Women's Hoops Blog

Inane commentary on a game that deserves far better


Sunday, July 10, 2005

All-Star Game: fun to watch, fun to play. The West won again, in the highest-scoring ASG ever by far. Both teams fought hard for a while, but avoided defensive pressure, taking showy shots (fine for an ASG) and accomplishing spectacular offensive saves.

As the West built a lead up around 20 points, the game morphed into a stunt show: Diana and Becky made threes from far, far away, and in the last minute both teams set up for dunks. Deanna Nolan missed both attempts. Lisa Leslie made hers. Her dunk made Sports Center. Swoopes made MVP. A good time was had by all.

ABC miked up six players, both coaches, and a ref, but had trouble with the audio mix for a while: somebody then turned up Dawn Staley and Diana, turned everybody else down, and justified the whole mike-the-players scheme.

Taj McWilliams-Franklin's husband surprised her by showing up from Italy during the game. Later this year he'll be deployed to Iraq. Her smile at him made the game's off-court high point.

Announcers picked up on Taj's MVP season, Yo Griffith's old job as a repo woman, Katie Smith's shooting prowess, and Katie's dental ambitions, but missed out on KT45K, which is OK. Katie and Becky now share a record for ASG threes.

Not OK: Swin Cash's full name Swintayla may well mean "astounding woman" in an African language, but it doesn't mean anything "in African." (People in Tokyo don't speak "Asian.") Announcers have made this mistake since her UConn days.

Players like the casino. Connecticut players are Mohegan Sun employees, hence prohibited from gambling there; players on other teams can visit the slots or the tables as much as they like. Personal note: I don't gamble, and I like the casino too-- ideal arena, well-designed spaces, fine, fine food.

West coach Anne Donovan: "You've got the best players in the world out there competing. You've got a lot of points on the board. You've got rebounds. You've got a dunk. What more do you want?"

Sue Bird: "This was the most fun I've ever had."