duncan228
10-01-2008, 01:40 PM
Fans relate to this team easier (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/columnists/mike_finger/29985959.html)
Mike Finger
After Sophia Young signed her first professional basketball contract, she treated herself to a trip she couldn't have taken in college.
She went to Wal-Mart.
Young had been a bona fide celebrity at Baylor, where she'd led the Bears to a national championship and become such a recognizable figure that routine shopping trips turned into impromptu interview and autograph sessions. But she soon found out that the life of a first-round WNBA draft pick in San Antonio wasn't nearly as chaotic.
It actually was kind of nice, Young said. I could go out like a normal person.
As much as he'd like to, Tim Duncan will never know such a feeling in this city. And that's why the Silver Stars have a unique opportunity this week.
When the Spurs won their four championships, they did it representing San Antonio. But if the Silver Stars are able to win one of their own, they'll do it representing average San Antonians.
More than any team in the NBA, the Spurs exemplify a no-frills, everyman approach to superstardom, but they still drive their sports cars home to gated communities every night. The Silver Stars, meanwhile, have no such insulation from the community.
To many of this city's middle class, the standout performers who make up the best team in women's basketball are, quite literally, the girls next door. Every player in the WNBA makes somewhere between $34,500 and $97,500 per season, meaning you're liable to find more overpaid prima donnas at your company rec softball league than you will on the floor at the AT&T Center tonight.
It makes for the kind of accessible feel the NBA couldn't match with a thousand locker-room cameras and timeout-huddle microphones. While the stars of the men's game are conditioned to hide from the masses, the Silver Stars are so inextricably linked to the general public, there's no sense in putting up barriers.
On Tuesday, for instance, they took part in a scene that would've given Gregg Popovich a coronary. Cameras were allowed into the Silver Stars' pre-Finals workout, and this wasn't just a shootaround. Within earshot of boom mikes, reporters and assorted hangers-on, the team's coaches went through actual, honest-to-goodness game preparation which Detroit player likes to fake a spin move to her right at the top of the key, what options to look for when the post is double-teamed and made no attempt to disguise it.
Afterwards, Silver Stars coach Dan Hughes didn't see what the big deal was. This is, after all, the end of a long season, and with every game on tape, it's not as though Detroit could learn much from an open practice.
We're not real tricky, Hughes said.
Neither, of course, are the Spurs, but that doesn't make Popovich any less likely to protect his game plan of dumping the ball to Duncan and running the pick-and-roll with Tony Parker like it was a classified CIA secret.
Popovich has that luxury, because he knows all he has to do to bring the crowds back is win.
More is required of the Silver Stars, which is why Tuesday felt as much like a campaign stop as a practice day. In between comments about how far the team has come on the court and the keys to beating the Shock, Becky Hammon a perennial All-Star and one of the most popular players in the game was making pitches to fill up the seats.
We're always looking for new fans, Hammon said. If you see someone out on the street, bring 'em on in to the AT&T Center.
Odds are, there will be room. Sunday's deciding game of the Western Conference finals drew an attendance of just 7,111, and there are still seats available for tonight.
But that doesn't mean the Silver Stars aren't catching on. A few nights after she banked in the dramatic last-second, game-winning jump shot to beat Los Angles in Game 2 of the conference finals, Young went to her neighborhood H-E-B for some grocery shopping.
And there, somewhere between the vegetables and the dairy aisle, heads started to turn. People smiled, patted her on the back, and congratulated her.
As one of their own.
Mike Finger
After Sophia Young signed her first professional basketball contract, she treated herself to a trip she couldn't have taken in college.
She went to Wal-Mart.
Young had been a bona fide celebrity at Baylor, where she'd led the Bears to a national championship and become such a recognizable figure that routine shopping trips turned into impromptu interview and autograph sessions. But she soon found out that the life of a first-round WNBA draft pick in San Antonio wasn't nearly as chaotic.
It actually was kind of nice, Young said. I could go out like a normal person.
As much as he'd like to, Tim Duncan will never know such a feeling in this city. And that's why the Silver Stars have a unique opportunity this week.
When the Spurs won their four championships, they did it representing San Antonio. But if the Silver Stars are able to win one of their own, they'll do it representing average San Antonians.
More than any team in the NBA, the Spurs exemplify a no-frills, everyman approach to superstardom, but they still drive their sports cars home to gated communities every night. The Silver Stars, meanwhile, have no such insulation from the community.
To many of this city's middle class, the standout performers who make up the best team in women's basketball are, quite literally, the girls next door. Every player in the WNBA makes somewhere between $34,500 and $97,500 per season, meaning you're liable to find more overpaid prima donnas at your company rec softball league than you will on the floor at the AT&T Center tonight.
It makes for the kind of accessible feel the NBA couldn't match with a thousand locker-room cameras and timeout-huddle microphones. While the stars of the men's game are conditioned to hide from the masses, the Silver Stars are so inextricably linked to the general public, there's no sense in putting up barriers.
On Tuesday, for instance, they took part in a scene that would've given Gregg Popovich a coronary. Cameras were allowed into the Silver Stars' pre-Finals workout, and this wasn't just a shootaround. Within earshot of boom mikes, reporters and assorted hangers-on, the team's coaches went through actual, honest-to-goodness game preparation which Detroit player likes to fake a spin move to her right at the top of the key, what options to look for when the post is double-teamed and made no attempt to disguise it.
Afterwards, Silver Stars coach Dan Hughes didn't see what the big deal was. This is, after all, the end of a long season, and with every game on tape, it's not as though Detroit could learn much from an open practice.
We're not real tricky, Hughes said.
Neither, of course, are the Spurs, but that doesn't make Popovich any less likely to protect his game plan of dumping the ball to Duncan and running the pick-and-roll with Tony Parker like it was a classified CIA secret.
Popovich has that luxury, because he knows all he has to do to bring the crowds back is win.
More is required of the Silver Stars, which is why Tuesday felt as much like a campaign stop as a practice day. In between comments about how far the team has come on the court and the keys to beating the Shock, Becky Hammon a perennial All-Star and one of the most popular players in the game was making pitches to fill up the seats.
We're always looking for new fans, Hammon said. If you see someone out on the street, bring 'em on in to the AT&T Center.
Odds are, there will be room. Sunday's deciding game of the Western Conference finals drew an attendance of just 7,111, and there are still seats available for tonight.
But that doesn't mean the Silver Stars aren't catching on. A few nights after she banked in the dramatic last-second, game-winning jump shot to beat Los Angles in Game 2 of the conference finals, Young went to her neighborhood H-E-B for some grocery shopping.
And there, somewhere between the vegetables and the dairy aisle, heads started to turn. People smiled, patted her on the back, and congratulated her.
As one of their own.