Most Valuable, and a Good Value

Val Ackerman, the seemingly unflappable president of the WNBA, may soon have her first major headache--keeping her league’s best player in the league.

It’s a money-rooted problem, not surprisingly. Cynthia Cooper of the Houston Comets, who is about to be named the league’s most valuable player, makes the $50,000 WNBA “maximum” salary. With incentives, she could earn $100,000 this season.

But Lisa Leslie, Rebecca Lobo and Sheryl Swoopes all make $250,000 under terms of their WNBA personal-services contracts.

So what happens when Cooper tells Ackerman, “OK, if I’m the best player in the league, I want to be paid like it.”

Remember, the rival ABL is paying rookies such as Kate Starbird and Kara Wolters $200,000-$250,000. Might Cooper consider jumping leagues?

Her agent, Carolyn Redd, first said no, that Cooper’s “values” wouldn’t permit her to jump.

But what if Cooper views a WNBA salary increase as insufficient? What if the ABL offers her, say, $250,000?

“We’d entertain that, if it happened,” Redd said.

“Cynthia is the sole support of four members of her family. . . . Her mom is battling breast cancer and there are [relatives’] college tuition expenses. As it is, she has to double up this year. She’ll go to Brazil and play after the WNBA season ends.

“And she left a lot of money on the table in Europe when she decided to sign with the WNBA.”

WNBA contracts carry a one-year league option, meaning anyone planning a jump to the ABL would have to sit out a year and play overseas. That wouldn’t seem much of a deterrent. American women have been doing that for 15 years.

Opinion: If it came down to Cooper’s considering a jump to the ABL, that would greatly hasten some form of ABL-WNBA merger.

OTHER PLANS

She is 6 feet 8 1/2 in her bare feet, 6-10 in basketball shoes.

When she played at Vanderbilt--class of ‘94--Heidi Gillingham could run like a deer, jump and block shots like no one else in her sport. Just her presence in Vandy’s defense altered opponents’ offenses, frightening them out of their low-post games.

Scan the list of women’s basketball All-Americans for the last 15 years and you’ll find almost all are playing in one or the other of the United States’ two new pro leagues.

Almost.

The biggest player of them all is still AWOL.

So where is she? In Gulfport, Miss., where, she says, she isn’t the least bit interested in playing in either the WNBA or ABL.

Gillingham is developing a religious organization of athletes, “an offshoot of Athletes in Action” as she put it.

She last played in the trials for the 1996 U.S. Olympic team.

“Whether I made the Olympic team or not, I knew that would be my last basketball,” she said.

“I didn’t make it, and that was it. I’ve been doing full-time missionary work ever since. In September, I’m enrolling in discipleship school in Denver.”

IN BRIEF

Cooper scored 31 points as the Comets strengthened their Eastern Conference lead with a 77-69 victory over the Charlotte Sting before 8,123 at Houston. . . . Wendy Palmer scored 19 points to lead Utah to an 81-75 victory over the New York Liberty, ending Utah’s six-game losing streak before 8,234 at Salt Lake City. Lobo scored 27 points for New York. . . . That 11th spot on the ABL’s Long Beach StingRay roster will probably be filled by 5-7 Hungarian guard Andrea Nagy. She played last season with Seattle of the ABL, backing up Kate Paye at point guard. . . . Long Beach State’s east gym will be the team’s training camp site, beginning Sept. 2.

The Stingrays said Michele Cherry, former Arizona State standout, has been hired as an assistant to Coach Maura McHugh. Cherry played for McHugh at ASU. . . . Carla McGhee of ABL champion Columbus has announced she’s expecting a baby in February and will not play this season. To replace her, the Quest has obtained the rights to Pashen Thompson from Seattle.