Few Fast Breaks : Top Female Basketball Players Finally Have Choice of Viable Pro Career, but It Means Going Overseas

LaTaunya Pollard’s daughter already speaks Italian. Chiara is 3.

No wonder Jennifer Azzi is envious.

Azzi, the 1989 NCAA Division I female basketball player of the year, is still trying to master the language after her first season playing in the Italian League.

Valerie Still has gone a couple of steps better.

A singer, pianist and guitarist in the band Under 99, she has recorded two records and performed at a variety of Italian nightclubs.

But basketball comes first for all three former All-Americans. It hasn’t been easy.

Pollard left Cal State Long Beach for Italy in 1983, the same season that Akeem Olajuwon was voted the NCAA’s most outstanding player in men’s basketball.

Olajuwon went the well-publicized route to the NBA.

The women were written off, sometimes almost literally.

Owners wrote off debts when the Women’s Pro Basketball League folded in the early 1980s. Paychecks such as Inge Nissen’s bounced.

She won a lawsuit, but all that was left to collect was a jersey and a basketball.

“A lot of (players) lost their cars,” said Nissen, a 1980 All-American from Old Dominion. “They couldn’t make the payments. It was a very, very bad experience, that’s why I went to France and played for peanuts.”

On the surface, it’s not a promising picture for those women playing basketball in the U.S. Olympic Festival at UCLA. However, a Times survey indicates the future may be different for All-American female basketball players. It’s not at all unusual for them to graduate, go overseas to play and then come home after a few years to begin a career outside the sport.

Of the 70 women who were NCAA Division I All-Americans during 1980-89, 49 have competed overseas: 26 are still there and 23 have returned to the United States to begin careers ranging from law to marketing to video production.

If the women don’t get their college degrees before they leave for Europe, they generally get them when they come back. Of the 70 surveyed, 51 (73%) have graduated.

And they aren’t playing for peanuts overseas anymore.

“When I came out of college, the (Italian) league wasn’t situated real well and you didn’t know what to expect,” said Still, a 1982 and ’83 All-American from Kentucky.

“A lot of players didn’t want to go to Europe or Japan. Now it is like going to the NBA. It is the alternative for them.”

The numbers are better, too. In Europe, 14 countries offer leagues that allow one or two foreigners per team. The best players earn up to $100,000, triple what was paid in the early 1980s.

In Japan, the salaries average $100,000 and are $150,000 for a select few.

That wouldn’t be worth much to Olajuwon, but it makes the decision between basketball and a different career more difficult for the female players.

“It is like you want the best of both worlds,” said Kami Ethridge, a two-time All-American at Texas who left Italy after one season to become an assistant at Northern Illinois. “When you are over there (Italy) you are thinking you need to be here to further your career, and when you are here you think about the money you could be making there and your dreams for the Olympics.”

Coaching is a common option. It’s the second-most popular occupation among those All-Americans surveyed, and of the 15 who coach now, seven played pro ball first.

The transition isn’t always as smooth to other occupations.

“I worry about starting a career later. I don’t have any experience,” said Tanya Haave, a 1983 All-American from Tennessee who played last winter in Italy after five years in the French league.

“My dad is always telling me, ‘You can’t play forever.’ ”

THE EUROPEAN LEAGUES

Valerie Still plans to live in Italy after she retires from basketball, but she had no idea what to expect when she first went there.

“I brought my own soap and shampoo,” Still said. “I didn’t think they would have it.”

Eight years later, she is one of Italy’s most popular players, remaining in the country during the off-seasons to do sports broadcasting, sportswriting and modeling, as well as play her music.

Her typical day during the season is not as hectic. She rises at 2 or 3 p.m., goes to practice, then out to dinner. Like many Italians, she stays up past midnight most nights.

“We’re not living in reality,” Still said. “We’re playing ball, and that is about it.”

Few, however, acclimate as well as Still, and some are simply homesick.

“We’d love playing in front of our own people. I’d be back in the U.S.A. faster than fast,” said Teresa Weatherspoon, a 1988 Olympian and two-time All-American from Louisiana Tech who played in Italy last season.

The average salary in Italy for Americans is $43,000, plus an apartment and a car, according to New York-based agent Bruce Levy.

With the salaries comes high expectations. The foreign players--usually Americans--must score the bulk of the points.

“If I didn’t have 30 or 35 a night, no way we had a chance to win,” Haave said. “You had to force shots. Your forced shot was better than a French player who might have an open shot. She could miss or turn it over.”

THE JAPANESE LEAGUE

Lynette Woodard felt she was leaving her life behind when she played in Italy.

The four-time All-American from Kansas liked Japan because the concerts, movies and shopping reminded her of home.

“They are a quiet culture and they are interested in anything American,” Woodard said of the Japanese.

But there are parts of American culture the Japanese reject. The rules aren’t the same in their corporate basketball league.

