June 10th, 2003: Cleveland @ New York

New York Liberty 73, Cleveland Rockers 65

Elena Baranova disappoints, Liberty fans get shamefully ugly hats, and the Game Notes of Doom make an altogether too bold prediction vis-à-vis K.B. Sharp.


Okay, is it just me or is this team schitzo? Sometimes they play wonderfully, sometimes they play sucky-ass basketball. They split the last two games between these aspects of their personality, and they apparently decided that they were going to split this game more or less evenly between the two sides. Fortunately, the split came in favor of hustle and such, so we won.

Becky.Freaking.Hammon. Ho-ly mother of all the deities of sport, how did some of those shots go in?! 28 points on the night, good to tie for third all time in Liberty annals. I still don’t like her game- one sequence where KB was open but she went and blew a layup comes to mind- but I appreciate that she has her uses.

If anyone finds the real Tamika Whitmore, please return her to Madison Square Garden. We’d appreciate it.

How do you say “Elena, your teammates are the women wearing WHITE!” in Russian? It looked like she took one giant-sized step backwards. One pass went from the middle of the paint, scythed between two players (VJ and either Spoon or KB) and thudded against the Cleveland basket. OY!

Lindsey stood on the court for about six seconds. Richie, hon, why bother? On that topic, Pat and Jeff need a leash to keep him out of trouble. I thought for sure he was going to smack some referees around.

We were blah. We shouldn’t be blah. We shouldn’t get into the habit of expecting Becky to be our savior. She falters. *coughIndianaonSaturdaycough* She’s not perfect. Sometimes she’s bloody stupid. We need for Miko and Tari to show up on Saturday against La Leslie, D-Nasty, and Grandmama. Hell, we need Elena to actually show up.

For Cleveland, I was impressed by Helen Darling’s comeback (does she do everything by threes?), Lucienne Berthieu, and the defense. Points also go to Penny Taylor and Tracy Henderson for signing for fans during the pre-pre-game warm-ups. I’m worried about LaToya Thomas; saw her get carried into the walkway during the end of the game. Hope she’s okay. What happened to Chas Melvin tonight?! Not complaining, just wondering. And I wanted to hit Dan Hughes with a lead pipe for making the end of the game last for-fucking-ever. If you’re six points down with five seconds left, for the love of glod, let it end already!

Okay, now for the big old positive. This is one of those pronouncements that you can come back years later and stare at in awe or incredulity that anyone could be that stupid. It’s a big prediction, and it’s a lot to put on a young woman, but here goes.
KB Sharp will be an elite point guard in the Eastern Conference, second only to Shannon Johnson. She will step into the void when Staley and Spoon and Debbie Black retire (they have to eventually, right?). I think she has the potential to be the next Jennifer Azzi, only without the wonderful hair and superhuman body. She is what we as Liberty fans have been waiting for.

Kym was kept busy tonight introducing local heroes. Apropos of that, did anyone catch who VJ said was her hero? I missed it. Other people-spotting included Joan Jett (finally, I was starting to worry).

UMs on the night included Miko and an anonymous Rocker. Other horrendous sights included the free hats. I think I’m going to sell mine on eBay.

Sometimes the universe sets things up perfectly. I was hanging out before the game, and it was about twenty to six. I was with a friend who was keen to get Becky’s ‘graph on a picture, and he kept asking me of every slim blonde, “Is that her? Is that her?” After one of these, I said, “No, that’s not Becky Hammon.” The universe then gave me the opportunity to skip a beat and add, “But *that* is Tari Phillips.” Don’t you just love moments like that?