Who Are You Rooting For in the WNBA Playoffs?

So C and R have been taking in the WNBA playoff games, when televised on a channel we actually get, even though we have no vested interest, meaning we have no home team to root for, thank you very much Sacramento and the Moo-oaf brothers. So the next best thing is to root for teams that have ex-Stanford women’s basketball players and after that, players we just admire.

We were delighted Jayne Appel’s team, the San Antonio Silver Stars, were in the playoffs. Unfortunately they had to play Phoenix, which is lead by Diana Taurasi, who falls under the category of players we admire. We admire the heck out of her.

Predictably, Phoenix beat San Antonio two games to none, but we did get to see Jayne Appel play, and C and R must admit, for the first time all season it finally looked as if Jayne belonged in the WNBA.

For those of you not in the know, Jayne had a stellar career at Stanford and in her senior year lead her team to the championship game, where, hampered by a painful stress fracture in her foot plus a sprained ankle, went scoreless and left college with a bad taste in her mouth. Her summer in the WNBA has not gone well either, and it is hard to tell if it is the lingering effects of her injuries or the higher level of play or a combination.

Anyway, she looked good in the loss. At one point, Jayne was being guarded by another former Stanford women’s basketball player, Brooke “The Hook” Smith. They were guarding each other so C and R took turns punching each other on the arm and saying, “Look, Brooke’s guarding Jayne, Jayne’s guarding Brooke!” We noticed both women play very similarly, but we believe Jayne is just better. Not that we have anything to back it up with, we just believe that!

Well, at least we can now root for Nicole Powell on the NY Liberty.

WNBA Weekend

A lot happened over the weekend; R celebrated her birthday and the WNBA started its season.

The Candice-less Minnesota Lynx won, and Jayne Appel’s San Antonio Spurts lost. Neither former Stanford players played, mind you, due to injuries. Candice Wiggins is recovering from knee surgery and Jayne Apple is still healing the stress fracture in her foot. The other two former Stanford players in the WNBA did play. Nicole Powell scored 11 points and helped the New York Liberty to a victory and Brooke Smith of the Phoenix Mercury played four minutes and did not score.

The new team in the WNBA, the Tulsa Shock opened to a sell out crowd of 8,000. Seattle Storm had a sell out of 9,686. Wow, glad to see the sellouts and the support in Oklahoma. C and R weren’t sure if women’s basketball would get a lot of support down there. We hope it keeps up. I know coach Nolan Richardson has a lot of support from his coaching stint of the men’s team at the University of Arkansas, and there is the curiosity factor of ex-sprinter Marion Jones on the team (she played four minutes in the opening game and did not score).

Wish we could report we are on our way to see a WNBA game, but with the Sacramento Monarchs gone, it will be a hard stretch for us to see a game. (BTW did you see Joe Maloof’s bizarre plan to beg the WNBA for the Sacramento Monarchs back? When pigs fly). Might have to travel to LA to see a game.

Best of the Best of 2009

Good Morning, or should we say good afternoon, depending on when you got up today. With 2010 here, we thought we would talk about 2009. Ya know, ever get tired of Women’s Basketball”? (Blasphemy, I know). Ever wonder what else is going on in the world of women’s sports? Well, now you can get catch up to speed, with the “Best of 2009” From Women’s Talk Sports. The Women Talk Sports Network wanted all of their women bloggers to write a “Best of 2009” Series and link to others. We didn’t really write a best of 2009 blog, because it would just be Stanford, Stanford, Stanford and then all about us and anyway, who can remember what happened the last twelve months when we can barely remember where we parked the car.

Well, okay, now that we think about it, highlights include Stanford beating Tennessee, December 2009 and the first half of the UConn-Stanford game, December 2009, where we were leading. C and R going to the Sacramento Monarchs game on a press pass this summer and interviewing Candice Wiggins and going to the USF-Tennessee game on a press pass in the winter and asking questions of legendary Pat Summit. And oh, we lost to Cal last year and were in danger of losing the PAC-10 regular season and Cal choked and lost its last game to give us the PAC-10 regular season title and the number 1 seed in the PAC-10 tournament, which we won! Hee hee, that was sweet. The February 14^th game to support breast cancer research where we beat Cal and Lindy LaRoque did the “Lindy Slide” to knock over Cal’s Alexis Gray Lawson and get the ball to Jill Harmon for an easy score. Sorry, we warned you it would be all Stanford and C and R. Oh, Stanford women’s soccer going undefeated in the regular season and undefeated in the NCAA tournament until the Title Game where they fell 1-0 to powerhouse North Carolina. There, at least it wasn’t all basketball.

Anyhoo, check out the other Women Talk Sports “Best of 2009” blogs. We'll update them as they come in. Tell ‘em C and R sent ya.