“If you embarrass your company, that is much worse than losing,” said Shelly Pennefather, a center for Nippon Express out of Villanova. “Showing a good face is everything in Japan.”

An exchange of elbows or words can ruin a player’s reputation.

“They detest that,” said Pennefather, who credits Anne Donovan’s exemplary sportsmanship with creating opportunities for American players in Japan.

“The salaries have gone crazy because of Anne,” Pennefather said. “She was very calm and she never caused friction.”

Teresa Edwards made another step forward for U.S. players in 1986. Her talent convinced the Japanese to hire foreign players less than 6 feet tall. Until then, the shorter players were generally from Japan, but the 5-foot-10 All-American guard from Georgia, a 1988 Olympic most valuable player, changed that with her flamboyant open-court style.

Her only stumbling block was the language.

She wasn’t alone.

“My biggest fear was getting lost,” said Pennefather, despite her passion for studying the Japanese. “I couldn’t explain to someone where to get me.”

She finally solved that by counting the number of train stops between her apartment and the gym.

The only hitch was that, occasionally, she fell asleep.

AFTER BASKETBALL

Without NBA salaries, female basketball players don’t have to be told that they need to plan for life after their playing days.

“We are forced to look for another career outside of playing sports,” Texas All-American Andrea Lloyd said. “Maybe we’re a little more realistic.”

But there’s nothing like an injury to underline the point.

Nikita Lowery, a 1989 All-American from Ohio State, needed her accounting degree sooner than planned when a knee injury ended her career in Bari, Italy, in January of 1990.

“This sounds kind of trite right now, but if I didn’t have my degree, I probably would be walking the streets,” said Lowery, who works in sales and marketing for Ford Motor Co. in Detroit.

Even out of the sport, the hurdles that the women face as the second-class citizens of basketball often serve as motivation later in their lives.

Paula McGee, who starred at USC along with her twin, Pam, will take another step in her post-basketball career in September, when she will begin a three-year seminary program at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta.

Few women pursue that path.

“(The hurdles are) so close to basketball . . . I’ve always had that feeling of being a pioneer,” she said.

When she was younger, she shied away from the challenge.

“I was called to the ministry when I was 19,” McGee said. “Because of basketball, I knew the role of a pioneer and I was hesitant.”

But the call would not go away, she said, and after basketball, McGee responded.

“If you are called and you can do anything else and be comfortable, you probably weren’t called,” she said.

Why face the same frustrations again? McGee says she does it for the same reason she played basketball. She loves it.

“I always tell my kids (in the Christian ministry) that the same energy I had to use in basketball I have to use now,” McGee said. “You motivate, you goal-set . . . You just apply your energies differently.”

Pam McGee has been making her own transition since January, when she left her team in Italy before the season ended to return home to Flint, Mich.

“I was tired of living in Europe,” she said. “At one point you realize you are American and you want to live in America. The situation with the (Gulf) war made me realize that I wanted to do something constructive.”

In April, she established a nonprofit organization called Save the Children or Perish. Its goal is to provide socioeconomic and political equity for African-American children.

It’s part of trying to help people who are written off.

Where Are They Now? A look at the 1988 U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team and the current professions of the players.

Cindy Brown Cal State plays in japanese League Long Beach Vicky Bullet Maryland Plays in Italian League Cynthia Cooper USC Plays in Italian League Anne Donovan Old Dominion Old Dominion asstant coach Teresa Edwards Georgia plays in japanese League Kamie Etheridge Texas Northern Illinois assistant coach Jennifer Gillom Mississippi Plays in Italian League Bridgette Gordon Tennessee Plays in Italian League Andrea Lloyd Texas Plays in Italian League Katrina McClain Georgia Plays in japanese League Suzie McConnell Penn State Oakland Catholic HS coach Teresa Weatherspoon Louisana Tech Plays in Italian League

What 70 Division I All-Americans form 1980-89 are now doing: * 26 play basketball overseas (19 in Italy, 6 in Japan, 1 in France) * 15 coach basketball in high school of college * 7 in human services/education (2 criminal counseling, 1 Cristian ministry, 1 social work,2 education, 1 recreation * 5 in business (1 finance, 2 marketing, 1 purchasing, 1 employee relations) * 4 are homemakers * 3 in broadcasting/video (2 broadcasting, 1 video production) * 3 in retail/industrial (2 retail, 1 factory worker) * 1 in medical technology * 1 in law * 5 could not be reached * Although 10 All-Americans are selected each year, only 70 are counted because several years were repeat selections. ** According to an NCAA STUDY OF “,”’$ ATHLETES WHO ENROLLED AT ‘% Division I colleges in 1984 and 1985.

Source: NCAA, Los Angeles Times

Graduation rates of women’s Kodak All-Americans from 1980-89* Graduate: 73% Not Graduated: 27% Overall Graduation Rates Female Athletes: 54% Male Athletes: 42% Times staff writer Karen Chaderjian contributed to this story.