Dixon Is an Underrated Spark for L.A.
After the remodeled Tamecka Dixon had led the Sparks past the New York Liberty last Thursday, Coach Michael Cooper nominated her for the WNBA’s most-improved-player award.
Problem is, there’s no such award--yet.
But the league will announce soon that its “newcomer-of-the-year” award has been replaced by a most-improved trophy, and Dixon will be on everyone’s short list when ballots are distributed.
The multitalented Lisa Leslie is obviously the driving force behind the Sparks’ run for a WNBA championship, but no one minimizes Dixon’s role on a team that could dethrone the Houston Comets.
The 5-foot-9 fourth-year pro from Kansas, one of three remaining original Sparks--with Leslie and Mwadi Mabika--has been a good defender since her 1997 rookie year.
But after Cooper was promoted from assistant to head coach during the off-season, he wanted her to be even better.
He told Dixon to go on a diet.
“I felt like Meek had the potential to be the best perimeter defender in the league, but that she was carrying too much weight,” he said.
“And that’s exactly what she’s become. She had great defensive feet to start with, but now that she’s lighter, her quickness has taken her to a new level, not only defensively, but offensively too.”
Dixon not only accepted Cooper’s advice, she turned her off-season into a nine-month training camp.
“I went on a 1,200-calorie-per-day diet,” said Dixon, who’s playing at 153 pounds, down from the mid-170s.
She also hired three personal trainers--a strength coach, a basketball skills mentor and a conditioning-flexibility trainer.
All of that while serving an internship in the New Jersey Nets’ marketing department.
“I need to think about my post-basketball life,” said Dixon, 24.
She also spent much of her off-season playing against men, which is her basketball history. Dixon’s WNBA seasons are among the few periods in her career when she competed against women.
That decision probably cost her some money, since she could have tripled her WNBA salary--about $55,000--playing in Europe.
“I drove to places like East Orange, Plainfield, Newark and Elizabeth, playing against guys who were college or ex-college players,” she said. “No one has convinced me yet that I could improve my game more by playing in Europe, where the competition isn’t as good as it is in the WNBA. I think I get better playing against guys.”
It has been that way since she was 3, when she served as a ball shagger/towel carrier for her father, Russell Bowers, the all-time scoring leader at American University in Washington.
When she was a fifth-grader, her father enrolled her in a Police Athletic League.
“She was the only girl in the league and she did great,” her father said. “I knew then this was the start of something big.”
Dixon was one of the nation’s most-sought high school players her senior year at Linden, N.J. She went to Kansas and, in 1996-97, was voted Big 12 player of the year. The Sparks made her the 14th pick in the 1997 WNBA college draft.
In her first three seasons, she showed explosive offensive talent, frequently appearing to back off a drive to set up a pass or take a jump shot, then surprising the defender with a drive to the basket.
She also spent too much time, three Spark coaches agreed, setting up those drives with ball feints. This season, no more feints.
“I just told her to either shoot or pass, but whichever she chose, to do it immediately,” Cooper said. “I told her to think of herself as a catch-and-shoot player.”
Cooper calls Dixon a great listener.
“She hardly ever asks a question, because her knowledge of the game is very astute,” he said. “I’m so proud of her. When I got this job, I called every player and told them what I expected of them. Meek has done exactly what I asked.”
So why wasn’t she a fourth Spark--with Leslie, Mabika and DeLisha Milton--at the recent WNBA All-Star game?
“When the balloting was underway, my scoring average was under 10 points,” she said. “I felt all my other numbers were good enough, though.”
And few play better perimeter defense.
When the Sparks beat Houston on July 14, Sheryl Swoopes had scorched Mabika for 17 first-half points. At halftime, Dixon asked Cooper, “Coach, want me to take her?”
He did, she did, Swoopes had nine points in the second half and the Sparks won, 63-58.
LAYUPS
Minnesota Coach Brian Agler, on UCLA rookie Maylana Martin’s season: “Maylana is, without question, from training camp to now, the most improved player on our team.” . . . Sudden thought: How can Kara Wolters be on the U.S. Olympic team when Tina Thompson is not? . . . Leslie credits a new follow-through for her streak of 44 consecutive successful free throws: “I’m making sure I can see my fingertips on my shooting hand just above the basket on my follow-through.”