More "Best of '09" from other WTS bloggers:

• From Because I Played Sports, Best of '09: Forming a community, WomenTalkSports.com
• From One Athletic Women, Best of '09: an idiosyncratic digest of bloggings from Athletic Women Blog
• From The Glowing Edge, Top Four Historic Moments in Women’s Boxing 2009
• From MultiSport Mama, A Year of plantar fasciitis: 12 months of pain and recovery
• From Fair Games News, Six troubled trends in women’s sports (and what we can do)
• From Draft Day Suit, Trobling Trends in Women's Sports
• From One Sport Voice, The "Best" of 2009 and the State of Girls & Women in Sports
• From WakeGirls.com, Best of ‘09 – A Year for Women in Wake
• From Nobody Puts Robin in a Corner, Best of '09: A Fresh Meat's Perspective
• From PrettyTough.com, 2009: A Salute to Women in Sports
• From Jayda Evans of the Seattle Times, Best of the decade: A look back at Northwest women's hoops
• From Women Talk Sports Co-Founder Ann Gaffigan, Victories and Failures in Women's Sports in 2009 (#FTW or #FAIL)
• From Westbound Boarder, Top Female Snowboarding Moments of 2009
• From Swish Appeal, Best of 2009: The Humble Emergence of Tanisha Wright
• From C and R Stanford Women's Basketball, Best the Best of 2009
  

Monarchs Really No More

Say Good Bye To Nicole Powell and Courtney Paris. The Sacramento Monarchs have folded and the players are going in to a “Dispersal Draft”. I guess there is no interest in women’s basketball in the Bay Area.

No, strike that. There IS interest in women’s basketball in the Bay Area, at least on the fans’ part. Just look at any Stanford or Cal game. Just no interest in the people with money, whether they be a NBA owner, an arena owner or a Silicon Valley Millionaire. If I only woulda won the lottery… Strike that, if I only hadda played the lottery….

Maybe we will get a different team in 2011, says the WNBA. I still say they could have played at Santa Clara University, in a small, intimate venue. Honestly, who do we have to talk to?

Jones-ing

Okay, so when C opens her internet browser, she has her home page set to Yahoo. Not Google. Her kids, questioning her technology knowledge (and sanity), always ask why she is using the "inferior" Yahoo instead of God-Almighty-Google. C likes to tell them that she has been using Yahoo since before Google was invented. Well, before she became aware of Google. (I think they started going main stream-ish around 2000-2001 to us non-techies). C first got on the internet around 1994, she thinks, even before the internet itself! Well, she wasn't using the "graphics" part of the internet. Remember list servers and bulletin boards all done in text, no pretty HTML? Remember AOL and those discs given out everywhere? My kids have no idea what I am talking about.

Everyone likes Google for their "clean design" and uncluttered home page. That is exactly the opposite of what C wants. She likes the fact that she gets headlines and news on her home page. Yahoo is always adding gadgets and widgets and what-not to try and keep me hip and up to date (you can try Yahoo, oh, you can try). So it was curious to her when she saw in the Yahoo box that lists the top ten searched for items and saw Marion Jones. Clicking on the link brought her to an article that Marion Jones is trying comeback...in the WNBA! (ah, there it is, the tie from Yahoo and Google to women's basketball! It sure took me long enough, didn’t it?)

Yes, the former track and Olympic star that got busted for using steroids and lying about it (and passing bad checks and going to prison) wants to go to a WNBA team. She is 34 and the mother of 3, yet the reports say she is in good shape (I wish I could be after just 2 kids!) and she credits prison for keeping her in shape! Well now, I guess there was something good about prison for her.

She says she wants to join a team partly to get her message out that we should think about our choices before we act. She does have basketball experience. Fourteen years ago. In 1994-5 she was a freshmen and the starting point guard at the University of North Carolina, where they went 33-2 and won the national championship. She was then injured and decided to concentrate on track and field. She will have an uphill battle, as today's women's basketball players have gotten bigger, stronger and faster collectively.

How you feel about Jones playing in the WNBA depends on how you feel about second chances anmd does spending time in prison wipe the slate clean. Here is her quote from the NY Times:

“It’s important for people to know that it’s possible to make a mistake in your life, but it’s what you do after the mistake that people are going to remember you by,” she said. “Are you going to make whatever negatives that happened in your life a positive? Are you going to disappear? That has certainly never been in my horizon. How can I use my experience, my story, to help people and in the process hop on this journey of trying to make a team?”

Hey, maybe the Sacramento Monarchs should grab her…oh wait… they don’t have a place to play, either!

Thoughts, feeling, anyone? Email us.

