The WNBA, Team by Team

The WNBA is identical to the NBA in one respect: The West has better athletes and more quality teams than the East.

A true East team has yet to win the league championship. (Yes, Houston was in the Eastern Conference in the maiden 1997 season, but there is nothing more “west” than Texas.) And the West has won all three league All-Star games.

Last year, Los Angeles broke Houston’s four-year grip on the WNBA title, and aims to establish a similar dynasty. The challengers, however, are lined up and ready to knock off the Sparks’ crown--in the East as well as the West.

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*--* EASTERN CONFERENCE Cleveland (22-10) Coach: Dan Hughes Best player: Merlakia Jones (13.5 ppg) Prospectus: The Rockers rolled to the East’s regular-season title but were dropped by Charlotte in the playoffs. Cleveland doesn’t give up much--a league-low 55.9 points a game--but needs more scoring. Hughes hopes the offense can be more evenly spread between Jones, fellow veteran starters Chasity Melvin and Rushia Brown, and newcomers Deanna Jackson and Penny Taylor. The Rockers will miss point guard Helen Darling, who may be out for the season after giving birth to triplets New York (21-11) Coach: Richie Adubato Best player: Tari Phillips (15.3 ppg; 8.0 rpg) Prospectus: No other team knows championship heartbreak like the Liberty, which has lost three WNBA finals series. The biggest question is whether New York has another title run left. The core of Vickie Johnson, Phillips, Teresa Weatherspoon and Tamika Whitmore are all 30 and older. Adubato has started retooling, drafting forward Linda Frohlich and trading for guard Korie Hlede Miami (20-12) Coach: Ron Rothstein Best player: Elena Baranova (11.8 ppg, 6.0 rpg) Prospectus: The Sol made the playoffs for the first time and is poised for bigger things in 2002 if ... Baranova makes an appearance. The 6-5 forward is preparing with the Russia national team for the world championships in September, and may be a no-show this year. Without her, Miami falls back unless Sheri Sam and Sandy Brondello continue their excellence, and Ruth Riley emerges as force Charlotte (18-14) Coach: Anne Donovan Best player: Andrea Stinson (14.1 ppg) Prospectus: Charlotte began the year 1-10 and could have packed it in. Instead the Sting got hot and made it to the WNBA finals before bowing to L.A. Stinson and Allison Feaster are the foundation; Tammy Sutton-Brown is developing into a dependable center. The Sting has to hope point guard Dawn Staley’s knees aren’t about to give out, and that exciting rookie Sheila Lambert’s broken right leg heals quickly. Southland products Erin Buescher and Maylana Martin were acquired from Minnesota Orlando (13-19) Coach: Dee Brown Best player: Nykesha Sales (13.5 ppg) Prospectus: The most watched rookie at Orlando may be Brown, who had a 12-year NBA career and is taking his first shot at coaching. The most watched player may be Clarisse Machanguana, whom the Miracle acquired from Charlotte in exchange for the seventh pick in the draft. She joins Sales and Taj McWilliams-Franklin in the front court. Guard Adrienne Johnson needs to rebound from last year’s Achilles’ injury Indiana (10-22) Coach: Nell Fortner Best player: Tamika Catchings (injured last year) Prospectus: Why is 10-win team generating a big buzz? For starters, the Fever has a sound Tamika Catchings, the 2000 college player of the year. She missed last season with a torn ACL but could be the best rookie this year. Then there’s Nikki McCray, acquired from Washington. McCray has been derided as being past her prime and is eager to prove people wrong. In the draft, Indiana picked up Tawana McDonald with the 13th pick, a 6-4 center who was put in injured reserve Friday Detroit (10-22) Coach: Greg Williams Best player: Astou Ndiaye-Diatta (11.8 ppg) Prospectus: The Shock’s off-season has been good and bad. On the downside, Australian guard Jae Kingi will not play this season, guard Rachael Sporn is out (pregnancy) and projected starting guard Dominique Cantry broke her left hand. On the upside, taking Swin Cash with the second pick in the draft should pay off handsomely Washington (10-22) Coach: Marianne Stanley Best player: Chamique Holdsclaw (16.8 ppg, 8.8 rpg) Prospectus: The Mystics were second in the league in home attendance. Imagine what it would be like if the fans had a team worth watching. New coach Stanley (and “consultant” Pat Summitt, a pretty fair coach herself at Tennessee) are trying hard to change Washington’s loser status. The Mystics grabbed Stacey Dales-Schuman and Asjha Jones in the draft. If veteran forward Vicky Bullett can again be a double-digit scorer, and Holdsclaw plays hard every night, the franchise cornerstones are in place

