurocup Semifinals series tomorrow against Spartak Moscow Region.
Eurocup play, which features the best teams in Europe that are not in Euroleague, uses two-game playoffs. How does that work? The series are decided by total points as opposed to games won. That came in handy for Edwards and Halcon Avenida in their quarterfinals matchup with Besiktas Colaturka Istanbul. Halcon Avenida dominated the first matchup 78-60 at home, allowing them to advance despite a 68-59 loss on Feb. 9. Edwards combined for 17 points and 11 rebounds over the two games.
Now, Edwards and fellow post Kelly Schumacher have a big challenge in defending Spartak center Lisa Leslie. Leslie has averaged 17.3 points and 10.0 rebounds in four games for Spartak thus far. Leslie is far from the only WNBA star on the roster. All-Star Ticha Penicheiro runs the point for Spartak, while newly-signed Washington Mystics forward Crystal Robinson is also in the starting lineup. Rounding out the five are former WNBA players Gordana Grubin and Linda Fr�lich.
Spartak hosts Game 1 of the series tomorrow, and the scene shifts to Halcon Avenida for Game 2 a week later on March 2.
Capitals Champions Again
Posted on February 18
The Canberra Capitals concluded their run to the WNBL title Saturday with a 68-55 victory at Dandenong to earn the WNBL Championship. The Storm's
Lauren Jackson was dominant, scoring 13 of her game-high 24 points in the second quarter as the Capitals silenced the home crowd by taking a 13-point lead to the break. Jackson added 11 rebounds in 34 minutes of action.
�We hadn�t won one for a while, and we were hungry," said Canberra Coach Carrie Graf, a former Storm assistant who earned her fourth WNBL title.
Jackson, who was named Grand Final MVP for the third time, won the WNBL crown for the fifth time in her illustrious career - 1999 with the Australian Institute of Sport and 2000, 2002, 2003 and now 2006 with Canberra. But it was the first WNBL championship for former Storm guard Tully Bevilaqua.
Capitals Advance
Posted on February 13
The Canberra Capitals march continues, as they won their third straight must-win game on Saturday, defeating Adelaide 83-81 in overtime. No surprise, the key player for the Caps was
Lauren Jackson, who scored 25 of her 33 points in the second half as the Capitals rallied from a six-point halftime deficit to force OT on a Kellie Abrams 3-pointer at the buzzer. Jackson shot 14-for-24 from the field and added 11 rebounds and three blocks. Canberra overcame 23 points and nine rebounds from Adelaide's Erin Phillips, drafted in the second round of last year's WNBA Draft by Connecticut.
Now the Capitals will play for the WNBL title on Saturday against the two-time defending champion Dandenong Rangers. Dandenong will host the Grand Final at Dandenong Basketball Stadium. This truly is an elite matchup, as these two teams have combined to win the last four WNBL Championships and five of the last six (the other three all by Canberra).
Also, in a bit of news only slightly more surprising than the sun's appearance this morning, Jackson was named Sunday to the Opals squad that will take represent Australia in the Commonwealth Games next month. The only question, naturally, was whether Jackson would be healthy enough to play. She's joined on the roster by former Storm guard Tully Bevilaqua.
Stormin' the Sound
Posted on February 10
 Wright |
Tanisha Wright is in Seattle this season to kick off the Stormin' the Sound off-season community program. Wright is making several appearances and will be at tonight's Sonics game against the Atlanta Hawks to congratulate the winners of the Storm's Women in Sports Essay Contest, which she helped judge.
In Australia, Lauren Jacksonand her Canberra Capitals teammates are preparing for tomorrow's Preliminary Final matchup with the Adelaide Fellas and star guard Erin Phillips. Adelaide won the regular-season series 2-1, with the home team winning all three games. The Fellas will play host this time, with the winner advancing to the Grand Final against Dandenong.
Jackson took some time out from her preparation to face Adelaide to answer questions from fans on her unofficial Web site, LaurenJackson.org.
Moving On
Posted on February 3
Congratulations are in order for
Lauren Jackson and the Canberra Capitals, who stayed alive in the WNBL Finals Friday, defeating the Bulleen Melbourne Boomers 67-62 to advance to the Preliminary Final. It was a struggle for the host Capitals, who trailed at halftime. The game was tied 53-all after three quarters, and Canberra got a big 3-pointer and a key rebound from Jackson down the stretch to hold the Boomers at bay.