Sacramento Monarchs No-more

How did you sleep last night? Well, while you were sleeping the Sacramento Monarchs dissolved into thin air. Yes, one of the eight original franchises has folded.

The owners said they wanted to focus all their energy on the Sacramento Kings, a team currently third out of five in their division, yet the 4th and 5th place teams are the hapless Clippers and the Warriors so they don’t count.

Reports are swirling that League President Donna Orender is trying to find a way to bring them to the Bay Area. You go Donna; finally someone who understands women’s basketball has a great following in this area and a women's professional team would thrive.

One thing, though, have the team come to the Stanford, mid peninsula area or the South Bay. That is where the support is. Not Oakland. Oakland would seem like a logical choice because you could piggyback it with the Warriors (see above). No, we don’t feel there is the type of support in the East Bay you see on this side of the bay (sorry Cal fans, we just calls ‘em like we sees ‘em). The Warriors have already issued a statement. They said they support the “idea” of a WNBA team playing in Oakland, but would not affiliate themselves with a franchise. Ringing endorsement there, guys, thanks.

Well guess what, we (meaning C and R) don’t want a WNBA team in Oakland. It’s funny, just last month C outlined her plan to R to have a WNBA team play in Santa Clara University’s Leavey Center. It is small and intimate, relatively new with okay parking, it is accessible to the entire mid peninsula on down Stanford and women’s basketball fans, the police staion is just across the street for those rowdy women's basketball fans (bring bail money) and it is two miles from my house. Win, win, win.

Okay, now whom do we talk to about our idea?

The Game!

Okay, let’s back up a minute now that we have had some time to catch our breath with our fantastic experience getting a press pass to watch the WNBA’s Sacramento Monarchs play their final regular season game against the Minnesota Lynx.

On the loooong car ride up to Sacramento (Why, oh why, can’t they bring a WNBA team closer to the Bay Area, where women’s basketball enjoys so much support?), C turns on her computer so C and R can think of some non-lame questions to ask the players. Her computer instantly crashes and she frantically tries to restore it to an earlier, happier time when everything worked while hurtling 80 MPH in a white Toyota Corolla. And the only questions they can think of are lame indeed.

We get in and the Monarchs staff could not have been more professional or courteous to us. We marvel at the free parking, free food, and free admittance to the game with front row seats. We are in heaven.

We briefly visit the Monarchs locker room before they kick us out (looks a little small compared to all the locker room shots of Michael Jordan and gang seem to enjoy). We sit next to a beat writer for Outward Magazine who has been following the team for years and she gives us a lot of insider information. The first of which is we can’t cheer while sitting at press row. R is so totally bummed. The worst thing for C is she can’t pick up on the freebies. Some fans have the bang sticks with tassels. She is jealous.

Although this game means nothing to either team, both are out of the play-offs, we are keeping our eye on ex-Stanford grad and current Monarch Nicole Powell. She needs 5 points to break the franchise record of 545 set by Yolanda Griffith. Early in the game she misses her first three, but connects on the next two to get the record.

Both teams are playing for pride and are hustling down the court. The refs are not calling a lot of fouls and they game is getting rough. We notice Minnesota Lynx Candice Wiggins, another former Stanford player, is not playing point. More like an off guard. She is having a cold shooting night, as are most of the Lynx.

In one series Candice gets three straight rebounds, which means she keeps missing easy put backs. Where is the box out, Sacramento? Finally she gets the rebound and tenaciously puts it in. We want to cheer for Candice even though we are not supposed to, and this is Sacramento’s home game. Nicole Powell keeps firing away, though.

The t-shirt squad comes out and we are dying to stand up and yell for one. We watch them sail over our heads and it is killing us!

We see Courtney Paris come in the game. We are sorry to say she still looks out of shape, and this is the end of the season. She does look tough inside on defense, getting rebounds, but disappears on offense. We talk again to our seatmate on the right, and we a have discussion about her weight. Our seatmate has been following the team for years and she says Courtney has a hard time fitting in to Sacramento’s system, which is tough defense with lots of movement.

We see the Sacramento Monarch mascot come out during a time out. So what kind of mascot is Monty, anyway? Is he a cross between an elephant/hippopotamus/dinosaur? During a time out, he comes out with the rap crew in a psychedelic swimsuit and flashes the crowd. Sigh, is that proper mascot behavior?

It is half time, and so far it is all Sacramento. Our seatmate said Sacramento was going to give non-starters a chance to play, but you can tell the coach wants to win this by keeping in most of his starters and all of Nicole Powell. She has 18 points at the half.

C and R have one mission at half time. We want to meet up with the great Michelle Smith. She wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle about women’s college basketball, not sports, but exclusively women’s basketball, and then last year the paper axed her to “save money”. Well, okay, we have two missions, to meet up with the great Michelle Smith and find our way back to the media lounge for more cookies.

