No One’s Ready to Run Away in the West Yet

As the WNBA approaches the halfway point of the 2005 season, the parity that has long been part of the East has spread to the West.

There has been only one previous season, 1997, when the regular-season Western Conference champion didn’t win at least 20 games. By contrast, that has happened four times in the Eastern Conference, including last year.

But it may occur this season in the West, where five teams -- Sacramento, Houston, Los Angeles, Minnesota and defending league champion Seattle -- are separated by four games at the top of the standings.(Phoenix and San Antonio, barring a second-half rally, are steadily drifting toward the lottery.)

That mirrors the East, where only Charlotte seems to have no shot at the postseason. The other five teams -- Connecticut, Indiana, Detroit, Washington and New York -- are separated by 5 1/2 games.

The West is known for having one or two dominant teams, historically Houston or Los Angeles, and the rest scrambling for playoff crumbs. In the past, the best team was usually apparent after 10 games.

Not so this season.

“Other than San Antonio, which may or may not make a push, you’ve got teams that will all be competitive down the stretch,” Seattle Coach Anne Donovan said. “I think the East and West will all be the same way; it will come down to the end of the season before things shake out playoff-wise. It’s exciting. It’s nice to see this league has parity again, top to bottom, on both sides.”

Sacramento could reach 20 wins, and conceivably that standard is within the grasp of the other four too. But unless some team goes on an extended winning streak, it figures the West teams will just beat each other up in the second half the way they’ve done in the first half.

“It’s that kind of year where it’s such a struggle,” Donovan said. “I’m thinking we’ve played pretty well, and we are [7-8]. It’s not fantastic. So it’s going to be one of those years. I’m not going to say it won’t happen, that someone won’t win 20 games, but it won’t be a given this year.”

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It has been a month since Sheila Johnson assumed control of the Washington Mystics, and already she is showing signs she is not going to be an uninterested, absentee owner.

In an online chat this week, Johnson was asked about increasing attendance around the league and raising the WNBA’s profile as a pro sport. Her response went beyond just a business perspective.

“It’s just educating people,” Johnson said of fans who don’t want to attend games because the players are women. “We have to erase that kind of psychology, that stereotype that women are not great athletes, because we are great athletes. It’s the education of the public and then marketing the sport itself.

“I remember when the NBA started out, and it was nothing. With the WNBA, we’ve got a big marketing challenge on our hands. We’ve got to get more corporate sponsorship behind our ladies. We’ve got a long way to go.”

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Nykesha Sales, Yolanda Griffith and Chamique Holdsclaw all recently passed the 3,000-point plateau in their WNBA careers. Eight players have reached that milestone in league history, and when L.A.’s Mwadi Mabika returns to action, she will be 158 points away from being the ninth.

But Minnesota’s Katie Smith is approaching a standard where she’s the only member of the club.

Smith is 23 points shy of becoming the first woman in the U.S. to score 5,000 points in professional basketball. She has 3,546 in her WNBA career, now in its seventh season, and also scored 1,431 during her three seasons with Columbus (Ohio) Quest in the now-defunct American Basketball League.

Smith, 31, who has rebounded from cartilage surgery in her right knee last September to average 14 points, is proud of the pending accomplishment, as well as her two Olympic gold medals and the back-to-back ABL championships she won with Columbus in 1996-97 and 1997-98.

She wants a WNBA title, but she is not going to chase that dream forever.

“I am winding down and want a chance to win a championship,” Smith said. “It can be done in Minnesota. But I am getting toward the end. If my body holds up, I’ll probably play another three years, then move on. I could play longer but want to take advantage of some other things I don’t want to pass me by.”

One of those interests is dentistry. Smith, who earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology at Ohio State, has been taking classes at her alma mater in preparation for applying to a dental school. Her father, Don, was a dentist.

“Dental school is what I want and that’s another four years,” Smith said. “I want to be done with that before I turn 40. I would also like to be home for a summer to enjoy being with family.”

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Winning 20

Twenty-victory seasons by WNBA teams:

*--* WESTERN CONFERENCE Year Team Record 1998 Houston 27-3 1999 Houston 26-6 Sparks 20-12 2000 Sparks 28-4 Houston 27-5 Sacramento 21-11 2001 Sparks 28-4 Sacramento 20-12 2002 Sparks 25-7 Houston 24-8 Utah 20-12 2003 Sparks 24-10 Houston 20-14 2004 Sparks 25-9 Seattle 20-14 EASTERN CONFERENCE 1998 Cleveland 20-10 2000 New York 20-12 2001 Cleveland 22-10 New York 21-11 Miami 20-12 2003 Detroit 25-9

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