The Waiting Game, Mystics-Liberty Notes
I'm waiting for the WNBA to announce the repercussions of the Tuesday night's fight between the Shock and Sparks and I'll provide updates as that develops.
But in the meantime, what do you think about the league not dolling out punishments yesterday? I understand they wanted ample time to review every camera angle and possibly interview the people involved, but as the video circulated and comments about the brawl being a good thing for the WNBA festered, the league said no more than "we're investigating." Was that the right decision?
There has been so much talk over who was right and who was wrong in the fight. Or if the WNBA will follow the path of the NBA in terms of fights, brawls and outlandishness. Of all the people I talked to about the incident yesterday, Taj McWilliams-Franklin's thoughts (which is in my story today) seemed particularly poignant.
"It really has nothing to do with our identity or [the identity] of the game," McWilliams-Franklin, a 10-year WNBA veteran, said of the fight. "It was the heat-of-the-moment situation. It happened. It's over. We play on."
The rest of the Mystics I talked to agreed that this was a case of athletes allowing their adrenaline to get the best of them. It just happened to be that they were women, which in today's society draws a significant amount of attention, a phenomenon that remains a mystery to me. Fights happen in sports, regardless of whether the players are men or women.
Mystics-Liberty notes on the jump...
Notes from yesterday's game:
As people have pointed out in the comments of the previous game post, the Mystics bench scored all of eight points as compared to the Liberty bench, which had 42. To answer some of the questions that have popped up, Kenlaw likes to lead with the energy players -- the players who she knows will work hard for her -- like Coco Miller who's really all-out all the time. But not getting much scoring from Miller in nearly 29 minutes is a definite problem, and has been one all season. The Mystics haven't found -- or simply don't have -- an ideal, or even viable, offensive option to back up their shooting guard (Beard) and small forward (Currie). Every time Beard and Currie come out of a game
A few more energy observations through these two games, yes, I know it is only two games, but we're seeing more of Bernice Mosby than we ever did before, partially because she works so hard and Kenlaw likes that. Everyone knows young players are going to make mistakes, but if you never play them they can't get any better. And she seems to have found a better rotation with Nakia Sanford and Crystal Langhorne at center that's helped both of them.
I talked to Sanford briefly in the locker room yesterday to see how she felt after that hard fall. She didn't really know how she wound up hurting her head when she ran into a New York screen, but other than being a little woozy she was fine.
That was my first camp day experience and I think I've finally regained my hearing. There is something about the sight of over 16,000 neon-t-shirt-wearing kids dancing in unison to the most typical arena songs though, that's amusing like nothing else.
---Based off a few comments and emails, I'd also like to offer an explanation as to why we decided to run with a story in reaction to the fight rather than a straight gamer. This altercation between two of the league's most prominent franchises and some of its most notable players gives the WNBA a challenge it hasn't yet faced in its 12-year history.
There have been minor tussles between players who didn't get along before, but as I was told many times yesterday the league's "never seen anything like this." The WNBA has always promoted sportsmanship to the highest degree, touting itself as a place for young girls to find role models. Now the young league must show how it will react when controversy comes about, a problem every other professional sports league has faced at one time or another.
I understand the case of those who disagree, in an ideal world we would have had two separate stories, but unfortunately that just wasn't the case.
By
Katie Carrera
|
July 24, 2008; 9:52 AM ET
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Posted by: Mystix4evr | July 24, 2008 10:31 AM
Oh, and I'm happy to report that, thanks to the earplugs I brought to the game with me, my hearing suffered no damage. I put them in when that first wave of kiddie cheers erupted!
Posted by: Mystix4evr | July 24, 2008 10:32 AM
Is this supposed to suffice instead of a real story in the Wash Post about an actual game that the Mystics played yesterday? A home game, no less. Because there's no game story in the paper that I can find today; just a day-late story about the melee wrapped with a headline with the game score.
I agree with the commenter on another post on this blog who said that the paper should have covered the game.
Posted by: We Deserve Better | July 24, 2008 10:37 AM
While I wish there had been more coverage of the Mystics' game, I understand why so much attention was paid to the melee between Detroit and LA. It was something that was well out of the ordinary for the WNBA. I guess a good thing that has come out of it is the discussion about sportsmanship and what the league wants its image to be.
Katie, like you, I'm surprised no punishments have been announced yet. Hey, how about having the fans decide? Parker, Pierson and Milton-Jones should be suspended 5 games each, plus a fine. Mahorn should be suspended one game, as should Murriel Page who also pushed Mahorn. I'm not sure what Nolan and Bobbitt did to get technicals, but they should be fined (no suspension).
There. See how easy that was?
Posted by: Kande | July 24, 2008 1:27 PM
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I'm surprised no one has brought up the crazy girl who ran onto the court. It happened right in front of me as, first, she took a seat on the Liberty bench before being removed, then ran across the court before security caught her and removed. I've never seen that happen before and some of the Liberty players and coaches were startled by her. Wow!