We see Michelle at the other end of press row and introduce ourselves. We talk women’s basketball. We ask what she is up to. She has a new contract to write about women’s basketball at Fanhouse, which is part of AOL. See Michelle Smith’s writing for yourself. She also is getting another blog up to write more content. She is one busy lady and we are glad she has landed on her feet after the Chronicle so rudely puling the rug out form under her.

The game starts back up and Nicole Powell has 25 points with 4 minutes to go. The Lynx are only making 25% of their shots, and that is unacceptable at the pro level. The Monarchs easily win 88-66 and sends the crowd home happy.

We go to Minnesota’s locker room and use our press privilege to request a private, one-on-one interview with Candice. To our surprise, they say yes and as we wait in the hallway, we feel like kids playing grown ups and about to be caught and thrown out any second. We see Minnesota’s Head Coach, Jen Gillom, and listen in as the Monarchs media staff interviews her. She instantly rubs her feet ands says, “these high heels are killin’ me!” And it is all C and R can do to not interject with how we hate that coaches of women’s teams have to dress “feminine” when coaches of men’s teams, such as football, can wear more comfortable team gear, such as a polo shirt with the team logo. She praised her team for their heart and effort. She seemed to connect with her players while on the court, too.

The media relations man bangs on the door several times calling for Wiggins, as she has another event after us. Turns out she is going to speak to the Stanford Women’s Basketball Fast Break Club group that made the trip from the Bay Area.

Then Candice comes out in all her smiling and personable glory. We introduce ourselves and tell her we have been following her from her days at Stanford (And wonder if she recognizes her old stalkers from the Stanford days!). We ask what she is going to do in the off season and she said is headed to Greece for pro ball and keeping herself open for the National Team try outs, (we wished her luck) and trying to get batter at playing basketball.

C and R have seen dominate college players, such as Candace Parker, but still to this day they marvel at how Candice took just an above average Stanford team and willed them into the National Title game on her charisma and personality alone, not just her basketball ability. That was very rare and awesome to witness. We mentioned this to Candice and she said the women were awesome to lead, and gave all the credit back to the Stanford players. We read between the lines that they were also willing to buy into Candice’s optimism and confidence. We asked her how the WNBA was different, and she answered that everyone here is at a different phase in their life, in terms of basketball experience and life experience. Again, we are reading between the lines because her teammates are older, or at different points in their life she cannot lead them on her confidence and optimism like she did at the college level.

Candice’s schedule was tight, so we walked with her to pick up friends and go to the Fast Break Club. R watched the LA Sparks final home game, and the final home game of Lisa Leslie’s career a few days ago. The Lynx were the opponent and Candice was quoted as saying Lisa Leslie was the face of the WNBA and she admired that Lisa is the face of the WNBA and was still feminine. So R asked Candice about that.

Candice was eager to talk about how great Lisa was, and here she was in the final game, 37, a mother, yet still setting screens and banging around with everyone. Here are more comments from Candice about Lisa.

We followed her on the elevator (like the good stalkers we are) and watched her walk into the Stanford Fast Break Club and receive a warm welcome. Someone asked what was the hardest thing about being in the WWNBA and Candice said the travel. She said in college, they would talk the whole week before they were going to the East Coast and how important it was to get on East Coast time, and in the WNBA you are in a different city practically every night and the main focus is don’t miss the bus. She said it gets very wearing.

Nicole Powell also showed up and thanked everyone for coming, talked about her life as a Monarch, as Candice had to go catch her bus. It was a perfect end to a prefect night. We had so much fun covering a women’s basketball game.

It was great to see Candice, and she did tell the Fast Break club that whenever she sees someone with a Stanford shirt that means something to her, because Stanford always will hold such a special place in her heart. With Candice you can believe it.

Halftime!

Here courtside at the Sacramento Monarchs Game vs. the Minnesota Lynx. It's half time and Nicole Powell continues to light it up. She got her 5 points ands more to set the single season franchise record for scoring. She currently sits at 18. Sacramento is ahead 41-34. Minnesota seems to be in a scoring slump, and Candice Wiggins is not doing much to help that. Found the press room again and got more cookies and popcorn! They sure do take care of the press! More later.

quick hi from courtside!

Quick hi from courtside. C and R are now watching both teams warm up. We are trying to be impartial, but our seats are closer to the Lynx, and we are enjoying watching Candice Wiggins warm up. Candice walks right by us while warming up. Hi Candice, remember us, your stalkers from Stanford? She is dancing to the warm-up music. She shows off her vertical leap in a drive to the basket.

A stirring National Anthem and a pretty good crowd, the game is almost here! We are excited.

