2021-wnba-training-camp-week-1

2021 WNBA Training Camp (Week 1)

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Dallas Wings Press Release
ARLINGTON, TX – The Dallas Wings have hired two-time WNBA All-Star Vickie Johnson to serve as the team’s head coach, the organization announced today. Johnson joins the Wings after serving as an Assistant Coach with the Las Vegas Aces franchise.
“After an extensive search and interview process, I’m pleased to introduce and welcome Vickie Johnson as the head coach of the Dallas Wings,” President &amp; CEO Greg Bibb stated. “We conducted a competitive search process and we were diligent in how we approached this important hire. While there were a number of highly qualified and impressive finalists for the position, it became clear Vickie was the right person to lead our team moving forward.”
Johnson, 48, helped guide Las Vegas to the best record in the WNBA this past summer. The Aces made the team’s second consecutive trip to the WNBA Playoffs and earned a berth in the 2020 WNBA Finals.
“I would like to thank Greg Bibb, Bill Cameron and the Wings ownership group for having faith in my ability to lead this team forward,” said Johnson. “Greg and the basketball operations department have done a tremendous job of drafting top talent over the past four years. I am excited to be able to work with a promising group of young and talented players. My goal is to build a strong foundation and a championship team. I know that it will take time, hard work and dedication, and I am up for the challenge. I have established Dallas as my home base since 2004 and I have been an active member of this community. I am now thrilled to be able to coach in the city that I love. “
Johnson was drafted twelfth overall by the New York Liberty during the inaugural WNBA season of 1997. She became a two-time WNBA All-Star (1999, 2001) and the first player in franchise history to record 2,000 points. Johnson would go on to score 3,000 points with the Liberty in eight seasons before finishing her career with the San Antonio Sliver Stars from 2006 to 2009, winning the Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award in 2008. In 2011, Johnson was hired by the Silver Stars as an assistant coach. She served in that role for seven years before spending one year as the head coach in San Antonio. When the Silver Stars relocated to Las Vegas in 2018, Johnson was retained as an assistant coach on Bill Laimbeer’s staff.
“I’m really excited about Coach Johnson coming on board,” Dallas Wings guard and 2020 WNBA leading scorer Arike Ogunbowale stated. “She has a great reputation and it will be exciting to be coached by someone who played in the WNBA. We’re a young team, and I know I’m looking forward to her leadership.”
A Louisiana native, Johnson was a two-letter athlete in high school before beginning her collegiate career at Louisiana Tech University in 1992. She was the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year in 1995 and a two-time All-American, leading her team to the NCAA Championship game in 1994. Johnson ended her collegiate career with 1,891 points and 831 rebounds, earning an induction into the Louisiana Tech Hall of Fame in 2007.
“The future is very bright in Dallas,” said Wings’ veteran Allisha Gray. “And with the hire of Vickie Johnson I’m sure she will do great things for the Dallas Wings organization.”

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Dallas Wings Name Vickie Johnson Head Coach

