Old Rivals Renew Tweaks

The Detroit Shock-Spark series to decide the 2003 WNBA championship has many delicious story lines. But the one with spice has to do with the coaches -- the Sparks’ Michael Cooper and the Shock’s Bill Laimbeer.

Both have NBA pedigrees. Laimbeer was a roughhouse center for the Detroit Pistons with a sweet 20-foot jumper. The gangly Cooper made the alley-oop pass and dunk a Showtime staple with the Lakers. But he was best known -- and loathed by opponents -- as a take-no-prisoners defender who could hound Larry Bird and Julius Erving with equal voracity.

Back in 1989, Cooper’s Lakers were the two-time NBA champions. Laimbeer’s Pistons had lost to the Lakers in seven games the year before but stopped Los Angeles’ bid for a three-peat with a four-game sweep.

Fourteen years later, Cooper’s Sparks are the two-time league champions. And who stands in their way for a three-peat? The Detroit Shock, coached by Laimbeer, also the league’s 2003 coach of the year.

Laimbeer chuckles at the notion. “I don’t bring it up,” he said. “It is the ladies’ time. I am trying to get them focused on their situation. But we understand about it as the coaches; it makes for good media, and it helps pique the interest of fans who may not otherwise pay attention to our games. I want to see the women’s game succeed.”

Keep pressing Laimbeer, however, and he agrees the analogy has merit.

“[The Lakers] beat us in seven that first time, and we swept them,” he said. “We had to learn now to beat them. It is the same way this time. [The Shock] are a young, up-and-coming, talented ballclub driven for success. They are the two-time champs, and we think we’re better.”

It is that kind of final tweak that Laimbeer is so good at and can irk a prideful man such as Cooper. No matter how Laimbeer says it, Cooper senses indifference at best, and disrespect at worst.

But, like Laimbeer, Cooper is more interested in trying to keep the emphasis on this series, not the two men’s past.

“It’s like a book. The two of us may be on the cover, but it’s the pages inside that you read, and that would be the players,” Cooper said. “They’re the ones who are going to make the series interesting.”

One thing that will always link the two men yet keep them apart is the Laker-Piston history.

“Dennis Johnson is one of my best friends,” said Cooper, referring to the former NBA star and recent Clipper coach. “Yet every time I see him I still see some of that Celtic green.”

When asked if he thought Laimbeer liked him, Cooper said, “Probably not. But I really don’t care; he can’t beat me up now.”

There is something Laimbeer respects about the Sparks besides their collective talent. “Their mental toughness. They are just like Cooper in that respect,” he said. “They have his basketball personality.”

But the Shock also has taken Laimbeer’s personality. While young and athletic, Detroit has worked willingly at rebounding and defense. That did as much to change it from the league’s worst team last year (9-23) to the Eastern Conference champion this year.

They don’t have a ring yet. But that hasn’t stopped Laimbeer from practically sizing them up for some new jewelry.

“When you play a series, you know who is going to win,” he said. “It’s a test of wills, but you know who will win. That makes this series so great. We think we’re the best team, and the Sparks think they’re the best.

“But we’re more talented than the New York team they played [in last year’s finals]. We have more scorers, we had the best-ever East regular-season record, and so far we’ve backed it up in playoffs.”

Whatever talk that has come out of the Sparks’ camp has mainly come from Cooper, who said he was ready to match quips and sound bites with Laimbeer.

But when asked if a Spark victory could ease any lingering pain from the 1989 NBA Finals, Cooper said no. “I can never lose that pain.... As a coach winning would be great because you’ve done it through your head and your actions that you’ve given your players and they carried it out. But no, I’d have to come back as a player and beat Detroit for that pain to be erased.”