When they introduce Candice, R screams and the journalist on the other side tells us we media need to be impartial. We will be quiet for now!

Almost Game Time

Okay, we survived the drive up to Sacramento. We found the press entrance (almost knocked over a few handicapped people rushing through). We are here to blog about the Sacramento Monarchs and Minnesota Lynx game, the last game of the season for both.

R is so excited she can’t even think. We got free parking and free admittance and when they said help yourself to the free food for the media, and then all the questions we thought up on the drive up went out of our heads!!

We got access to the Sacramento Monarchs locker room and right off the bat saw Kara Lawson in street clothes. She’s been injured about a month (left leg). She is looking forward to her gig at ESPN with March Madness. Who wouldn’t love a job like that? We are so excited one of the players asked if we had any more questions, so was so sweet to us, we think it was Laurie Harper.

We found our seats courtside. We are in the front row. R walked out to take a picture of C typing away, and Candice Wiggins was on the court at the same time.

We are getting excited about the start of the game! Cheerleaders from the local women’s football team, yes you heard us, that wasn’t one of C’s glorious typos, cheerleaders from the local women’s team perform. We talk to a friendly statistician before the game. He is sitting next to us in the front row. We do note Nicole Powell needs five more points to surpass Yolanda Griffith’s franchise records of 545 points in a season. We tell him to nudge us when it happens so we don’t miss it.

It’s a few minutes before the game. We don’t want to blog live and get us or anyone else in trouble, so we’ll write more at half time!

Going to Sacto

We are off to Sacto to see the Minnesota Lynx play the Sacramento Monarchs. Both teams have been eliminated from the playoffs, but we are excited because, as we reported earlier, C and R get media credentials and get to join press row! We hope we get to speak to the players before and after the game. Now, we need to think of some not-lame questions to ask them.

We decided not to blog live, as there are restriction in order to protect the WNBA’s live access investment on the WNBA website. That’s okay, we are cool with that. We might send an update at half time or something to tell you we made it and how much we are enjoying the experience. Chat soon….

Sacramento Monarchs

OMG, we almost forgot, C and R are going to the Sacramento Monarchs last game of the regular season Sunday. It will probably be the last game of the year for Sacramento, as they are currently in sixth place, and the top four teams go on to the play offs.

But we don’t care; they will be playing the Minnesota Lynx, and our favorite hometown girl Candice Wiggins, and the game will probably mean something to the Lynx, as they are currently tied for fourth place with San Antonio and are trying to secure that last playoff slot.

But none of that matters much to us, either, as C and R and this blog are going to be issued their first press pass!!

We were invited to view a Sacramento game in August and write about it for our blog (free publicity for everyone), and we talked to the Media Relations director and asked if we could attend the last home game of the season with a press pass. Much to our surprise, she said yes and showed us around press row. There was a stodgy gentleman already there who gave us the evil eye, probably because he was “a real journalist”, sniff, and we were just bloggers. Either way, we are gonna have us some fun!

So what if we don’t have to hold ourselves to the same journalistic standards as members of the journalistic press do, and we can exaggerate and use hyperbole to our hearts content? Is that our fault we like to write our opinions about something we love (women’s basketball in general, and Stanford Women’s basketball in particular)? Our blog was once asked to participate in a survey about sports bloggers and many of the questions dealt with, “Do you think bloggers should be held to the same standards as newspapers? I know what they were trying to get at, but we answered no. As long as we are up front that we are a blog, stating our opinions in a legal way (libel and slander are still out, bloggers), and do not pretend to represent an official entity (speak for Stanford, or any of its players in any official capacity), then I think we are in the clear to give our opinions, and yes, sit at press row. We give the “experience” of seeing a women’s game. Anyone can open up the paper and get the box score….well, anyone whose hometown newspaper actually happens to post a box scores of women’s sports, our two local papers don’t do a good job of it. We tell you what it was like to be there as a wide eyed, admiring fan, and not some jaded journalist….whoops, just kidding ‘bout the “jaded” part. You get he idea. Stay tuned for our blog of the whole ordeal and whether or not we get the cold shoulder or any nasty comments directed our way, and if we get into the locker room to see Courtney Paris, Nicole Powell, and Candice Wiggins!

Went to Sacramento and What Did We See?

So, as we said in our last post, we are going to Sacramento to watch the WNBA’s Sacramento Monarchs take on the LA Sparks. We finagled our way to free tickets because we are SO popular with the women’s basketball crowd. (So do us a favor, book a WNBA game after reading this! Show we are relevant!)

It is also “Women of Inspiration Night” and Misty May Treanor (MMT) is giving a speech and Q & A before the game, as well as appearing at half time. We can get in early, starting at 5:30 to see her. We are so there. MMT, for those of you who not in the know, is a two-time Olympic Gold Medal winner for beach volleyball, partnering both times with former Stanford Grad and local girl Kerri Walsh.

