[a basketball hoop somewhere in Washington, D.C. - K. Weidie]

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Excuse the comparison to the men’s game and think of the following more as context to what the Washington Mystics have accomplished this season. Through their run, a prevailing storyline has been about someone who hasn’t played at all, all-star Alana Beard. No one expected Washington to do anything after Beard had season-ending surgery on an injured left ankle tendon in April. Instead, the Mystics finished as the first overall seed in the East.

Unfortunately for the growing Mystics fan base, their team lost its opening playoff game against the Atlanta Dream in D.C. on Wednesday night. They’ve long moved past the ‘what if we had Alana’ stage, but for context, perspective, and for the hell of it, let’s find the NBA equivalent of Beard’s statistical production for a better idea of her impact, or lack thereof.

I chose three advanced stat categories to put in the Basketball-Reference.com historical NBA database (and please excuse the refresher course via the Basketball-Reference glossary): Read more »

STOP:

First go read part one of my piece on Nolan Ricahrdson, then read below …

Richardson understands he signed up for full-on rebuilding mode, in the WNBA, and seems dedicated to getting Tulsa off to a good start. But his personal transition to coaching the women’s game has also been a challenge.

“In the female game, it’s more patterned. A goes to B, B goes to C, you know, pick and pop and those kind of things,” Richardson told me. “In the male game, it’s more you can get after people like we did at the end there where we got into our scramble defense. We normally do a lot of that with the men’s game, in the women’s game you can’t play that way.”

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[I have to thank Rashad Mobley. He was the originator of 'Hey, Nolan Richardson is coming to town,' idea, which so happened to be the same night President Obama decided to head down the street to the Verizon Center for a Washington Mystics game against the Tulsa Shock. Rashad tackled the evening in the midst of the President and let me cover Coach Richardson, who was kind enough to speak with me for a considerable amount of time after the game. Thus, part one of my piece is below, and part two will follow.]

Nolan Richardson coached his final game as head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks on February 27, 2002, an 89-83 loss to Mississippi State on the Bulldogs’ home court. It was a night where 35 points on an efficient 10-18 FGs (7-12 3PT) from Arkansas’ Jannero Pargo couldn’t overcome the efforts of Mississippi State’s Mario Austin and Derrick Zimmerman. In my days working with the men’s basketball team in Starkville, Mississippi, I witnessed Richardson solemnly walk off the court that night and knew it would be the last game he coached for the Razorbacks. It was the end of an era. Flash-forward to almost eight and a half years later …

Now Richardson is much grayer. He’s more calculated and comfortable than my memories of watching him patrol the Southeastern Conference sidelines. But he still has the zest, backed by the experience of a ring he wears representing each of the JUCO, NIT & NCAA national championships he has won as a coach (he’s still the only one to do so). In the coach’s box of the WNBA, the 68-year old clearly gets joy from instruction and spry interactions with the referees, on top of relishing his foray into women’s basketball. I should know, I was afforded the opportunity to sit on press row, mere feet from Richardson as his Tulsa Shock were in the District of Columbia to take on the Washington Mystics on the first Sunday of August, with President Barack Obama in attendance no less.

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Washington Mystics head coach Julie Plank was the epitome of business as usual after her team’s big 80-71 win on Sunday against the Seattle Storm, which just happens to be the best team in the WNBA. But the coach still understood that the victory was crucial, not only for a team still learning a lot about themselves, but also for their playoff hopes.

“It just felt like a championship, a playoff-type game,” said Plank after the win over the previously 25-5 Storm at the Verizon Center, pushing the Mystics’ record to 19-12, the most regular season wins in franchise history with three games to go.  “We’ve won six out of eight games, and this is kinda how we were playing before the All-Star break,” Plank continued. “We’re in a good rhythm right now, and we know that every game matters …. we haven’t clinched a playoff berth yet.”

“Yet” was evidently the operative word. The Connecticut Sun later lost to the Indiana Fever on Sunday, clinching a playoff berth for the Mystics likely before Plank even left the arena, and also marking another franchise first — the first time the team has ever earned consecutive trips to the WNBA playoffs.

So how did the Mystics do it? It wasn’t easy. On Friday in Connecticut, Seattle rested several of their top players. Point guard leader, and third in the league with 5.6 assist per game, Sue Bird played just over six minutes. Swin Cash, averaging 14 points per game, second on the Storm, also played just over six minutes. And two-time MVP Lauren Jackson, third in the WNBA averaging 20.9 points per game, didn’t even play; the reason cited was back spasms. Seattle lost to a Connecticut team that Washington has been trying to fend off for a playoff berth by 20 points.

