Women's Hoops Blog

Inane commentary on a game that deserves far better


Saturday, May 20, 2006

Mel Greenberg reflects on the 10th Anniversary of the WNBA. Over on his blog, Mel includes his choices for the most noteworthy teams, players and events.

The guru also includes the chalk transcript of a roundtable discussion on the 10th Anniversary that included SI's Kelli Anderson and USA Today's Oscar Dixon. The discussion was hosted by Sports Business Daily.

Elsewhere, three of the original players in the league - Sheryl Swoopes, Tina Thompson and Lisa Leslie - are profiled by Associated Press. And Tamika Catchings participated in a Q&A with the Dallas Morning News.

More 10th Anniversary coverage from:
  • Mechelle Voepel in the KC Star - “I used to think that a ‘generation’ of players as far as improvement in level of play was about every six or seven years. Now, it’s more like every three years,” Connecticut coach Mike Thibault said.
  • Voepel on ESPN.com - The league has survived a change in the overall business structure -- which helped weed out the more-committed franchises from the half-hearted ones -- and a collective- bargaining agreement process. And it "survived" some less-than-appealing advertising campaigns -- including the bizarre stalker-guys and the "let's give everyone a makeover" ideas.
  • Susan Bickelhaupt of the Boston Globe - And perhaps most importantly, the league has caught the interest of girls and young women who used to hit the glass ceiling in basketball after they graduated from college.
  • Mike Terry of the L.A. Times -"The league has a tremendous potential that it hasn't quite reached yet," Joe Maloof said. "But it's still a young league. As long as you have the interest in women's basketball in college and high school, you have a fighting chance to make it succeed in the pro level."
  • Jon Gallo of the Washington Post - "That was the slogan: 'We Got Next,' "Alana Beard said. "We Got Next. I'll never forget seeing that because it changed my outlook on basketball."