The Golden State Valkyries made their final cuts Wednesday, waiving guard Kaitlyn Chen, and forwards Laeticia Amihere, Chloe Bibby, Mamignan Touré, and Elissa Cunane. Valkyries followers objected because they saw Chen on TV during the NCAA championship game, so she must be worth keeping. And Amihere scored 20 points in the first exhibition game! NBA observers used to joke during the ’90s, when Jordan was making the NBA product a household object, that inexperienced NBA coaches formed their draft strategies solely from watching the Final Four. The Chen supporters display that sort of judgment. Amihere’s 20 points against Los Angeles …
Category: wnba
Goodbye, Cruel World (literally, not figuratively)
When the ’80s band Til Tuesday announced last October that it was reforming — for the first time in 35 years — to play at the Cruel World festival in Pasadena May 17, I reached for my credit card. Then in December, I purchased my season ticket for the Golden State Valkyries. When the league set this as opening weekend, I crossed my fingers. May 16 at Los Angeles would’ve been dreaming come true, but May 16 hosting the Sparks meant racing away from Chase Center to catch a plane. I was OK with the plan to hurry from Chase …
Eight best players, four nicest girls
Golden State won 84-79 in Phoenix Sunday in a preseason exhibition. It was the second game in which the Valkyries came back from down 12 or more before entering the fourth quarter tied. The Valkyries assisted on 21 of 25 FGM, led by guard Julie Vanloo’s 6 assists. *** WNBA rosters are nearing their final forms, while fans go wackawacka because their personal favorites aren’t surviving that last cuts. The Valkyries cut Shyanne Sellers (whose father Brad was on my fantasy team in 1993) a week ago, though her jersey was already on sale in the team shop (the lesson …
Like I said
One of the troubles I have with blogging, I said, is that “good” stuff is set aside for inclusion in a book, while throwaway items go on FB or BlueSky, and there’s only rarely anything in between. Then I launched this blog because I needed someplace to cover the WNBA developments (Golden State gave me my first team since Sacramento folded, but Los Angeles hired my coach), and even chess (because I broke the chess blog). I also said I would post some crap, rather than think too much about where it belongs. So here’s a picture of today’s Amazon …
Sparks 83, Valkyries 82 (exh)
Los Angeles spoiled the first game in Golden State history in San Francisco on Tuesday. Sparks guard Aari McDonald scored 10 of her 12 points in the 4th quarter, including a 3-pointer to break the game’s last tie, and two free throws to put the visitors ahead by 4 with 0:05 remaining. Both coaches — Natalie Nakase for Golden State, and Lynne Roberts for Los Angeles — made their WNBA debuts in the preseason exhibition. The Sparks visit San Francisco again on the 16th for the teams’ official openers. *** My custom is to write something like a wire service …
Sparks at Valkyries tonight in WNBA preseason play, and so begins my 19th year covering Coach Roberts’ teams
Near the end of ’00s, University of the Pacific coach Lynne Roberts called me, after receiving a tip about sisters who were playing junior college ball in the Bay Area. “The Zasly twins”, I said. Laura and Katie were standouts at Aragon HS, less than a mile from here. “I knew you’d know”, she said. At the end of the conversation, I said: “They can help someone, but not us.” (The Zaslys went on to play at Notre Dame de Namur in the PacWest Conference.) Three or four years later, Pacific signed a post from nearby St. Mary’s HS in …