Whitmore Becomes a Better Fit

Spark forward Tamika Whitmore had the worst season of her WNBA career in 2004, averaging 6.2 points, 3.1 rebounds, 0.5 assists and 17.5 minutes per game. This from a player who in 2002 had averaged 12.7 points in the regular season and 16 in the playoffs.

Whitmore, 28, in her seventh year in the WNBA, acknowledges that she could have been in better shape last year after signing a two-year contract with the Sparks as a restricted free agent. But she also said that last season’s coaching staff, headed by Michael Cooper, had no faith in her.

“I think last year I just couldn’t fit in with their system,” Whitmore said. “I thought I would have a bigger role -- I was told I would have a bigger role -- but I think I had great practices ... the coaches just didn’t believe in me. I just did what I could and cheered my heart out.”

This season is different. Through Friday’s game, Whitmore -- who came into training camp 15 pounds under her listed weight of 190 -- is the team’s third-best scorer (10.7) and rebounder (5.2). With the trade of DeLisha Milton-Jones to Washington and the surgery on Mwadi Mabika, Whitmore has been in Coach Henry Bibby’s starting lineup since the opening game, though that could change when Mabika is ready to play.

If spending most of the time on the bench last year reminded Whitmore of anything, it was humility.

“It really opened my eyes, to really see how grimy things can be sometimes,” she said.

“I think God puts you in places for a reason. So whatever the lesson I was learning last year, I just soaked it all in. I learned a lot by watching the game.”

Whitmore learned long ago about coping and rising above hard times. Born in Tupelo, Miss., she was very young when her mother and father parted. “I don’t even remember them being married,” she said.

Her mother, Gwendolyn, raised Whitmore and her sister on the $76 a week she made by cleaning homes.

Whitmore said their home had no electricity or running water. But meager surroundings were no excuse for not performing well in school.

She became interested in basketball in high school after reading about a girl who earned a scholarship by playing the game. By the time she graduated from Tupelo High, she had more than a dozen scholarships offers, randomly choosing the University of Memphis.

“The day I was supposed to sign I just picked up one of the scholarships off the living room table,” Whitmore said. “I didn’t even look at it.”

Whitmore was twice Conference USA player of the year and finished her career as the Lady Tigers’ second lall-time scorer.

The New York Liberty drafted her in the third round in 1999. Initially intimidated by the Big Apple -- “I didn’t even know how to hail a taxi,” she recalled -- Whitmore blossomed under the mentoring of good friend and former WNBA standout Teresa Weatherspoon.

She has another mentor this season in Chamique Holdsclaw. They became friends overseas last winter while playing for competing teams in Spain. At Spark practice, Whitmore and Holdsclaw constantly challenge each other.

“I know she’s our toughness on this team. She will knock somebody over,” Holdsclaw said. “I know in order for us to be successful we’re going to need her to keep bringing that to this team.”

That tough exterior hides a soft heart. General Manager Penny Toler recalled the Sparks’ being on their way to a May game in Charlotte when the team bus pulled alongside a homeless man at a street corner.

“Tamika asked the driver to stop for a second, which he did,” Toler said. “I wondered if she felt sick or something. Next thing I know, she’s giving him some money. That’s how she is.”

Asked about it, Whitmore looked sheepish. “I just think it is part of who I am,” she said. “When I was little I would give my shoes away to kids who had holes in theirs. And my mom wasn’t making a lot of money. But I’ve always been generous with everything I’ve got.”

She has one selfish desire -- getting a ring. She got to the WNBA Finals with New York in 1999, 2000 and 2002 but came away empty-handed.

She said she signed with the Sparks partly because she believed they would be a contender for several more years. After a disappointing 2004 season, she pushed herself this past winter to again be a standout player.

“My team in Spain won a league tournament, and I got that feeling of being up there on stage getting a trophy. I want that feeling here,” Whitmore said.

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Sheryl Swoopes, one of eight active players who have been with the WNBA since it was formed in 1997, is on her way to being the leading All-Star vote-getter for the fifth time.

During a conference call with reporters this week, Swoopes said she doesn’t think any team will soon approach the record of four consecutive WNBA championships set by her Houston Comet squad from 1997 to 2000.

“I think the way the league has grown and the talent now in the league, in all honesty, it will be hard for somebody to do,” Swoopes said.

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Phoenix Mercury forward Kayte Christensen has rebuked conservative commentator Debbie Schlussel who, on her website, referred to the WNBA as “The Lesbian League” and suggested that most of the players looked like men.

“It is disgraceful that we live in a society where women are proving themselves qualified to compete versus men in the business world, political world and on playing fields, yet as a society we can’t get past the idea that being beautiful is the most important thing a woman should strive to be,” Christensen wrote in the Arizona Republic.

“It is disgraceful that Schlussel, as a woman, can’t see the importance of the WNBA not only as a sports league but as an entity that is fighting to provide women with the same opportunities as men.”