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*--* WESTERN CONFERENCE Los Angeles (28-4) Coach: Michael Cooper Best player: Lisa Leslie (19.5 ppg, 9.6 rpg) Prospectus: It’s rare when a defending champion makes a critical lineup change. But the Sparks sent point guard Ukari Figgs to Portland for the rights to Nikki Teasley and have given the rookie the ball. L.A., with prime-time players such as reigning MVP Leslie, Tamecka Dixon, DeLisha Milton, Mwadi Mabika and Latasha Byears, is good enough to return to the finals. Cooper is banking that Teasley will be the piece the Sparks need to be a dynasty Sacramento (20-12) Coach: Maura McHugh Top player: Yolanda Griffith (16.2 ppg, 11.2 rpg) Prospectus: The Monarchs were the only team last year to take a game from the Sparks in the playoffs, and they expect to challenge both L.A. and Houston for West supremacy. Sacramento was stunned by the loss of talented guard Edna Campbell, who is sitting out the season because of breast cancer. The Monarchs do have high hopes for top draft pick Hamchetou Maiga, and veterans Ruthie Bolton, Kedra Holland-Corn, a sound Ticha Penicheiro and Tangela Smith make them dangerous Utah (19-13) Coach: Candi Harvey Best player: Natalie Williams (14.2 ppg, 9.9 rpg) Prospectus: Last year the Starzz made the playoffs for the first time. Utah could be better this year. Besides Williams, there is the terrific talent of Marie Ferdinand, heady veteran Jennifer Azzi and Margo Dydek, at 7-2 the tallest player in the league. Draft selections Danielle Crockrom and LaNeishea Caufield strengthen the Utah bench Houston (19-13) Coach: Van Chancellor Best player: Sheryl Swoopes (back from injury) Prospectus: It’s a tossup on what was harder on Swoopes, the 2000 MVP: sitting out the year rehabbing a torn ACL, or watching the Sparks win the title. Swoopes is loudly telling anyone who’ll listen that now that she’s back, no one can mess with Texas. She has hyperextended her injured knee, but it’s not like she carries the load alone. Forward Tina Thompson (a team high 19.3 points) and guard Janeth Arcain were All-Stars last season, and the draft yielded Michelle Snow. The Comets also acquired Rebecca Lobo from New York Phoenix (13-19) Coach: Cynthia Cooper Best player: Jennifer Gillom (12.3 ppg) Prospectus: Cooper spent last season establishing discipline (suspending talented head case Brandy Reed for the year) and finding out who can play and who can’t. This season she starts making over the Mercury. But if Reed, who has been bothered by an ankle injury, is ready to be a team player, she’s a 20-point-a-night scorer. If center Maria Stepanova has the year she is primed for, she can be a force Minnesota (12-20) Coach: Brian Agler Best player: Katie Smith (23.1 ppg) Prospectus: The Lynx have the league’s top scorer in Smith, but the rest of the starting lineup is sorting itself out. Injuries are an issue: If Kristi Harrower is sufficiently recovered from a torn ACL, Smith has a point guard to get her the ball. If not, Betty Lennox will move to the point, though she is better suited for shooting guard. Small forward Svetlana Abrosimova should be over her foot injuries. Rookie Tamika Williams brings muscle at power forward, and Michele VanGorp has the size, if not always the will, to be the center Portland (11-21) Coach: Linda Hargrove Best player: Jackie Stiles (14.9 ppg) Prospectus: By trading its top pick for Figgs, the Fire is taking a bigger gamble than L.A. Hargrove is betting that Figgs can turn Stiles (recovering from a wrist injury) and Portland into an efficient offense. Hargrove is also betting the trade, which sent Sophia Witherspoon (12.8 points) to L.A. for draft pick Gergana Slavtcheva, will not come back to haunt her. Kristin Folkl and Sylvia Crawley need to take some of the scoring burden off of Stiles Seattle (10-22) Coach: Linn Dunn Best player: Lauren Jackson (15.2 ppg, 6.7 rpg) Prospectus: Dunn will be happy not to have the first pick in the draft next year. The Storm has chosen first the past two years, getting Jackson in 2001 and Sue Bird in April. They should be the players Dunn needs to build the team. Jamie Redd gives Seattle another scorer; Bird will have to keep Redd from being selfish. With the retirement of Michelle Edwards and Katy Steding, Seattle still is young

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