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When the Minnesota Lynx and Los Angeles Sparks tip off on Sunday at 3:30 P.M. ET on ABC, it will be just the second time in WNBA history that two teams will meet in consecutive WNBA Finals.
The last, and only other time it happened was in 1999 and 2000 when the Houston Comets and the New York Liberty faced off in a matchup that the Comets had won two seasons prior, during the inaugural WNBA Finals. Let’s press the rewind button and look back to those memorable meetings.
1999 Season
After winning the first two WNBA Finals in league history, the Houston Comets, led by two-time defending league and WNBA Finals MVP, Cynthia Cooper, were poised for a run at a three-peat. But months before the WNBA season tipped off, Houston received devastating news. Point guard Kim Perrot, who played a key role in the Comets&#8217; two championships, was diagnosed with lung cancer in February of 1999. The cancer spread quickly and on August 19, just a few weeks before the WNBA Playoffs were set to begin, Perrot passed away at the age of 32. Perrot&#8217;s fight through her final days was considered to be a source of inspiration for the team during the season, as they finished 26-6. Cooper and teammate Sheryl Swoopes would be named to the All-WNBA First Team, while Tina Thompson earned All-WNBA Second Team honors. Coach Van Chancellor also won his third WNBA Coach of the Year Award, but the goal for the season was simple: win title #3 for #10.
The Comets would go on to face the Los Angeles Sparks in the Western Conference Finals after earning a bye in the single-elimination first round. In Game 1, the Comets lost to Los Angeles on the road 75-60, but once the series shifted back to Houston, the Comets regained control, winning the next two games for their third WNBA Finals berth in a row.
In New York, the Liberty looked to bounce back from a heartbreaking 1998 season where they missed the playoffs after losing a tiebreaker to the Charlotte Sting. Led by Vickie Johnson&#8217;s team-leading 13.7 PPG and Teresa Weatherspoon&#8217;s (1999 All-WNBA Second Team) 6.4 APG, the Liberty found themselves back in the postseason and ready to exact revenge on Charlotte for the way 1998 ended.
Having also earned a bye in the first round, the Liberty dropped Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals in Charlotte, but took the next two games in New York to set up the rematch of the 1997 Finals.
Cynthia Cooper showed that the WNBA Finals was still her stage as she opened Game 1 with 29 points, six assists and four steals, to go along with a perfect 10-for-10 from the free throw stripe in a 73-60 victory over New York. The Liberty had strong bench play from Sophia Witherspoon, who scored a team-high 18 points off the bench, but it wasn&#8217;t enough to give New York the edge at Madison Square Garden.
The only goal on New York&#8217;s mind heading into Game 2 was to force a Game 3 in this best-of-three series. After finding themselves down 37-23 at halftime, the Liberty stormed back after the break. Led by Crystal Robinson, who finished the game with a game high 21 points, coupled along with a 10-point off-the-bench performance by a rookie named Becky Hammon, New York found themselves down 67-65 with 2.4 seconds remaining. The Comets had strong team play, with five players scoring 10 or more points, and Houston was ready to celebrate its third straight title.
Weatherspoon had other ideas.
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In what would be known today as &#8220;The Shot&#8221;, Weatherspoon converted a half-court shot to force Game 3 for the 1999 WNBA Finals. To this day, &#8220;The Shot&#8221; is considered one of the greatest plays in WNBA history.
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However, despite Weatherspoon&#8217;s heroics, the magic would run out on the Liberty&#8217;s season as Houston took the title and won Game 3 by a score of 59-47. Cynthia Cooper earned herself a hat trick, winning series MVP honors with a 24 point, six rebound, three steal performance in the clincher. With the win, Houston officially cemented its WNBA dominance by earning a hat trick of its own, the first three Finals in WNBA history.
2000 Season
The Comets would be led by an MVP performance yet again in 2000, as they sought the Finals four-peat. However, this time the MVP wasn&#8217;t Cynthia Cooper. The outstanding player for the Comets in the 2000 season was Sheryl Swoopes, who led the way with a league high 20.7 PPG, 50.6% FG, 37.4% 3P and 2.8 SPG, on the way both the MVP, as well as Defensive Player of the Year honors. Cooper&#8217;s reign as MVP wasn&#8217;t the only thing to come to an end as Houston&#8217;s run of three straight best conference regular season records was halted as they finished a game behind the Los Angeles Sparks.
The second place finish didn&#8217;t stop the Comets from coming alive in the playoffs, sweeping the first two rounds with 2-0 series victories over both the Sacramento Monarchs in the Conference Semifinals, as well as the Sparks in the Conference Finals to seal their return.
Meanwhile in the East, the Liberty improved on their 1999 season and finished the season at 20-12 for another first seed finish in the Eastern Conference. Tari Phillips led the way for the Liberty on the season, as she put up a team-high 13.8 PPG and 8.0 RPG on 46.7% FG.
New York had a similarly strong playoff run, sweeping Washington Mystics in the Conference Semifinals and defeating the Cleveland Rockers two games to one in the Conference Finals.
Despite New York&#8217;s strong season, it would be more of the same Houston dominance that shaped the league&#8217;s early history.
In Game 1, Phillips finished with a game-high 24 points, but Houston&#8217;s &#8220;big three&#8221; of Swoopes (12 PTS, 8 REB), Cooper (20 PTS, 5 AST), and Thompson (15 PTS, 8 REB) led the way for Houston in a win at Madison Square Garden.
Looking to finish off a perfect 6-0 playoff run, the Comets wrapped up the 2000 WNBA Finals in Game 2, winning 79-73 in overtime. Cooper had another strong series-clinching performance, putting up 25 points, seven rebounds, and three steals en route to being named WNBA Finals MVP for the fourth year in a row. Swoopes also came up big, scoring a game-high 31 points.
The Comets&#8217; four straight championships set an watermark for the league, one that has not yet been matched. Looking ahead to the second ever consecutive Finals rematch, this may be just the beginning of a new age of dominance. The Sparks and Lynx sure hope so.

