She Feels New Spark
During the second of two-a-day practices Monday at Sparks training camp, Coach Henry Bibby was barking instructions to team members trying to run a play as diagramed. It quickly became a cacophony of chatter, squeaky shoes, bouncing balls and blown whistles.
Off to the side, working on an exercise machine, was Chamique Holdsclaw, who had practiced in the morning but couldn’t take part in the second workout because of a sore left foot.
Off the court was the last place she wanted to be. She had an MRI exam earlier in the day, looking at the fifth metacarpal bone for a break or stress fracture, and nothing was detected. She hated to sit out a minute of practice, but Spark management was not taking any chances. Then again, the Sparks took a big chance swinging the trade that brought Holdsclaw, a three-time WNBA All-Star and a former scoring champion with the Washington Mystics, to Los Angeles.
They gave up DeLisha Milton-Jones, a popular player and an integral figure in their 2001 and 2002 league championship teams, plus their 2005 first-round draft pick in the trade.
They added a prodigious talent in Holdsclaw, but one who has played only one full season in six years; who admitted in October she battled depression last season; and who could have told the Sparks she didn’t want to play basketball in 2005.
The Sparks would have lost Milton-Jones and the draft pick anyway -- and received nothing in return.
But Holdsclaw, 27, said she was ready for a change of scenery and wanted to go where she believed she had a good chance of winning a championship.
“Everyone knows I can play ... in Washington I led the league in scoring and have been up there in rebounding. Still, I haven’t won. This is the key,” Holdsclaw said.
“I want to be somewhere where I’m playing with great players, and we can go out there and make things happen. For once, since I’ve been in the pros, to have some excitement. I’m excited to be here. I know it’s going to be hard work but this is where I wanted to be.”
Winning and Holdsclaw were synonymous before she arrived in the WNBA as the league’s top draft choice in 1999. She played on four consecutive state championships at Christ the King High in New York, then won three NCAA championships at Tennessee.
But the only titles Holdsclaw has won in her six-year WNBA career are statistical. She led the league in scoring and rebounding in 2002, and repeated as the top rebounder in 2003. She has been to the playoffs twice, and a conference final once.
Even if she had gone back to Washington -- and she could have; who turns away a career 18.3-points-a-game scorer? -- Holdsclaw wasn’t sure she would have been any closer to earning a ring.
“It was a tough situation for me to ask to be traded,” Holdsclaw said. “I know a lot of Washington fans didn’t understand it at first, but I needed a change. Everybody told me, ‘You’re leaving your comfort zone,’ but I’m not afraid of change. I embrace it. It brings about new challenges. I wanted to take the chance. I wanted to fulfill another part of me.”
Asked about gambling on the deal for Holdsclaw, Spark General Manager Penny Toler said that team President Johnny Buss has always encouraged her to take risks.
“It was a chance to get a great player.” Toler said. “If you risk a lot, you can gain a lot. If you risk nothing, you earn nothing.”
Bibby and team star Lisa Leslie have welcomed Holdsclaw unconditionally.
“I think she wants to be here because she wants to win and she thinks this is a winning situation,” Bibby said.
“She’s been in the league a long time and hasn’t really won, so she figures this is a treat for her -- coming to this team where she’s not the main player now. This team should make her better, because now she’ll be in more one-on-one situations where she can be more productive.”
Leslie hated to lose Milton-Jones, her best friend on the team, but said, “Mique brings us another dimension in our offense -- you’re talking about having scoring power everywhere on the floor. She’s extremely explosive but also deceiving; she’s not the quickest player but she’s always getting to the basket. She finishes well driving either left or right. And she’s an excellent offensive rebounder.”
Holdsclaw feels she is reaching her peak years as an athlete and is in her best situation to be a WNBA champion.
She says nothing is going to keep her from the destiny she envisions. Not a sore left foot, not leaving the East Coast she treasures for a West Coast she’s still learning, not rude fans who may want to taunt her for seeking psychiatric help to end the emotional stress caused in part by the deaths of the beloved grandparents who reared her.
“I’m cool,” Holdsclaw said, “I’m not focused on other people. Say what you want to say. Being who I am, people bombarded me and I didn’t want to say anything [about her problems]. But after I did, I felt a sense of relief.
“I tended to keep things inside and let things fester. But I realized I have to be who I am, and for people to accept me for who I am. That’s what Penny and I talked a lot about before coming here. She told me, ‘We’re going to let you be you. You go out there, you do what you do.’ ... I felt really comfortable in that.”
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Holdsclaw’s Record
By adding Chamique Holdsclaw to a front line that already features Lisa Leslie, the Sparks have paired two of the league’s strongest and most consistent inside players. But there was risk involved in acquiring Holdsclaw, who has missed 34 games in her six-year WNBA career, including 33 in the last four. A look at her averages with Washington, including games missed:
*--* Season PPG RPG APG FG% FT% GM Reason 1999 16.9 7.9 2.4 437 773 1 Injured finger 2000 17.5 7.5 2.5 465 680 0 2001 16.8 8.8 2.3 400 682 3 Injured foot 2002 19.9 11.6 2.3 452 830 12 Sprained ankle 2003 20.5 10.9 3.3 425 903 7 Strained hamstring 2004 19.0 8.3 2.4 402 803 11 Depression
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