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Canberra advances to take on the loser of tomorrow's "major semifinal" between Adelaide and Dandenong next Saturday. The winner of that game will play for the WNBL Championship against the Adelaide-Dandenong winner.
More congratulations for Dynamo Moscow and Sue Bird and 
Natalia Vodopyanova, who swept Ros Casares Valencia out of the Euroleague playoffs with a dominating 64-43 victory in Spain. Dynamo held Ros Casares to terrible 16-for-71 shooting (22.5%). Vodopyanova was again very strong with 11 points, five rebounds and two steals, while Bird added four points and three assists.
After a lengthy break, Dynamo will take on Russian rival VBM-SGAU Samara starting on Feb. 21. Samara features an outstanding frontcourt with Spanish star Amaya Valdemoro and New York's Ann Wauters at forward and 6-8 Phoenix center Maria Stepanova.
The results weren't as good for 
Suzy Batkovic's UMMC Ekaterinburg squad, which suffered a two-game sweep at the hands of MKB Euroleasing Sopron, which won Game 2 by an 89-79 count. Batkovic had 13 points, four boards and four assists in the losing effort. Nikki Teasley of the Sparks scored a season-high 27 points for MKB, while Yolanda Griffith had 22 points and eight boards for Ekaterinburg.
A small consolation for Batkovic: She, along with fellow Storm center 
Janell Burse, was picked to play in the first ever Euroleague All-Star game. They'll team up with several WNBA stars for "The Rest of the World" against a team of European natives which will include former Storm guard Francesca Zara on March 8 in Pecs, Hungary.
Canberra Finals-Bound
Posted on February 1
Happy free agency day!
Well, it hasn't been as busy as Matt Wurst hinted on the WNBA.com "In Other News ..." blog, but today is the first day free agents can sign with new teams and we've already seen Kedra Holland-Corn (Detroit) and Adrian Williams (Minnesota) return to the league, with Connecticut signing Megan Mahoney and Candace Futrell. Plenty more to come on the free agency front in the days and weeks to come. WNBA.com has it all covered from the league-wide perspective, while storm.wnba.com will have news as soon as it breaks on the Storm front (ouch, bad pun).
There's plenty of Storm-related action overseas, and we start in Australia, where the WNBL regular season wrapped up last week. Lauren Jackson shot poorly (3-for-16) but had 11 points and 14 rebounds as Canberra defeated Dandenong 58-55, securing a spot in the Finals. Jessica Bibby scored three points in seven minutes for the Rangers. Bibby signed with the Storm last spring before a relapse in her comeback from back surgery kept her from coming to the WNBA. Bibby was able to play in four regular-season games for Dandenong, averaging 6.5 points.
Canberra moves on to take on the Bulleen Melbourne Boomers Friday in the "minor semi-final" game. Dandenong faces Adelaide in the major semi-final game. The Capitals-Boomers game is loser-out, with the winner advancing to face the loser of Adelaide-Dandenong for the right to take on the winner of the major semi-final for the WNBL Championship.
There's already been some speculation that this could be Jackson's last game for Canberra, should she leave the WNBL for a team in Europe or Asia. She continues to have her playing time limited as she returns from stress fractures in her shin.
The Euroleague playoffs kicked off this weekend, with both teams with Storm ties, Moscow Dynamo and UMMC Ekaterinburg, hosting Game 1 of their best-of-three series. Dynamo got off to an early series lead with a fourth-quarter comeback to defeat Ros Casares Valencia 72-59. Natalia Vodopyanova, fully recovered from a stress fracture that sidelined her earlier this season, had 13 points, seven boards and four assists in a strong all-around performance. Sue Bird had five points and four steals and backcourt-mate Diana Taurasi led Dynamo with 15 points.
Ekaterinburg lost a heartbreaker to visiting MKB Euroleasing Sopron, falling 80-77. Ekaterinburg trailed by one with possession inside the final 10 seconds, but Chicago Sky guard Elaine Powell committed a damaging turnover and Ekaterinburg did not even get off a tying attempt after two MKB free throws. Storm center Suzy Batkovic was valiant in defeat, finishing with team highs of 17 points and seven rebounds.