sons the best to ever do it considers taking a break

[BRHornet45]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/10/sp...10taurasi.html

W.N.B.A.’s Taurasi Considers A Breather
By THOMAS KAPLAN
Published: July 9, 2010

PHOENIX — While the N.B.A.’s best player has decided to play in Miami next season, the best player in the W.N.B.A. is considering taking a hiatus from the league.

When the Phoenix Mercury finishes its season, Diana Taurasi will report to the United States national team in preparation for this fall’s world championships in the Czech Republic. Then she will travel to Turkey, where she will play professionally this winter.

“It does take a toll on you,” Taurasi, 28, said in an interview last week. “In professional sports, you take time off. It’s part of being an athlete; you take time off to recover and re-energize. A lot of us just haven’t done that.”

Taurasi, who will play Saturday in the W.N.B.A. All-Star Game in Uncasville, Conn., is weighing whether to skip a season to get some rest. The prospect of her sabbatical has created a stir in women’s professional basketball, which desperately needs the few household names that it has.

Taurasi, the league’s most valuable player last season, is hardly the first women’s basketball player to be stretched thin among her various professional commitments.

But her stature within the W.N.B.A. has drawn attention to the league’s struggle to remain the top priority for its best players, who can make much more money playing overseas.

That is the case for Taurasi, who has won championship after championship playing in Russia the past five seasons in the winter.

The maximum salary in the W.N.B.A. this season is $101,500, and top players can command five times that playing abroad. That makes Taurasi’s decision on how to lighten her schedule as much a business decision as a basketball one, and she does not apologize for that.

“Ultimately, you’re responsible for your career; no one is going to look after you,” she said. “Once you turn 40, they’re not going to be like, ‘Oh, we’ll give you a job because you played all those years for us.’ ”

Taurasi’s situation is striking for what it says about the W.N.B.A. and women’s basketball as a profession.

The thought of N.B.A. players taking on another full schedule of games in the off-season, as Taurasi and other women’s players do without anyone raising eyebrows, is laughable, said Corey Gaines, who played parts of five seasons in the N.B.A. and is now the coach of the Mercury.

“Men couldn’t do it,” he said. “They wouldn’t allow the men to do it, because it would be a death wish.”

But for women, money often forces the issue. The minimum salary for rookies in the W.N.B.A. is $35,880. The season runs from May until September, which makes playing overseas to supplement their income an attractive option. Over all, roughly 75 percent of the league’s current players played a second professional season abroad last winter.

Tangela Smith, a 13-year veteran who plays center for the Mercury and is approaching the league’s career record for games played, said she wished she was financially secure enough to have skipped a season overseas at some point earlier in her career. “But it pays more, so you got to weigh your options,” she said. “Do you want to make more money, or rest your body?”

Compounding the problem, Taurasi said, was the league’s decision last year to reduce the size of team rosters to 11 players from 13. Taurasi said players now feel more pressure to stay on the court even if they are nicked up, lest their team not even have enough able bodies to run a five-on-five practice.

The league, for its part, has tried to help players get more rest. Another change the league made last year was to start the regular season two weeks later than usual in large part to accommodate overseas players.

The later start, which could not happen this year because of the world championships, should return next season, the president of the W.N.B.A., Donna Orender, said in a telephone interview.

Orender said it was only natural for players to reassess as they get older whether they want to play as many months of basketball each year as they did when they were younger.

But she declined to discuss what implications Taurasi’s proposed sabbatical might have on the W.N.B.A., or how the league stacks up against the wealthier European teams in competing for talent.

“We’ve been around 14 years; this is not a new issue,” Orender said. “Everybody has to make their individual decisions about what’s best for them.”

Taurasi said she would make a decision soon about her schedule. For now, she is focused on the Mercury, the defending league champion.

Taurasi’s dominance on the court relative to her peers is no different from LeBron James to his, except that she has three scoring titles to his one. Taurasi has topped the W.N.B.A. in scoring three of the last four seasons and is once again leading the league with 22.5 points per game.

But her team is struggling. The Mercury, at 7-11, trails the first-place Seattle Storm by nine games in the Western Conference.

After practice last week, Taurasi was more consumed with her team’s six-game losing streak (which the team has since snapped) than personal records.

“I don’t remember the last time ever — going back to second grade — losing six games in a row,” she said. “We just have to buckle down.”

Where she will be buckling down next season is unclear. “It’s tough,” she said. “I don’t really know what the answer is.”

[himat]

Dammit LeBron is not the best player in the league! How much more evidence to people need?

[DMX7]

Originally Posted by BRHornet45

But for women, money often forces the issue. The minimum salary for rookies in the W.N.B.A. is $35,880.

glass ceiling = broken

-Hillary Clinton

[BRHornet45]

Originally Posted by himat

Dammit LeBron is not the best player in the league! How much more evidence to people need?

son ain't that the truth ... Taurasi has more credentials than Lebrick could even dream of.

[badfish22]

lol