On the long drive to Sacramento (Why can’t the Bay Area get a WNBA team of their own?) we think of questions we want to ask MMT. R says, after all that training for 8 years to get the two gold medals, how do you injury yourself dancing? Dancing, of all things!? For those of you further not in the know, right after the second Olympic Gold Medal, MMT went on the popular TV show Dancing with the Stars (DWTS) and promptly tore her Achilles tendon (AT). MMT tore her AT on DWTS. But we digress.

We bear the long walk through the parking lot through the oppressive Sacramento heat (another reason to stay in the Bay Area) and hear a great women’s band warming up to warm up the crowd. It is a Saturday night, women of inspiration are going to talk, and the opponent is the LA Sparks, featuring Lisa Leslie, the former face of the WNBA and Candace Parker, the new face of the WNBA. This is also the LA Sparks’ last game of the season in Sacramento and therefore Lisa Leslie’s last game here as she is retiring this year. We hope it will be a good crowd.

So far it is a good crowd of young girls and their parents lining up to hear MMT. It is almost 95 degrees outside and we are standing in the heat that is how much we love MMT! We finally get let in to air-conditioned Arco Arena and immediately see Candace Parker warming up. We make a beeline courtside. On our way we meet Kimberly Knight, Director of Marketing & Business Operations, and also a former Stanford Grad. She tells us to enjoy the game but C is fixated on watching Candace Parker. In the few short minutes we have been there, she has not missed a shot. Kimberly says to put a hex on her, and C doesn’t get it, admiring how graceful she looks and forgets she is the enemy to anyone Sacramento. R explains it to her later.

We finally get courtside and close up to Candace. Two young boys are waiting there with pictures of Candace and a sharpie. R asks if they are here to get autographs of Candace and they say yes, and they printed pictures off the Internet for her to sign. Young boys, not just girls! And if that is not proof of the power Candace Parker has as the new face of the WNBA is, then we don’t… wait, we got stuck on this sentence, you know what we mean…. pulling in boys because she is a great athlete and role model is fantastic and not possible even 10 years ago.

Misty May comes out and instead of having the audience ask questions, the two co hosts ask her preplanned questions. The crowd loses focus a little bit. The Monarchs have come out to warm up and now the rest of the LA Sparks are at the other end warming up. Most are watching Candace Parker. The acoustics are bad, it is hard to hear, and not intimate or inviting at all. We find out she needs ayear to rehab from her injured AT from DWTS and is has just graduated to being able to walk for exercise. That does sound like a bad injury. One thing C hears Misty say that when training and it’s raining out, don’t skip it, go out in the rain ands the elements and train. Then think about your opponent who stayed home and you are now one day ahead of them. It must take a lot of discipline and training to be the best at your sport, and get to number one, but also to keep up that intensity for eight years is amazing. So hear that, young girls, get up out of bed and train, or practice, practice, practice!

You can see some highlights here, and even the cameraman loses focus and keeps zooming in on Candace Parker. Whoops, sorry, got caught up in looking at all the great highlights of MMT and Kerri Walsh. Back to the Monarchs and Women of Inspiration Night.

Misty gets up to leave and R jumps up and gets close to get a picture with her fancy phone. Others want to do the same and at first MMT starts to pose for pictures and then the media handlers tell everyone she has to go. Little girls look disappointed and moms look MAD. Uh oh. They announce she will be here after the game to give autographs. Most moms look appeased, but suspicious.

Afterward C and R meet with Rebecca Brutlag, manger of media relations for the Monarchs. We are trying to set up a way for our blog to get credentialed and then have us sit on the media row and blog live. She is very interested and asks us when we can do it. We tell her we want to blog for the Minnesota Lynx game, so secretly we can see Candice Wiggins, former Stanford Grad and C’s all-time favorite player. She thinks it is a good idea and agrees. Can’t wait for the game in September! And we are now members of the press, hee hee, look out everyone!

Rebecca is very courteous and professional. So far everyone we have met surrounding the Monarchs have been a class act. We do tell her that the audience for MMT did not get to ask questions or get autographs and a lot of people were disappointed. She said that is good feedback to know and unfortunately, Misty had to be at a prior engagement and had limited time for the Q & A, so they thought they would ask the prepared questions and they tried to think of ones most people would want answered. And they did, they hit all the major ones, but by the audience not being involved, they lost them. She saw our point and said she would rethink next time. Wow, we got to give constructive feedback without sounding like whiners and we actually got to talk to someone in the organization who might be in a position to do something. The trip up from the Bay Area is worth it just for that!

