WNBA All Star Game

The following blog is NOT paid for by the Jayne Appel fan club, nor by the “I hate Jayne Appel Fan Club”, nor by any fan club because this is a blog about women’s sports and boy don’t we know how nobody pays nobody nohow to write or pay attention to women’s sports, but we digress. We digress because we are rambling, and we are rambling because we don’t want to write what really needs to be said…..Jayne did not have a good All Star game arrrrgh, there we said it. She got many minutes, that’s for sure, but she was also playing against Sylvia Fowles, who would go on to score 23 points, most of them over Jayne, and be the All Star MVP (R was VERY impressed with Sylvia). Jayne looked ineffective and a little lost, as much as we former Jayne supporters and current Stafnrod supports hate to admit, although the WNBA team only had one practice, which lasted about an hour, so C and R are sure that contributed to the WNBA side not playing well. She also could not move quickly or jump for the ball, and maybe her injures are still bothering her. We did notice Jayne’s teammates did try to get her the ball, but Team USA was just quicker and had a longer arm span, and either stole the pass or knocked it away from her. On the bright side, Jayne was included in the Team USA practices they had prior to the All Star game and is technically on the Team USA roster.

The announcers spoke at length about Jayne in the third quarter, after Team USA had beaten up on the WNBA team (did you see Jayne at half time icing her nose? She took a hit on a rebound, we think). They said she Jayne has been fighting off injuries and couldn’t participate in her WNBA training camp, and most of her team was over seas early in the season and you need to practice against those types of players early in the season. Those were all salient points but then you look at rookie Tina Charles averaging a double double and leading the WNBA in rebounds. She also didn’t look lost on Team USA, probably because it was a similar system (Team USA is coached by her college coach, Geno, Although he kinda left her out to dry by baiting her with money to try  to take a three point shot, and when she shot and missed TWO, he yanked her and teased her about it.), and Tina is not fighting injuries the way Jayne is. Sigh, C and R were bummed, man.

Incidentally, C watched the network sports center that night and not a mention of the WNBA All Star game. It featured Team USA, the National Team, and usually the networks will mention that, but again, nothing. C opened the paper the next day and back on the last page, there was one short paragraph that Sylvia Fowles won the MVP for Team USA against the WNBA All Stars. There was a slightly larger paragraph about the Stanford freshmen playing on the Pro- Am in San Francisco. More ink on that instead of the women’s pro basketballs league and Team USA? So typical, so disappointing.