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From 1999 to 2004, two different versions of Chamique Holdsclaw played in Washington D.C.

The first version was drafted by the Washington Mystics first overall in 1999 out of Tennessee and started in the inaugural WNBA All-Star game as a rookie.  Holdsclaw led the team to two playoff appearances, and averaged 18.4 points and 9.1 rebounds a game during her tenure.  She created so much buzz and excitement for women’s professional basketball in Washington D.C. that the Mystics led the league in attendance five out of her six years with the team, averaging well over 15,000 fans per game (close to what the Wizards averaged during that same span, until someone named Jordan came back and spiked the numbers).  Attendance banners were put up in the Verizon Center to recognize this achievement, and this was largely due to Holdsclaw.

But in 2004, another side of Holdsclaw began to emerge, and the positive press about her began to subside.  She missed a series of games down the stretch during the 2004 season, and rumors swirled about whether she was pregnant, suffering from some type of drug addiction, or just plain unhappy with playing in Washington.  Just a few months after the season ended, Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post, broke the story that Holdsclaw had been diagnosed with depression, and she had been too ashamed to speak up about it earlier.  She never wore a Mystics uniform again.

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[L to R: Reggie Love, Ted Leonsis, President Obama, daugther Sasha & guest, Sheila Johnson.]

With the exception of a Josh Howard, Kirk Hinrich or a Kevin Seraphin signing here or there, from this blogger’s perspective, the Washington Wizards are basically closed for business until training camp.  Unfortunately for me, my basketball jones does not die that easily, so I decided to take my talents to the Washington Mystics of the WNBA.

When I initially looked at the Mystics schedule, there were certain games I had ear-marked as “must-sees”.  I wanted to see Chamique Holdsclaw and the San Antonio Silver Stars, I wanted to see Sue Bird and the Seattle Storm, and I definitely wanted to see former University of Maryland star, Kristi Tolliver and the Los Angeles Sparks. But above and beyond those match-ups, the team that intrigued me the most was the Tulsa Shock.

The Shock are led by former Arkansas Razorback head coach Nolan Richardson, who is the winningest coach in Arkansas history and is famous for the “40 Minutes of Hell” full-court press.  He also gave us such college and NBA players like Corliss Williamson, Todd Day, Lee Mayberry, Scotty Thurman, Oliver Miller and Joe Johnson.  Richardson is trying to bring that same frenetic style of play to the WNBA, and so far his team has struggled with a 4-22 record.

Also on the Shock roster is former world-class track athlete and gold medal winner Marion Jones.  Her past has been marred by legal issues ranging from check fraud to performance-enhancing drugs.  So recently, she found solace in basketball — a sport she hadn’t played since she was on North Carolina’s national championship team in 1997.  Jones only plays eight minutes a game for the Shock, and she averages just 2.7 points and a rebound a game.  On her transition to basketball, Coach Richardson said: Read more »

A couple weeks ago, I was invited to cover a WNBA game, the Washington Mystics versus the Connecticut Sun. Some people snickered. Some asked why. Some didn’t care.

And that’s fine. This post isn’t to convince anyone that the WNBA is great or that it’s even better than they think. Plain and simple, the WNBA is worth it. Worth the effort to make sure it works. Worth the support and subsidization of the NBA … although, the current level of the NBA’s assistance is somewhat mysterious.

WNBA president Donna Orender was recently interviewed by Fortune’s Poppy Harlow on CNNMoney.com. When asked if the league gets financial support from the NBA, Orender carefully said, “We are an entity that runs ourselves, but with … I would say we have support from the NBA, but there’s always been these rumors that they’re writing big checks for us …” Harlow interrupted and implored Orender to clear the record on if the WNBA stands on its own feet financially. Ordener responded, “At the league level, we do. Yes.” A bit vague, but certainly indications of progress from Orender.

Individual teams, however, are another story. A report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Henry Unger last December indicated that the Atlanta Dream, in its second season of existence, lost $3 million, although official financial numbers are disclosed.

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I have no idea where this came from or what it means, but it’s time for some must-read links.

Tired of Caron Butler yet?

Washington Post: Michael Lee provides even more insight on the crazy year in Washington from Caron Butler’s perspective. Great read.

A couple interesting tid-bits & quotes: Read more »