Then we head to the Skyline restaurant inside the Arena to eat an incredible gourmet buffet meal. When offered the choice of bananas foster or vanilla ice cream topped with a brownie we take one each. Wait, I mean R got the ice cream and C got the bananas and they were both incredible. Stuffed, we waddle down to our seats just in time for the pregame introductions…and discover our seats are practically courtside to the opponent’s bench. The opponents are in this case Lisa Leslie and Candace Parker. Oh darn.

For those of you keeping score at home, so far the score is: two free thunder sticks, one free purple towel with the Monarch’s logo, and the free courtside seats. Yes, C and R are ALL about the free stuff. Oh, don’t know what thunder sticks are? Try plastic oblong Mylar balloons you blow up and then bang together so it makes this crashing noise (and hit your seatmate with). They are also shiny and the fans on the ends of the arena wave them when the opponents are shooting free throws.

While we were watching the Sparks warm up, R liked how “hands on” assistant coach Marianne Stanley was. She spent time talking to them one-on-one and was very relationship oriented. Michael is going to leave the WNBA to coach at USC and Marianne will take over as head coach. Did you know Stanley was a co-head coach at Stanford? We didn’t either, or else we forgot. So, during the 1995-96 season, Stanley was co-coach with Amy Tucker at Stanford. They both earned UPI national and Pac-10 Co-Coach of the Year honors that year, and coached Stanford to a 29-3 record during Tara VanDerveer's one-year absence to coach the U.S. Olympic team. While coaching at USC, she sued them for sex discrimination and equal pay for equal work and retaliatory discharge. She does not back down from a fight and is a trailblazer. We wish her much success with the Sparks.

Hey, look there’s Courtney Paris. We are ringside watching the Sacramento Monarchs warm up minutes before the game. Rebekkah Brunson jumps high and almost dunks. These women are so strong and powerful. This is going to be fun.

After the prerequisite light show and big build up for announcing the players, it’s time for tip off. C bets Lisa Leslie will jump. R says no, Candace Parker will, Lisa has bad knees. Sure enough Candace lines up to tip it off, but Rebekkah Brunson out jumps her. She tips it backwards but the long arms of Lisa Leslie steal the ball! Anyone else would not have been able to steal that ball, except your tallest player, who normally would be jumping. I wonder if they drew it up that way on the whiteboard?

Monarchs come out in the first quarter intense. Monarchs play tenacious defense. They are on a mission. LA is having trouble scoring.

Candace Parker blocks Sacramento’s shot.

Geez, that takes the air out of Sacramento’s inside game. Nicole Powell (former Stanford) hits a three and we can sit down now, as the rule states everyone has to stay on their feet until the Monarch’s make their fist basket, and everyone who knows C, knows a rule is a rule. We sit.

Monarchs are getting lots of steals. They pick on the LA Sparks guard. She gets yanked for little Shannon Bobbit. Shannon played with Candace Parker at Tennessee and won national championships with her. And she IS little, only 5’2. She protects the ball better and moves it up the court faster. She also puts in a ton of effort on defense. And effort will win your way in to C and R’s hearts.

Parker does a two-hand stuff of the Monarchs.

At the end of the quarter, they show a MMT video with highlights of Olympic Glory. Way better than the talk. R jumps up and gets a photo of Lisa Leslie in the huddle without getting arrested or thrown out by the many attendants.

The game starts back up and it really is amazing. These women are well trained in the fundamentals of their sport and put out great effort and intensity. Shannon Bobbitt gets kicked in the face going after a loose ball and has to come out. The game is very physical and the refs are not calling anything. It is the most entertaining and empowering thing we have seen in along time and even more inspirational than the talk we saw early, no offense to MMT.

Courtney Paris (former Bay Area Gilr) comes in for the Monarchs and Candace Parker is guarding her. Candace steals a pass to her. Candace continues to harass and dominate Courtney the short time she is in. Courtney needs to get in better playing shape to hang with these WNBA All-Stars.

The crazy looking Sacramento mascot, Monty we think his name is, walks around and get in our way of the game. What kind of mascot can you have for a “Monarch” anyway? A king? A queen? Or this hairy gray dragon-hippopotamus thingie now blocking our view of this most excellent game. A young fan jumps up and says, “Monty, pose for a picture with me”. They stand right in front of our seats! C is rocking from one side of her seat to another to see around them, looking like a tennis game spectator on steroids. The young fan is holding her camera or phone out in front of her to take a self-portrait but the lens is not wide enough to get both of them. She looks directly at C and says, “Excuse me, will you take our picture?”

