June 9th, 2004: New York Liberty open practice

The Game Notes answer simple trivia, chat with Crystal Robinson, and muse about Tari's finger.


*random question from random nowhere*: Are you a good diva or a bad diva?
*Tari bats eyelashes* ME? Why, I'm not a diva at all.
*everyone within ten miles breaks up in hysterical laughter*

As is my wont when anything of a Liberty nature is going on at the Garden, I arrived at 4:30. I wasn't the first one there, but I was close. Yeah, I know, I'm a geek, a nerd, and obsessive to boot. So I saved my mom a rather decent place in line, or so I thought. She showed up a little after six, went to the end of the line, and immediately started waving me over. My first thought was something along the lines of 'she told me to save her a seat up front, and now she wants me to come back??' After a few minutes of steadfastly ignoring her, I finally gave in and went to see WTF was going on. And then I found out she'd signed me up for the Liberty trivia contest. As those who know me know, I pride myself on my WNBA geekiness; I've only ever met one fan who could out-geek me, and that was pilight. So after being annoyed that she had volunteered me, I signed up. So things were different for me than usual. While everyone else filed in to get seated, the rest of us lingered at the back and were brought in on floor level by way of the elevator. It's something of the way cool variety to sneak around the back end of the Garden, where few fans are ever permitted to go. We sat behind the basket, which aren't the prime seats you'd think they are; if I felt the urge to yell 'down in front!' in Tari's general direction one more time, I was going to end up throwing something somewhere. But being down by the basket *did* give me the opportunity to watch some of the by-play and overhear some of the comments. For one thing, Crystal's pretty chatty with her teammates and the coaching staff.

I've come to the conclusion that if you ever want anything to start, finish, or at any point be on time, you can't involve Tari. I love her to pieces, I really do, but she knows how to eat up time. At least she wasn't the only one this time. I honestly think Becky is looking into a career as a boxing announcer after she finishes her basketball, the way she introduced VJ. Shameka's riff about the significance of the various positions of Tari's finger was good too, although I'd like to know which finger means 'shut the bleep up before I do something completely unladylike to you that's going to leave you hurtin' for the next week and a half'. I forgot how strong Elena's accent was; she doesn't seem very comfortable in English, and YES, I know that's not her first language but even Ann seemed more comfortable. This team has a very odd sense of humor, I gotta say. They seem to enjoy each other's company. Shameka is obviously learning more than defense from Crystal, and that's a good thing. (But are all Louisiana girls quiet and kinda shy, or did we just get the quiet and shy ones? VJ seemed like she wanted to get the intros the heck over with as soon as was humanly possible, and Crystal said that the intro DeTrina gave her was the most they'd heard her say at once all year.) And as an aside, how can Ann be the tallest player on the team if she's 6'4" and Elena's 6'5"? Someone's playing silly buggers with the numbers...

I think something's wrong with VJ. Maybe one of her myriad of old injuries is flaring up again, but she didn't practice at all during any of the drills. It's odd, but she's the one person who seems just a little out of place with the team. Maybe it's just because she wasn't involved in the drills, but something seems off.

Hadn't known Crystal was a tri-captain- I've only ever seen VJ and Becky go talk to the refs. But congrats to her! (And now we know it goes on Liberty seniority, because otherwise it'd probably be Tari instead.)

Not that this wasn't a serious practice or anything, but Tari had lipstick and earrings on. Guess she's got to look good for her fans. Crystal, on the other hand, took it seriously enough to take her earrings out. In other fashion notes, WTF did Erin do to her jersey, roll the straps completely under her bra straps? Sheesh, there's a fashion no-no; I'm pretty sure no one cares what kind of bra Erin's wearing.

I really hope the free throw shooting was just stage fright, because otherwise this streak of blowing big leads only to get them back is going to go down in flames. The losing team was down at my end twice, and Becky was one of the most blatant culprits; she looked pretty damn embarassed when she was asked for the score. (Taking a step back to the defensive drills... I forget if it was K.B. or Tari demonstrating, but Crystal had me hysterical when she started doing some demented form of the Electric Slide in time with the defensive moements. And of course... "They paid me off to have you demonstrate.")

So yeah, now there's an easy way to figure out who I am IRL if you haven't met me and if you were at the open practice- I was the one being quizzed by Crystal. It felt so surreal, like OH MAH GAWD, I am stepping out onto the court at the Garden, oh wow this is so cool, please God let me get a question I can actually answer because I boasted so much about my geekiness and I'm going to have a dozen bits of egg on my face if I screw this up. But it was nice 'cause I had my own cheering section in the front row. Ain't friends grand? It was great, we were playing right along with the rest of the trivia, and from that I learned Crystal's not big on keeping up with the stats. (And apparently, she's none too fond of the nickname C-Rob.) Fortunately for my rep, my pride, and my integrity, I got a question I could actually hear and really did know the answer to without being prompted. {Which two players are from the same state? Erin and Becky; VJ and D-Train; Ann and Elena; or Bethany and er... someone? VJ and DeTrina are both Louisiana girls, as previously noted in this babble.} Afterwards, Crystal teased me that they shouldn't have let me up because I know too much. At the end, I got a few handshakes and got to welcome Ann. 'Twas cool.

No Q-and-A this year. Either they got tired of letting little kids ask the same stupid question annually, or they didn't want any Teresa-related questions. And here I wanted to ask Richie how he was going to use his four main post players. And we didn't get Tari to sing, either, and that bites. Then again, we got her comedy routine the whole time, so I guess it all evens out. If nothing else, we got a little bit of a window into what these eleven women we follow with such zeal are like as real people.

Oh, and one quote before I go: *clanggggggggg* "That's money in the bank."