Cooper Was There for His Friend

This is about a friendship, one that has endured 33 years, or since the day Michael Cooper, fresh from Pasadena City College, arrived at Albuquerque to enroll at the University of New Mexico in 1977.

“Coop had on a T-shirt, overall Levi cutoffs, high white socks and black sneakers,” recalled Henry Estrada, a Lobo teammate of Cooper’s. “I think a week passed before he said anything to anybody.

“He seemed like a real skinny, awkward guy, but the moment I saw him step onto a basketball court, I knew he was something special.”

Estrada’s Albuquerque family more or less adopted Cooper, inviting him over for weekend dinners and relaxation.

“Henry and his family were very warm toward me at a time when I didn’t know anyone in Albuquerque,” Cooper said.

Said Estrada, “Coop became sort of my big brother and I still think of him that way.”

But the best years of the friendship were yet to come. After college, Estrada fell into alcoholism.

“At the lowest points of my life, I’d call Coop and he never once failed to call me back. And these were the years when he was traveling with the Lakers. Every time, he’d say something that lifted me up.

“I haven’t had a drink in eight years, and I credit Coop for my recovery.

“Developing a friendship with Michael Cooper was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.”

THE OTHER COOPER

Those close to the Houston Comets believe Van Chancellor’s greatest coaching during the last three championship seasons hasn’t necessarily occurred during the games but holding together a team with two superstars with major egos, Sheryl Swoopes and Cynthia Cooper.

When Cooper surprised everyone last week by announcing her retirement in the Houston Chronicle, she indicated unhappiness at her “reduced role with this team.”

Huh? Until she sprained her ankle last week, she was averaging 35 minutes a game, 18 points and five assists. Is she complaining about fewer touches because Swoopes and Tina Thompson are having career seasons?

She wouldn’t say, and an annoyed Chancellor, asked about it Friday at the Great Western Forum, wouldn’t speculate.

After a long pause, he said: “Are you sure she has fewer touches? Have you counted them? Look, I’m not trying to be evasive, I’m trying to hold this team together. I don’t want to answer that.”

SEEKING A RECORD

Arizona State women’s basketball Coach Charli Turner Thorne, on her first inspection of the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Bank One Ballpark a year ago, sized it up as a basketball venue.

On Dec. 27, her team will play Tennessee at “the BOB” in an attempt to break the women’s NCAA basketball one-game attendance mark and also to raise money for breast cancer research. Weather permitting, it will be an outdoor game--the Bank One Ballpark roof is retractable.

The NCAA record is 24,597, set in 1998 at Tennessee’s Thompson-Boling Arena for a Tennessee-Connecticut game. Bank One Ballpark seats 48,000 for baseball. Arizona State will put bleachers at courtside, on the baseball infield.

Tennessee averaged 15,341 at home last year to lead the NCAA in attendance. The Lady Vols were 33-4, losing to Connecticut in the national championship game. Arizona State averaged 1,526 at home in a 14-15 season.

“We’re confident we can break that record, we think we can sell 30,000 tickets,” Arizona State spokeswoman Rhonda Lundin said.

LAYUPS

Tennessee Coach Pat Summitt and former UCLA coach Billie Moore will co-host the Aug. 11-13 Adidas/WBCA Coaches’ Academy in Knoxville, Tenn. . . . Sacramento Monarch assistant Maura McHugh, when asked how many WNBA teams her 1997 ABL team, the Long Beach StingRays, would have beaten: “A lot. That was a very good team.” Brian Agler, now the Minnesota Lynx coach, was asked the same question about his two-time ABL champions, the Columbus Quest. “We’d have beaten us,” he quipped, referring to his woeful Lynx, who have lost six in a row. “I don’t know if we could have beaten L.A. or Houston, but we’d have won a lot of games in this league.”. . . . Growth spurt: Candace Griffith, 11-year-old daughter of Sacramento’s 6-foot-4 Yolanda Griffith, has grown from 5-2 to 5-4 in the last few months. . . . Add height: Paige Sauer, the Sparks’ 6-5 rookie center, has a 5-6 mother, Mary, and a 6-4 father, Wayne, and a 6-5 twin brother, Bryce. . . . Tia Jackson, who played two years with Phoenix in the WNBA and who coached one year on Stanford’s staff, joins Kathy Olivier’s staff at UCLA next season. . . . Hapless Seattle (3-18) is 0-4 against its sister WNBA expansion teams. . . . Maylana Martin, Minnesota’s rookie center out of UCLA, after her matchup with the Sparks’ Lisa Leslie on Saturday night: “Lisa’s a very, very good player. If you play her tight, she’s quick enough to go around you. If you back off even a little, she’ll shoot over you.”