Now, people ask C all the time to take their picture. Perhaps she looks trustworthy. She does have a degree in photography, although you wouldn’t know it to look at her. Once, at the Seattle Space Needle in Seattle, even though her own camera was stolen while she changed her baby’s diaper, she patiently helped a tourist family unwind and reload their film (in the days before digital cameras) She has even seen people getting ready to make a photo-faux-pas and even offered her services whether help was wanted or not. But she has never, ever, turned down a request to help someone take a photo.

C, without taking her eyes off Candace Parker, announces, “I am trying to watch this game and you are in my way,” and then caranes her neck around them. That is how R knows this is a special game, because C never, ever forgoes a request for help. The fan takes another self photo and more fans jump up around C and R for a photo and Monty, perhaps sensing C’s single-mindedness attempt to see the game quickly gets the heck out of there.

It is almost half time and one of the Monarch players comes on the jumbo-tron advertising…. lipstick! She even shows us how to expertly apply it. C and R are horrified. The jumbo tron says Mary Kay Cosmetic’s representatives are in the lobby right now ready to take you order. C and R look at each other dumb-founded. The Monarchs player says for every tube of lipstick sold a portion will go to help end domestic violence. Now C and R are conflicted. That’s good, they guess. Then the music starts up and the free squad is giving out free…. something. C and R must have it. They yell and scream and stomp their feet. The guy in the red shirt gives us the freebie. It is a free sample of moisturizer from Mary Kay. C is disappointed and disgusted. R tears open the packet and applies the moisturizer to her face and neck. C gives her the evil eye and R says, “I can’t help it, it is so dry in here.”

It is half time and C and R go walk around the arena for exercise after that fattening meal. C sees necklace beads. “Are the free?” she asks. “Free for a dollar donation.” Comes the reply. A dollar later and C now has red beads, to remind her of Stanford.

For those of you keeping score at home, so far the score is: two free thunder sticks, one free purple towel with the Monarch’s logo, free courtside seats, free moisturizer, and free-for-a-dollar beads.

We see the Mary Kay Cosmetics representatives and they say register to win a free gift basket. R says she hates to give out her email and phone number. C whispers, “don’t put your email and give a fake phone number.”

“Right,” R whispers back, while scribbling her fake identity. C puts R’s cell phone number just in case she wins. She does like the free stuff!

At the start of the second half, Sacramento looks even more lackluster after the first quarter burst of intensity on defense. They cannot score or even get the ball inside due to the height and athleticism of LA. Sacramento is losing.

However, Rebekkah Brunson has not given up. She fights for every rebound and loose ball. At one point she flies in for a rebound, grabs it and three Sparks players try to dislodge the ball. She shakes them off like a terrier keeping possession of his tennis ball.

Now everyone on the court is getting mad and upset. Lisa Leslie is beating up Nicole Powell inside. Candace Parker is playing point to protect the ball. Sacramento’s Demya Walker, who is similarly built like Rebekkah Brunson, also decides to go for every ball. They get the defensive rebounds, but LA keeps them out on offense. These two Sacramento players are putting out such intensity, and yet the other three Monarchs players don’t seem to be matching it. And no one from Sacramento can score from the inside and Nicole Powell now can’t hit her threes. Plus LA can’t miss. They end up shooting something like 56% from the field. Sacramento gets down by as much as 20 at one point.

At the end of the third quarter the music starts up and the free squad comes out throwing… light up super balls. C’s eyes get big. She has a collection of super balls. She must have this freebie. Super balls are flying in the air. None are coming to her. One bounces down from somewhere in the rafters and rolls past their seats all the way down to the LA bench. C spies it and runs after it. Several attendants eye her and make a move to stop her but realize she is a woman on a mission… to get a super ball and not bother the LA players. They watch her grab the ball and go back to her seat and the crisis is adverted and now C has another freebie. She is so happy she doesn’t even get upset when the next two freebies, a T-Shirt and a coupon for chicken wings, don’t go their way.

For those of you keeping score at home, so far the score is: two free thunder sticks, one free purple towel with the Monarch’s logo, free courtside seats, free moisturizer, free-for-a-dollar beads, and a free light up super ball. Lost are a t-shirt and coupon for chicken wings. Not a bad haul.

The Winner: everyone who saw this game, because although the hometown team lost, it was so entertaining and such a display of female power and athleticism. C and R feel truly fortunate.

After the game, we see Candace Parker start talking to someone in the crowd. She mimics going to sleep. All eyes on this end are on her. She is talking, of course, to her husband Shelden Williams of the Minnesota Timberwolves, and unknown relative holding HER BABY. C and R get a closer look and we get to see her little girl. Cute, cute, cute. Candace pours her heart out on the court and then goes right to her little girl. It brings a tear to the eye….

C and R get in the car for the long haul back to the Bay Area. They just had the best day with women’s sports.