July 12th, 2003: WNBA All-Star Game

West 84, East 75

The East can't buy a basket, the West can't not hit a shot, and would everyone please sit the goddamn hell down in front of us?


Posted at the Ticktock Diner. Airport is a beautiful thing.


Reports from All-Star land. The Jam sucked. Hate to say it, but it did. It was cramped, inconvenient, and the opposite of fan-friendly. On the other hand, it was wonderful to talk to so many people. McHuskyfan, I loved meeting you and JJ. I had a lot of fun with a couple of Charlotte fans; our conversation kept getting interrupted as I added fans to my collection- I collect photos of fans from different teams every year at All-Star time. Anyway. The Cleveland family was also very nice, considering that they never got an All-Star. I spent most of my time wandering up and down trying to trade cards and complete my set of fans. (I lack Phoenix and San Antonio. If you were there, let me know.)

The anthem performance wasn’t so good, in my opinion. My mom loved it, but I found myself thinking that Tari could do it better. Sra. Cooper finally showed up, going with the simple tank top and beige skirt look. Thompson came in some Chinese blouse and slacks. The intros were nice.

West won the tip, but one of the Meeks blocked Leslie. It was hard to see, since people keep walking in front of us. Tari scored the first basket. So far Leslie’s been impressive. Grr. Tari got two quick fouls. It’s been hard to see a lot of stuff, though we’re in the front row of the section. Oh.my.god. That lineup. A front line of Jackson, Leslie, and Griffith. Eeep.

11:02 left now. Deanna Nolan has been all that and a bag of overpriced popcorn. Beautiful stroke. Beautiful. She deserves her spot on the team. Catchings hasn’t been able to throw it in the ocean. Nat Williams has been determined, Adrian Williams impressive. And now that I’ve seen it, I have to ask the same question as everyone else- WTF is that thing the Fever call their mascot?

9:11 left. Richie’s had enough of this crap; the East had a brief lead, but Nat Williams suffered a brain freeze and Teasley had a ncie pass to Adrian Williams, then Ferdy on the fast break and suddenly it’s West by three.

8:00 left. Yes, Shock, you want to leave Katie Smith open. She’s only scored over four thousand points in her American professional career. It won’t hurt at all. West by five. Our adorable lil dance squad, the Lil Torches, just performed, and the Connecticut announcer dude continues to be annoying. At least the regular Garden guy is doing the PA stuff.
5:14 left. The East has been getting on a roll; they’re up by five now. The West is getting dirty now; Teasley was pushing blatantly and Dydek was messing with Nat Williams, and that’s not right. Tamika Catchings has found her stroke. One moment comes to mind- Dydek had the ball and had this grin on her face like she was about to take Nat Williams to school… then Natalie poked it away and got it out of bounds off her. Heh.

BITCH! Leslie tripped Catchings! BITCH! It’s getting nasty- LJ and LL creamed Holdsclaw with no call, and pretty much everyone on the West except maybe Bird creamed Tari on her way to the hole. Gah! Dawn just shot up an airball with 1.6 left. I’m sorry, Storm fans, but LJ is making me sick of the West. She’s playing dirty, dirty, dirty. She and Leslie are both playing filthy.
Meanwhile, Charm the Mystics mascot was kind enough to spray silly string in the face of a ref, expressing all our opinions of him. Nat Williams helped get it out of his hair; maybe that’ll get her a good call or two.

Halftime now. It’s dark and loud and there are a lot of people over here. 46-38, EAST, baby. Tamia’s singing, *roll eyes* There’s a crapload of people standing in front of me, one of them being Val Ackerman. ‘Tis crazy here. Hmm… from here, I can see Sue Wicks and her lady friend sitting in section 83. It’s nice to see her back again; she’s been working in the studio for Oxygen, so she’s had to miss a lot of Liberty games. Allison Feaster of the Sting, Tamika Williams of the Lynx, and Elena Baranova, Vickie Johnson, Crystal Robinson, and Erin Thorn of the Liberty are all in attendance. There were a few other players at the Jam who might be here also: Sandy Brondello of the Storm, Adrienne Goodson of the Silver Stars, and Edna Campbell of the Monarchs. Val, of course, is here, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Anne Donovan was as well; she was at the Jam.

SF7, our brief encounter was pleasant- did you get the message to Kate?

Meanwhile, Bird just schmoozed with some big black guy in a retro Payton jersey and Nike cap- Stormfans, any suggestions on who he might be? I just spotted Edna Campbell in 83 in front of some guy I think I should recognize. Becky has a crutch attendant, someone who seems to just be carrying her crutches. *amusement*… showtime now.

15:53 left in the second. 50-46 East. Pee-Wee’s had two easy ones rim out on her, and the dirty hits just keep on coming. What bothers me is that the East players seem less willing to do the dirty work and get the loose balls and play f*cking defense. Swin, honey stop worrying about your nails and chase the damn ball! Meanwhile, I hate to say it, but LJ is rapidly getting her ass on the shit list. She’s playing almost as nasty as the Diva herself.

14:33 left. Leslie is DOWN! I repeat, Leslie is down. My friend, who was watching, says that LJ whacked her and sent her down. People were freaked. I think some karma may have just caught up with her. She’s being worked on.

11:56 left, tied at 52. It’s been an ugly game. Leslie was just helped into the locker room. Looks like LJ is going to have to take over the dirty duties. The East needs to get its bum in gear.
3:52 left, 68-64 West. It’s been some nasty stuff out there, but the West at least had one rim out- they’ve been getting all the bounces, whereas the East has had five shots rim out in this half. But the East is roaring back behind the Fever gals. And I think the Mystics mascot is flirting with the Indiana one.

2:55. Seven rimouts now for the East. This is f*cking ridiculous. The final tally was eight rimouts for the East, two for the West. The West wins. AGAIN.

What were the problems for the East? They were legion. For starters, the East is short, always has been, always will be. It doesn’t help that the fans voted for two bad point guards. Then there’s the fact that Richie seems to be going senile; his coaching sucked, and it has for the last two games. And then there are the refs, who ignored so much crap from the West that it wasn’t even funny. And then there were eight rimouts, at least four of which were three-point shots. Meh! The East needs to draft tall next year. Nicole Powell and Stacy Stephens, are you ready to save the Eastern Conference?

Okay, Storm fans, I gotta say this, because it’s buggin’ me. I love you people. You people are very nice, very cool. However, Lauren Jackson is now on the Shit List. She plays dirty, she plays nasty, she plays evil. Menawhile, Leslie never came out of the locker room.

Teasley as MVP- on principle, I didn’t approve of a Spark getting the award, but the case was solid for her. It might also have been solid for Yo. But I can deal.

People-spotting… Kat Fox chatted with Kara Lawson’s dad. It was interesting. “You’ve got an amazing daughter.” “She’s not bad.”
Any other opinions out there?

Other miscellany, since I spaced out on the specifics of the Jam. Anne Donovan was there. I think she brought family; there was a collection of tall, skinny people following her, one of whom wore a Sting jersey and another who wore a Jackson home jersey. As previously mentioned, there was a nice smattering of fans (and I found a Phoenix fan on the way home from the game who had missed the whole shebang; figures. And I saw my San Antonio fan at the practice.).

The halftime lady made the mistake of not picking a song that she could get loud to. I like "Stranger In My House", but it took until the chorus for me to recognize it. Perhaps she should have used the dance mix. And speaking of Nell Fortner, she was there; she chatted with Nat and Catchings.