Reed, Mercury Go at It Again

In one of the classic Laurel & Hardy comedies, “The Music Box,” Stan and Ollie are piano movers. Their horse-drawn wagon arrives at the house they’re looking for--and it’s atop a flight of about 100 steps.

The look on Ollie’s face tells it all: “Well, Stanley, here’s another fine mess you’ve got us into.”

That scene translates nicely into what’s happened in recent days to Cynthia Cooper, coach of the Phoenix Mercury.

And a really fine mess this one is too.

Brandy Reed, a 6-foot-1, 24-year-old star from Southern Mississippi, has seemed happier in Turkey, where she was paid $100,000-plus, than the WNBA. Wherever she has been in the U.S. league--and this is her second stop at Phoenix--she has been as troublesome as she is talented.

First, in 1998, she got into a beef with then-Phoenix coach Cheryl Miller, was put on the Mercury’s unprotected list for the expansion draft and was picked by Minnesota. There, problems began with Coach Brian Agler, leading to a blowup in the Lynx locker room, a fracas involving her coach and teammates.

Back to Phoenix she went, for a draft pick.

For Phoenix, big mistake.

And for this, Cooper gave up a certain Hall of Fame playing career?

She certainly did, Ollie.

Now, she’s carrying a malcontent superstar. But perhaps not for long. If Phoenix jettisons Reed, you have to wonder if any team would pick her up.

The sad part is, she’s one of the WNBA’s marquee players, a stunning offensive talent who was the league’s No. 3 scorer last year at 19 points a game. But she has always been difficult and last week she might have written her final WNBA chapter.

She jumped ship in Seattle, failing to show for the Mercury’s bus ride to a game. No one from the team has seen her since. She has been suspended indefinitely.

The league bent over backward to sign her just before training camps opened. Every Mercury starter earned a bigger salary than her $35,000 last year and most around the league figured she had a strong case when she demanded more.

She refused to sign a contract for $60,000 by the May 1 deadline, then, when she agreed to sign for $50,000 three days later, the league waived its deadline rule. Along the way, she fired her agent.

After tonight, Phoenix has a five-day break in the schedule. Look for the Mercury to cut her loose this week.

Cooper and Mercury General Manager Seth Sulka have had little to say about the matter, although Cooper gave some indication that Reed was history.

“I don’t know if you want a player that just walks away from her team,” she said.

Sulka said Sunday, “We’ve not spoken with her. We believe she’s in Phoenix, but we don’t know. She’s indefinitely suspended until she gives us some indication where she wants to go with this.”

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WNBA insiders are saying the league will remain at 16 teams and not expand next year, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the WNBA map will remain the same.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports the Chicago Bulls are interested in acquiring a WNBA team and are seeking commitments for 7,500 season tickets at United Center. The Sun-Times report also speculated that either of the league’s two attendance laggards, Utah or Charlotte, might be moved to Chicago.

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Only two NCAA coaches have won consecutive Division I women’s basketball championships.

Tennessee’s Pat Summitt, who won three in succession--1996, ‘97, ‘98--is already in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Now it’s Linda Sharp’s turn. She’ll be inducted this weekend at the facility in Knoxville, Tenn.

Sharp assembled the powerhouse USC teams featuring Cheryl Miller, Pam and Paula McGee, Rhonda Windham and Cynthia Cooper and led them to national titles in 1983 and ’84.

Sharp enters with a class of 10, one that includes Houston Comet Coach Van Chancellor and Vivian Stringer of Rutgers.

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Spark guard Ukari Figgs, who has an engineering degree from Purdue, worked the off-season at a Caterpillar design facility at West Lafayette, Ind. She said if she worked for Caterpillar full-time, she would make more than the WNBA pays her, which is roughly $35,000.

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Remember Jamila Wideman, the Sparks’ first-round pick in the 1997 draft of college players? She bounced around from the Sparks to Cleveland to Portland, where she was cut several weeks ago. She’s now enrolled at New York University’s law school.