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The First Finals Rematch

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NEW YORK – The first day of the WNBA season was a surreal one for former All-Star Vickie Johnson, who made her head coaching debut inside the arena where everything started.
Johnson played in New York from 1997-2005, helping guide the Liberty to the inaugural WNBA Finals and three more Finals appearances. A member of the Liberty’s Ring of Honor, she still ranks as the franchise’s all-time leader in points (3,246), rebounds (1,053) and games played (282). Saturday afternoon, Johnson led the huddle for her San Antonio Stars for the very first time at Madison Square Garden.
During a timeout in the second quarter, the Liberty played a tribute to Johnson on the video screen, featuring highlights from her time at The Garden and an emotional interview. Johnson said, “Deep down inside, I’m still a New York Liberty.”
The enemy this time around, Johnson received a standing ovation from the crowd at MSG.
“It’s exciting. This is where I started, The Garden,” Johnson told WNBA.com. “I was excited to bring my team here, in front of these amazing fans. I’ll always remember the energy we brought and the amazing fans. It was about the little things. It wasn’t about what showed up on the box score, it was about how you played, the energy, the hard work you put in.”
The game didn’t pan out as Johnson hoped – the Stars falling 73-64 to the Liberty – but the circumstances were difficult for her heading coaching debut. San Antonio was missing arguably its top three players in Moriah Jefferson (knee), Kelsey Plum (ankle) and Kayla McBride (overseas commitment). It didn’t help that they faced a Liberty team that finished first in the Eastern Conference each of the last two seasons.
That didn&#8217;t stop the short-handed Stars from holding their own for most of the contest. After trailing 21-13 at the end of the first quarter, they ended up losing by just nine despite shooting 38 percent from the field and 17-of-29 at the free throw line. Against a New York team that led the league in opponent field goal percentage the last two years, the Stars played some solid defense themselves.
Tina Charles, last year’s MVP runner-up, was held to just 12 points on 6-of-19 shooting. Epiphanny Prince added 11 points off the bench for New York, while San Antonio’s Monique Currie finished with 23 to lead all scorers.
“I thought if we would have made some free throws, some open shots, we probably would have won,” Johnson said. “But we worked hard as a team. …I think the fourth quarter, we played aggressive and with a sense of urgency. We can’t wait until late in the game to do that. We have to play the whole game like that.”
The Stars will have a quick turnaround, as they next face Elena Delle Donne and the Washington Mystics on Sunday. Johnson said neither Plum nor Jefferson will play against Washington.
Although the Liberty spoiled her coaching debut, Johnson will remember Saturday’s game for many years to come. It was only a matter of time before she became the leader of a WNBA franchise. After she spent six seasons as an assistant, the Stars promoted her when former head coach and GM Dan Hughes retired.
“I’ve been looking forward to this for four or five years,” said Johnson, who also spent four years of her playing career in San Antonio. “I knew that in time, God would work everything out. To have the opportunity now to coach for the Stars, the team that I loved, played for and cried for, I can’t even put it into words.”

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Vickie Johnson Honored at The Garden During Coaching Debut vs. Liberty

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Vickie Johnson

Vickie Johnson (born April 15, 1972) is a guard for the New York Liberty. She played college basketball at Louisiana Tech.