Suddenly, the Sting Is Back in This StingRay

First her game returned. Then her attitude.

U.S. Olympic Coach Tara VanDerveer’s favorite Venus Lacy story from the 1996 Olympics has to do with Lacy’s attitude.

In a pre-Olympic game with Cuba, U.S. guard Jennifer Azzi was hit by an elbow, which broke her nose. The 6-foot-4 Lacy said to Azzi, “If you feel [the Cuban player] did that on purpose, I’ll lay her out right now.”

No, it was accidental, Azzi told her, thanking her anyhow.

On Sunday, during Lacy’s fifth consecutive strong game for the Long Beach StingRays, Lacy and Colorado’s Crystal Robinson suddenly squared off at midcourt, fists raised. Others intervened.

“We’re friends, but we mouth off to each other during games,” Lacy explained. “Neither of us would hit the other.”

Punches or not, the moment was significant. After more than a year, the old Lacy is back.

With the ABL’s Seattle Reign last season, something popped in her left knee early in the season. She tried to play on it, couldn’t, and had surgery a year ago.

Then, during rehabilitation, she suffered a concussion in a traffic accident in Ruston, La.

“A guy making a left turn drove into me,” she said. “They told me I’d have died without my seat belt and air bag.”

When she was sent to the expansion StingRays, she still hadn’t recovered.

“The knee still wasn’t right,” she said. “I was afraid to run hard and cut on it.”

In the early going, Lacy wasn’t much help. Her production was low, she seemed immobile at times, and that old attitude was missing.

“Clarissa [Davis-Wrightsil] had a long talk with me and she just told me to start playing like the old Venus,” Lacy said. “Bev [teammate Beverly Williams] told me that, too.

“So I did. The knee still hurts. I just have to play through it.”

She played her turnaround game Dec. 12 at Denver, where she had 13 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks in an 89-78 win.

With the October-November Lacy, the StingRays seemed on their way to a .500 season. But with the old Venus back, there is new optimism in Long Beach.

A PACKAGE DEAL

The world’s tallest identical female twins, at 6-5--you can look it up: Page 10 of the 1997 “Guinness Book of World Records”--are tired of being separated by oceans and continents.

“We’re ready to get back together--we want to be a package deal again,” Heidi Burge said. She and her sister, Heather, who grew up in the Palos Verdes area, are shopping themselves around to U.S. pro teams. According to Bruce Levy, their agent, Heidi is a free agent.

Heidi played for the L.A. Sparks in the WNBA last summer. Heather is playing in France. They haven’t played on the same team since their University of Virginia days five years ago.

They have asked Levy to explore the possibility of their playing next season for the StingRays, which seems unlikely.

“That’s not even on our radar scope,” StingRay General Manager Bill McGillis said. “I’m not saying one couldn’t wind up on our roster next year, but both? That would be an ABL personnel matter.”

In the meantime, Heidi said, there’s new life in last summer’s rumor--Pam McGee of the Sacramento Monarchs for Heidi Burge.

The Sparks have offered Burge a $22,000 contract for next season, but it’s believed Sacramento would increase that to the WNBA maximum, $50,000.

Heidi is doing off-season promotion work for the Sparks. “For which they haven’t paid me a dime,” she said.

AROUND THE PAC-10

With the emergence of Melanie Pearson as a big-time player, UCLA’s hopes have surged.

Pearson, a 6-1 sophomore from Irvine, had another brilliant game at Duke Saturday, where UCLA beat the 17th-ranked Blue Devils, 93-83. She made eight of 11 shots, was five for seven on three-pointers, had 22 points, five assists, no turnovers and four steals.

Two days earlier, in an 82-78 overtime loss at fifth-ranked North Carolina, she was eight for 12, made all five of her three-point attempts and scored 23 points.

*

Arguably the most talented Pac-10 player turns out for basketball this week, six weeks late.

The annual news item that the Stanford women won the NCAA volleyball championship again meant Cardinal Coach VanDerveer finally gets Kristin Folkl.

Folkl completed her volleyball eligibility Saturday and will start her junior basketball season.

How good is she? When Tennessee’s Chamique Holdsclaw is the No. 1 draft pick in both leagues a year from now, Folkl, if she decides to play her senior season, figures to be No. 2.