THE WNBA DRAFT

So the WNBA draft that I was talking about in the last entry was full of surprises. It was the first WNBA Draft where both the number 1 and number 2 draft pick were TRADED minutes after being drafted. But why does this affect me and New York? Because we ended up being on the other side of the trade for the number 2 draft pick, Jessica Davenport from Ohio State. You must thinking then why am I so upset about this? Well we just traded our 2008 second round Draft pick and BECKY HAMMON for her. We traded away our 8 year veteran, lead scorer, crowd drawer for a rookie. It was horrible. Becky will now play for San Antonio. San Antonio got so lucky this off season because they earned several veteran players from trades like this one. I’m really feeling San Antonio this year which will be quite awesome since they used to be one of the worst teams.

What happens now? I keep going to the games and the Liberty will have to find that chemistry again. The only nice thing is most of them are new or have at least 2 years experience so this team can bond quickly and play nice together. If we lose big time, we’ll end up with the number one draft pick next year. With that number one draft pick we’ll end up with Candace Parker from the University of Tennessee who was a knock out in the NCAA championship this year.

With all this talk I forgot to tell you that Parker had until 10 AM yesterday morning to say she was going into the Draft. She obviously didn’t enter the draft which is good for her. Originally the WNBA wanted only graduating seniors to enter the Draft. The NBA drafts them right out of High School and slams millions of dollars on them. The WNBA believes in a full education. Now the number one draft pick will be earning 42,000 dollars a year. The veterans earn 93,000 dollars a year. It’s grossly unfair that men make obscene amounts of money over the women. And the women play just as hard, maybe even harder than the men. I absolutely despise watching the NBA because I feel like it has become a dunking show and a one on one type of game. The WNBA fully establishes the fundamentals of the game and when they work as a team, wow…watch out. It’s good clean basketball which I enjoy. Sure, Lisa Leslie can stun us with her one handed dunk in the All Star game, but that’s what the All Star game is for. Flashy plays and a fun filled atmosphere. I’m not saying dunking is bad, I just like the fact that we don’t rely on it as much as the NBA. But watch in the upcoming years, and the dunking in the WNBA will increase because these young women entering the Draft have been exposed to both the NBA and WNBA throughout their entire playing career.