WNBA Ready to Stage a Draft to Remember

By noon today, women’s pro basketball will have made a sudden pivot in the low post and executed a slam dunk.

Finally, after having been divided for more than three years, all the world’s best women players will be in one league.

The WNBA will conduct a telephonic draft today that will probably never be equaled in depth of talent and experience.

That’s because the American Basketball League, losing money in its third season, went out of business and released its 90 players--many of them former college All-Americans--Dec. 22.

Coach Orlando Woolridge of the Los Angeles Sparks said, “There’s no way any of the teams can mess up on the first round--that’s how good it is.”

In all likelihood, Tennessee’s Chamique Holdsclaw will be the only collegian drafted in the first round.

According to Lin Dunn, former coach at Purdue and of the ABL’s Portland Power, a very good college senior class will get buried.

“We’re all talking about seniors like Ukari Figgs [of Purdue], Michele VanGorp [of Duke] and Dominique Canty [of Alabama] maybe ‘slipping’ into the third round,” she said.

“Calling this a great draft doesn’t quite do it. We’ll never see another draft like this.”

Said Detroit Coach Nancy Lieberman-Cline, “It’s an incredible group of talented women. And it’s not just 10 great players, it’s 40.”

It is a measure of Holdsclaw’s stature that she is expected to be the first pick in today’s four-round draft, by Washington. After that, it might be well into the second round before another college player is taken. Lieberman-Cline says it could be the third.

If so, after Holdsclaw, the next dozen to 15 picks will be ABL players, unless that streak is interrupted by 6-foot-4 Russian international veteran Natalia Zassoulskaia.

Sacramento, drafting after Washington, is expected to pick former Long Beach ABL center Yolanda Griffith. Then Utah is expected to take former UCLA and Portland ABL center Natalie Williams.

Then come the Sparks, seeking to break a two-year pattern of poor drafting.

The club needs help at both power forward and point guard and could take guard Dawn Staley, a former Olympian and former ABL most valuable player, if she’s still on the board, or 6-2 former Portland ABL star Delisha Milton, a premier defender. The hunch is Milton, with the club looking for a guard in the second round.

Technically, Staley was a WNBA player when the ABL folded. She left the ABL’s Philadelphia Rage to sign with the WNBA in September but hasn’t been through a draft yet.

There was even speculation last week that one of the ABL’s two best low-post players, Griffith or Williams, could fall the Sparks’ way, with Sacramento taking one of them, and Utah, desperately needing a point, taking Staley or Jennifer Azzi.

In any event, the Sparks get the fourth, 16th, 28th, and 40th picks.

Complicating everyone’s dope sheets was the uncertain status of four-time Olympian Teresa Edwards, who as of late Monday afternoon still had not signed a WNBA contract.

Many of the former ABL players are just now returning from European seasons. Some moved over to USA Basketball to prepare for the 2000 Olympics.

Former Long Beach StingRay players Andrea Nagy and Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil played a pro season in Turkey.

Kate Starbird, the former Stanford Naismith Award winner and two-season Seattle Reign player, stayed home in Palo Alto. It’s said that both Phoenix and Sacramento hope to claim her in the second round today.

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Projected First-Round WNBA Picks

Order: 1.

Team: Washington

Player: Chamique Holdsclaw

Ht.: 6-2

Wt.: 160

Exp.: Univ. of Tennessee

Comment: Major help for a 3-27 team.

*

Order: 2.

Team: Sacramento

Player: Yolanda Griffith

Ht.: 6-4

Wt.: 180

Exp.: ABL Long Beach

Comment: Called by many the women’s game’s best.

*

Order: 3.

Team: Utah

Player: Natalie Williams

Ht.: 6-1

Wt.: 205

Exp.: ABL Portland

Comment: Goes back to hometown to turn around the Starzz.

*

Order: 4.

Team: Sparks

Player: DeLisha Milton

Ht.: 6-1

Wt.: 170

Exp.: ABL Portland

Comment: Tough call if Dawn Staley is still on board.

*

Order: 5.

Team: Detroit

Player: Teresa Edwards

Ht.: 5-11

Wt.: 160

Exp.: ABL Atlanta

Comment: League has to sign her first.

*

Order: 6.

Team: New York

Player: Adrienne Goodson

Ht.: 6-0

Wt.: 165

Exp.: ABL Philadelphia

Comment: Only Williams, Griffith better ABL rebounders.

*

Order: 7.

Team: Minnesota

Player: Shalonda Enis

Ht.: 6-1

Wt.: 165

Exp.: ABL Seattle

Comment: Prodigious scorer, rebounder.

*

Order: 8.

Team: Orlando

Player: Kara Wolters

Ht.: 6-7

Wt.: 215

Exp.: ABL New England

Comment: Can dominate; speed a question.

*

Order: 9.

Team: Charlotte

Player: Jennifer Azzi

Ht.: 5-8

Wt.: 145

Exp.: ABL San Jose

Comment: Lack of top guard major shortcoming last year.

*

Order: 10.

Team: Phoenix

Player: Crystal Robinson

Ht.: 5-11

Wt.: 150

Exp.: ABL Colorado

Comment: ABL’s best three-point shooter.

*

Order: 11.

Team: Cleveland

Player: Clarisse Machanguana

Ht.: 6-5

Wt.: 190

Exp.: ABL San Jose

Comment: Potentially the game’s best center.

*

Order: 12.

Team: Houston

Player: Andrea Nagy

Ht.: 5-7

Wt.: 140

Exp.: ABL Long Beach

Comment: Champion Comets need to replace ailing Kim Perrot.