2006 WNBA All-star Week Potpourri

As we head into the All-star break, a few comments about how things are going in this 10th season of the WNBA. Oh, and before I start on that, I have to say that calling this the 10th anniversary of the league is starting to grate on me. This is the 10th SEASON. If we didn’t celebrate the first anniversary of the league during its first season, then there’s no way we can be celebrating its 10th anniversary in the tenth season. I’m just saying.

Wins and Losses — OK. L.A. is doing much better than I thought, Sacramento worse, and Charlotte is simply disappointing. Other than that, the league is looking a lot like I thought in my preseason West and East logs.

“Paul Ball” — While it’s exciting to watch when all the cylinders are firing, the trouble is that it’s too dependent on all of the cylinders firing. If it wasn’t for the skills of Taurasi and Pondexter shooting lights-out so often, this team would be very disappointing. As it is, they are frustrating…they give enough hope that they will be good, but they keep blowing big leads in the second half.

Courteau’s Crews — I’ve been noticing that the games where June Courteau is officiating tend to be more “let ’em play” that average. While I think Ms Courteau is one of the best and fairest officials in women’s basketball, I think that she’s been letting it get a little out of hand this season. A few too many no-calls. I appreciate the lack of ticki-tack fouls, but a lot of players are getting mugged in the paint. I’m sorry, but that’s not how the game was meant to be played. Tighten it up a little, June.

Change All-Star Voting — This is something that rankles me (and not a few commentators) every All-Star break: the fan voting doesn’t really make sense. Now, I realize that this is supposed to be a game for the fans (aren’t all the games supposed to be for the fans?), but I think they get too much influence. How about something like this: Coaches and players vote for their selections in late June, but they can’t vote for players on their own teams. In each conference, the top three guards, top three forwards, and top two centers are on the squad. Now we factor in the fan votes. Where there is overlap with the fan list, those are your starters. The top picks on the fan’s list who aren’t already in the lineup make fill out the final three spots for each team as reserves.

This will probably break as well, but I think while it still allows fans to vote in popular players, it’s not at the expense of those less popular players having outstanding seasons.

Media Kudos — I like the number of games available on all of the broadcast, cable, and web outlets. I do wish there were more broadcast and non-NBA-TV cable games, but it’s overall game availability that matters. (Speaking of NBA-TV…can we ditch the scrunching of the broadcast to make room for the info crawl at the bottom of the screen? You’re the last hold-out.) I especially like that an effort has been made to broadcast western conference games even though they don’t come close to making it in prime-time.

I think a special shout out should go to all of the bloggers that cover the WNBA (including many of the court-side analysts). I like reading what y’all are saying. I don’t always agree with what you say, but it certainly rounds out the experience.

Expectations — I’m hoping that this year’s All-star game is as entertaining as last year’s. It’ll be tough to top, but there’s always hope. Mic-ing the players was great idea, but I think ESPN would do well to have the announcers shut up a bit and let us hear the comments on court (Taurasi’s a hoot).

As for the second half of the season, I think it will be a lot of the same as we’ve already seen. Phoenix might make a better show of it than they have been doing, but the road swings might take their toll. The Sky look to be improving a little as their injury situation sorts itself out. In Charlotte, I wouldn’t be surprised to see coaching change by the end of the season. As for New York…there might be some trades to send a message that if you don’t put forth the effort, we don’t want you on our team. And Seattle’s playoff hopes are riding on the health of LJ’s shins…she’s an Aussie, and tough as nails, but I think Donovan will opt to take a few expected losses to rest LJ in the hope of securing the last playoff spot.