WEST   vs  EAST

 

July 12, 2003

The West Prevail Once Again!
WNBA All-Star Game 2003 - Madison Square Garden, NYC
Written By Sheila Bachri

In pure excitement, I was literally jumping off my seat when the location for 2003 WNBA All-Star game was announced. I could have gone to the previous one held in Washington DC, but the thoughts of driving down alone from Boston won the battle of decision making. This year I have a friend to go with and the location is only four hours away.

Days have gone by and one of our basketball buddies, Kate, whom we met at the Jennifer Rizzoti's charity classic came into mind. Kate is a season ticket holder for the New York Liberty, therefore she might have higher priority to obtain the All-Star tickets. Our assumption turned out to be right on the money: two floor tickets and we are on our way to the All-Star Game.

It was about 2 PM and we took a peak at the pre-game street festivities before heading out to the stadium. Madison Square Garden is certainly one of the landmarks that brings back memory of my college years. I used to travel back and forth New Jersey - New York for tennis tournament at the MSG, then I moved to Boston after graduation last year.

Our seats were awesome! Totally! Thanks so much, Kate! We definitely had so much fun at the game! We sat next to our Storm Message Board buddies: SF7 and McHuskyFan. Not many of us cheered for the West, but we did the job well. Trailing at half time, Western Team came back and closed out the game with some of the prettiest moves I have ever seen.

My first reaction of Margo Dydek while looking upward was "OMG!" Once she grabs a rebound, no one would be able to take it away from here. It was funny to see the others jumping around her and finally walked away in frustration. She was in action only for 8 minutes.

Sue came out early to greet some people, then Lauren Jackson and some Western Team players came out for shoot around earlier than the Eastern players. At some point during the shoot around, Sue and Lauren Jackson were standing parallel to each other with some space in between, looking up to the TV Screen watching the 10 plays of the week while everyone else minded their own business. I though that scene was cute.

The starting lineup for West: Lisa Leslie, Cheryl Swoopes, Lauren Jackson, Sue Bird and Tamecka Dixon. The starting lineup for East: Tari Phillips, Chamique Holdsclaw, Tamika Catchings, Teresa Weatherspoon and Dawn Staley. Crowds cheered everyone during introduction except when Leslie and Coach Cooper were introduced. Sue, the hometown girl of course got one of the loudest cheers.

It was so unfortunate that Becky Hammon, Tina Thompson and Cynthia Cooper were not able to join the rest of their All-Star Teammates because of injuries. We could see their face expression wanting to be out there playing. The whole game was actually very competitive, but somehow I had total confidence that the west would come out on top even when they were trailing at half time. Lisa Leslie scored the most points for the West in the first half, thanks to Dixon who pretty much passed every possession to Leslie. I could not believe their style of play! She was basically played "Dish to Leslie" game through most of her minutes. Her each action was literally bringing the ball up the floor, pass to Leslie and Goal!!! I think she forgot that there were 3 other players in the team. They were not even fancy passes like what Sue or Nikki Teasley did. Thank God the story changed in the second half.

At one point, Sue had an awesome between the leg pass to Lauren who was coming up behind her. It was basically the action of "I know where Lauren is at all times" comment that Sue made. She then made a shot out of her own pass. I have not watched the recorded tape as yet, so not sure what had happened there. It seemed like she made a pass that was tipped off an East player and ended up in the basket. Sue had the "I don't know" gesture and look afterwards.

As I mentioned earlier, the second half was a better game. It was not because of Leslie's injury, well partly. Please do not take me wrong on this one! I feel very sorry for what happened, but once she was out of the game, we saw more of a team game instead of Dixon direct pass attempts to her. Aside from the injury, the only other bad thing about the second half was "Not seeing a lot of Lauren Jackson!!!" Even one of her highlights, the monster block was hidden deep in blue sea because of Leslie who collided and tangled up with Swin Cash before ended up on the floor underneath Swin. I did not even see what happened with my bare eyes, because I was so occupied with the monster block. Then, Lauren was pretty much disappeared from the floor after that collision.

From what I remember, Sue was hit twice during the game. One was ended up sweet and the other was not a pretty scene at all. The first hit was taken from her old UConn teammate, Swin Cash. Sue was driving in the lane, getting hit in the face, scored and foul on Swin. She made the 3-point play. It was sweet! The second hit was taken from Tari Phillips, who according to some people, apologized to Sue afterwards. She was literraly ripping Sue's face off!

One funny moment, not sure whether it was in the first or second half, but with her new shiny green shoes, Sue slid and fell on her own. Lauren and Katie Smith laughed so hard that they were literally falling off their seats. They still joked about it during timeout.

As much as I do not like the Sparks, I could not deny Nikki Teasley's skills during the All-Star game. She had awesome moves! The crowds went wild when she did the fake move followed by behind the back pass to Yolanda Griffith who sunk it in the basket. She was also stealing the ball all over the place. I don't really care whether she played well for Leslie, the Sparks or herself. She put on a good show, we all loved it and that what it really matters. She deserved the MVP.

To be honest, I did not pay too much attetion to the East team (wow, I can hear the crowds booing me). Tamika Catchings had a pretty good game. Chamique Holdsclaw did not play much. Tari Phillips was doing okay. The one who certainly grabbed my attention from the East was Deana Nolan! She was awesome! What a shooter!

What I like the most about All-Star game is to see all players having fun. They pad each other in the back, cheered out lout from the bench, laughing and smilling throughout the game no matter which jersey you got on. One of the great examples would be Lauren Jackson and Lisa Leslie. We all know how much they don't like each other, but yet they showed great attitude toward each others at the All-Star game. Another good one would be when two sparks players and two storm players made a huddle (well.. sort of). The fifth player, Cheryl Swoopes was not in the scene at that very moment. It was just weird but that's what All-Star game is all about.

Note: I missed the All-Star practice on friday, where the highlights seemed so exciting with Sue being her usual self, so please email me if you or people you know has a copy of it.

 

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