There’s an ‘I’ in Her Name but Not in Her Team Concept

The best professional point guard in town speaks with a Kentucky twang and will earn her mechanical engineering degree in the fall.

The best point guard in town has won a collegiate national championship and so can talk about winning big games from her own experience instead of from watching others. The best point guard in town never thinks about her own shot first and always watches to see where her teammates are. The best point guard in town is confident when shooting the three-pointer and also expects to make all her free throws.

Most of all, the best point guard in town plays defense. Loves to play defense. Plays defense in her sleep, in her head, in her mind and most definitely on the court. What a concept. Trying to keep the other team from scoring. The best point guard in town thinks that’s normal. Playing defense.

The best point guard in town was introduced to professional basketball last Saturday at the Arrowhead Pond. Ukari Figgs is the new point guard for the Los Angeles Sparks and already she has caused veteran point guard Penny Toler to head into a sulk because, practically immediately, Figgs proved to coach Orlando Woolridge that she should be a starter.

Even if you think that women’s professional basketball is a waste of time, even if you believe that without dunking, high-fiving and trash talking, pro basketball is a waste of time, even if you think the game isn’t worth watching if Shaq isn’t clanking free throws, come out once to see Figgs.

For in Figgs, Southern California will find a basketball player who values the fundamentals of the game, who finds that making a perfect bounce pass is just as fun as a behind-the-back pass, who finds that carefully, unobtrusively setting up a teammate in just the right place for just the right shot can make you feel good inside, who absolutely can’t stop smiling at the idea of crouching deep into a defensive posture and never stopping the movement of your feet, of never letting your eyes off the basketball in the opponent’s hands are the most worthy accomplishments in a basketball game.

“With Ukari,” Woolridge says, “it really is about the team and the team concept. She really gets a team to work together out there. She really knows how to win. She’s coming in with a championship and she’s been surrounded by great people.”

Woolridge understands when he is getting gently inched toward taking a shot at the Lakers. He won’t say that, gosh, it can get frustrating sometimes to hear the Lakers always talking about offense, about outscoring the other team, instead of talking about defense, about stopping the other team from scoring. He isn’t going to say that, yep, it would be nice to see the Lakers share the ball more eagerly with each other. What he will say is that Figgs brings to the Sparks the attitude of winning as a team that begets winning as a team.

“Team concept, that’s the only way you can win something,” Woolridge said Saturday after the Sparks had buried the Detroit Shock, 108-69. Figgs had played 22 minutes (second most on the team), scored 14 points, had three assists, two steals and made four of her six three-point attempts, in her first game out of college. “This game is not about egos,” Woolridge said. “I’m not saying that to give anyone a message. It’s just the way you win.”

Figgs has arrived in Los Angeles after having spent a couple of months helping friends, family, teammates, celebrate her Purdue team’s NCAA title in March. The Boilermakers charmed the nation because Figgs and her backcourt mate and best friend, Stephanie White-McCarty, enjoyed so much making a team better and not worrying about themselves.

Amazingly, Figgs lasted until the third round of the WNBA draft. Because the league was absorbing so many good players from the recently deceased ABL, and because so many teams, like the Sparks, tended to grab the biggest players first, Figgs, at 5 feet 8, stayed on that draft board much longer than she should have.

“Frankly, I was surprised she was still out there,” Woolridge says. “I’m glad she was.”

Do not think Figgs is in any way insulted by being a third-round pick. “I was just so happy to get drafted,” she says. “I’m just so happy that there’s this place for me to play.”

Figgs giggles as she talks about moving to Marina del Rey and how she doesn’t do any driving, leaving that chore to Jamila Wideman, another Sparks guard, another cerebral college graduate (Stanford, double major in political science and Afro-American studies). This is all so new and wonderful, Figgs says, all the people and cars, the sun and sand.

And then Figgs gets to the court and no longer will she leave the driving to someone else. With the Sparks, Figgs has just grabbed the wheel and is aiming this team at a championship.

Why not, after all? For when Figgs leads a team, the team doesn’t talk about winning championships. The team wins championships. A nice change of pace.

Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com