Youngsters Ready for Starring Roles

A different breed of baby boomer will be celebrated tonight at the WNBA’s seventh All-Star game.

There are four rookies here, the most ever for an All-Star event. And eight players will be making their first All-Star appearances.

And how about this? Chicago’s Candice Dupree, one of those four rookies, represents the Eastern Conference, and Houston’s Dawn Staley is on the Western Conference squad. Staley was Dupree’s college coach at Temple.

Injuries have taken several widely known players out of the game, including Tamika Catchings, the top vote getter from Indiana; Tina Thompson of Houston, Nykesha Sales of Connecticut, and Becky Hammon of New York.

That doesn’t mean, however, that Madison Square Garden will lack for star power when the nationally televised game tips off.

To icons such as the Sparks’ Lisa Leslie and Houston’s Sheryl Swoopes, who have won five league MVP and four All-Star MVP awards, women’s basketball continues to evolve and the WNBA game continues to grow.

“Some of these players watched the WNBA in high school,” Leslie said. “And now they have arrived.”

Added Swoopes, “The game has changed so many different ways. I don’t know how much I want to play [today]. I want to watch some of the younger players play because I enjoy the talent.”

Michelle Snow of Houston, who livened up the practice sessions with several dunks, represents the new breed the league hopes to showcase.

“I respect my elders but we’re here,” said Snow, a five-year veteran in her first All-Star game. “We’re not trying to take [the veterans] out or take the spotlight. We’re here to learn from them. We want them to pass the torch to us.”

More than anything else, Deanna Nolan of Detroit wants an East win. The West has won all six previous games, including 122-99 at Connecticut last season, when Leslie had a dunk near the end of the game.

“I’m tired of the media throwing it in our face that the West always wins,” Nolan said. “We thought the point of the All-Star game was to come out and have fun. But last year they came out real serious. So we’re going to come out serious, and play all four quarters.”

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All-Star rosters

Rosters for tonight’s WNBA All-Star game (4:30 PDT, ESPN):

EAST

STARTERS

*--* Player, Team Pos. Hgt. PPG Tamika Catchings, Indiana * F 6-0 15.8 Nykesha Sales, Connecticut * F 6-0 13.7 Margo Dydek, Connecticut C 7-2 10.0 Becky Hammon, New York * G 5-6 15.4 Lindsay Whalen, Connecticut G 5-8 8.7

*--*

*

EAST

RESERVES

*--* Player, Team Pos. Hgt. PPG Katie Douglas, Connecticut F 6-0 16.2 Cheryl Ford, Detroit F 6-3 13.6 Tangela Smith, Charlotte ** F 6-4 12.6 Tamika Whitmore, Indiana F 6-4 16.1 Candice Dupree, Chicago ** C 6-2 13.4 Taj McWilliams-Franklin, Conn. ** C 6-2 11.6 Alana Beard, Washington G 5-11 18.2 Deanna Nolan, Detroit G 5-10 13.2 Katie Smith, Detroit G 5-11 11.7

*--*

*

WEST

STARTERS

*--* Player, Team Pos. Hgt. PPG Sheryl Swoopes, Houston F 6-0 13.7 Lauren Jackson, Seattle F 6-5 19.9 Yolanda Griffith, Sacramento C 6-3 11.5 Sue Bird, Seattle G 5-9 10.3 Dawn Staley, Houston G 5-6 7.1

*--*

*

WEST

RESERVES

*--* Player, Team Pos. Hgt. PPG Tina Thompson, Houston * F 6-2 17.1 Sophie Young, San Antonio F 6-1 11.2 Lisa Leslie, Sparks C 6-5 20.1 Michelle Snow, Houston ** C 6-5 11.6 Seimone Augustus, Minnesota G 6-1 23.2 Cappie Pondexter, Phoenix G 5-9 21.9 Diana Taurasi, Phoenix G 5-11 23.2

*--*

* Injured, will not play.

** Named to squad as replacement for injured player.

Source: WNBA