Thompson’s Ticket Was a Sharp Move, Albeit a Costly One

Now it can be told--how going to a Laker game cost USC’s Tina Thompson, now of the Houston Comets, $100,000.

It was April 27, the day before the WNBA’s college draft. General Manager Rhonda Windham and Coach Linda Sharp of the Los Angeles Sparks, hearing that Thompson was about to sign with the American Basketball League, invited her to watch a Laker playoff game. Thompson was seated in the middle.

When Thompson awoke that morning, she had decided to accept a $150,000 salary offer from the ABL. Fourteen hours later, after the Laker game, she faxed her signed WNBA contract--calling for $50,000--to New York.

“Maybe we twisted her arm a little bit, yeah,” Windham says now, with a smile.

“We told her to think of the greater exposure she’d get, and that WNBA salaries were sure to rise soon,” Sharp said.

Added Windham, “Tina’s a Trojan. I asked her: ‘How can you not play in the same league as Lisa Leslie?’ ”

And there was another reason. With the third draft pick, they figured there was an outside chance to make Thompson a Spark.

“At the time, everyone thought Houston needed a point guard more than anything, and that Pam McGee would be the second pick,” Sharp said.

But Houston Coach Van Chancellor, just on board from Mississippi, took one look at Thompson on tape and made her the Comets’--and the league’s--first draft choice. Sacramento took McGee and the Sparks took Stanford point guard Jamila Wideman.

Thompson was asked Sunday if that Laker game really cost her $100,000.

“Uh, more,” she said, adding that no one had told her about Houston’s humidity.

TALL ORDER

Is Leslie the third-tallest Spark?

It appears so, now that Heidi Burge is on the team. Burge is listed at 6-feet-5, the same as Leslie. But, at least in basketball shoes, Burge appears slightly taller. Both are shorties, though, next to 6-8 Zheng Haixia.

Burge and her identical twin, Heather, are listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s tallest identical female twins, at 6-4 3/4.

THEY’RE TOO SLICK

One reason for the WNBA’s low shooting percentages and ball-handling muffs might be the designer basketball.

“It comes off the rim really hot,” said the Sparks’ Burge.

“The big ball comes off a lot softer. My first two games, I had trouble with my shots because I hadn’t picked up the little ball in four years.”

The league is using a ball the same size as the NCAA women’s ball, roughly an inch in circumference smaller than the men’s ball.

Said Spark Coach Sharp: “It seems to me the ball is slick and very lively. My players are saying that. On the other hand, Zheng Haixia had never played with the small ball before and she seems to be doing fine [shooting 63%].

COMFORT ZONE

WNBA President Val Ackerman explained recently why the league brought the zone defense into pro basketball.

“Because all our refs are up from the college game and we didn’t want to give them a lot of complicated interpretations as to what is and isn’t an illegal defense,” she said.

“Zones are OK in international basketball. We just didn’t feel zones would hamper play in any way.”

And the jump balls after tie-ups?

“The coaches wanted it,” Ackerman said.

“You lose a possession, you have a chance to get it back. We felt it added a little excitement.”

WNBA Notes

Los Angeles’ Zheng Haixia isn’t the club’s only player for whom English is a problem. French is the native language of Mwadi Mabika, the rookie from Zaire. She speaks some English, but needs help with some basketball concepts.