Weatherspoon Becomes a Spark
The Sparks lost their WNBA title last season to the league’s youngest team, Detroit. But the team’s first move for the 2004 season was not youth-oriented.
Los Angeles reached into the free-agent market Wednesday and signed 38-year-old guard Teresa Weatherspoon, who played the last seven WNBA seasons with the New York Liberty.
Terms of the contract were not revealed, although Weatherspoon would receive at least the veteran minimum, $43,680.
“I’m overwhelmed,” Weatherspoon said during a media conference call. “I’m sure you all know I played for New York but now it’s time to bleed purple and gold. I just want to fit in and bring what I can to the Sparks ... I want to be the leader the organization feels I can be.”
Asked if she thought her signing might kick-start a rush of free-agent activity in what has been a mostly stagnant WNBA off-season, Weatherspoon said, “I don’t know how good it is for the league but know how good it is for me. I can pursue my dream of getting a championship ring.”
Weatherspoon and Charlotte’s Andrea Stinson are the only players to have started every game of their WNBA careers. Weatherspoon’s streak will probably end with the Sparks, who have a strong starting guard tandem in Nikki Teasley and Tamecka Dixon.
There is also the question about whether Weatherspoon can keep up with the Sparks’ running style. Los Angeles last year signed veteran forward Jennifer Gillom, who was never able to fit into the Sparks’ system.
Neither Spark General Manager Penny Toler nor Coach Michael Cooper, who both were on the conference call, seemed concerned.
“I’m very happy to acquire a player of Teresa’s character,” Cooper said. “She is a defensive-minded person and defense wins championships. We’re blessed with a good core group, so it’s about adding pieces. And Teresa is an important piece.
“She looks like a player who has always kept in good condition. And the game we play, it’s impossible for everyone to play 35 minutes a night.”
The Sparks and Liberty will meet twice this season, July 22 in New York and July 29 in Los Angeles.
With the Liberty, Weatherspoon was a five-time All-WNBA first- or second-team selection and was the league’s defensive player of the year in 1997 and ’98. She is also the league’s career assist leader with 1,306 and was part of four Eastern Conference championship teams, last playing in the WNBA finals in 2002, against the Sparks.
While excited about the chance to come to Los Angeles, Weatherspoon said it was an emotionally tough decision to leave New York -- even though she had not yet been offered a contract for this season.
“I don’t think anyone would think it was easy to walk away from [New York] after seven years,” Weatherspoon said. “It was very difficult to walk away from fans who had truly embraced me.
“But I was taught that when you move on you don’t look back or you run into something. And when a potential championship team offers you a chance to play well, you can’t be stupid.”