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1997 New York Liberty Season
The 1997 WNBA season was the first season for the New York Liberty. Offseason Initial Player Allocation WNBA Draft Regular season The Liberty's and WNBA's first game was played on June 21, 1997, in Los Angeles. Led by head coach Nancy Darsch, the Liberty defeated the Los Angeles Sparks, 67-57. The attendance at the Forum was 14,284. The Liberty began their existence with a three-game road trip, where the Liberty went undefeated. The club came back to New York with a 3-0 record. Their first home game was played in Madison Square Garden. On June 29, 1997, in front of a crowd of 17,780, the Liberty scored their first win at home, defeating Phoenix, 65-57. *Rebecca Lobo ranked fourth in the WNBA with 1.8 blocks per game, fifth in defensive rebounds with 141, seventh with 939 minutes played, and tenth in the WNBA in offensive rebounds with 62. Season standings Season Schedule Player stats ''Note: GP= Games played; REB= Rebounds; AST= Assists; STL = Steals; BLK = Blocks; PTS = ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nancy Darsch
Nancy Darsch (December 29, 1951 – November 2, 2020) was an American women's basketball coach who worked at both the professional and NCAA Division I college levels. A native of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Darsch was a 1973 graduate of Springfield College. She also earned a master's degree in physical education from the University of Tennessee. Darsch was inducted into the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame on September 25, 2014. Early career and college basketball Darsch began her coaching career at Longmeadow High School Longmeadow High School (LHS) is an American public high school located in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Founded in 1956, it enrolls approximately 1,000 students.Get The Feeling: Masacksic 1988, Vol. 32. The school's mascot is a Lancer. It was ... in Massachusetts, where she coached basketball, softball, and field hockey from 1973 to 1978. As an assistant under University of Tennessee head coach Pat Summitt from 1978 to 1985, Darsch helped lead the Tennessee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles Sparks
The Los Angeles Sparks (LA Sparks) are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Sparks compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The team was founded before the league's inaugural 1997 season began. Like some other WNBA teams, the Sparks have the distinction of not being affiliated with an NBA counterpart, even though the market is shared with the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers. As of 2020, the Sparks are the most recent franchise to win back-to-back titles. Lakers owner Jerry Buss owned the Sparks from 1997 to 2006 when Williams Group Holdings purchased the team. It was previously the sister team of the Los Angeles Lakers. As of 2014, the Sparks are owned by Sparks LA Sports, LLC. The Sparks have qualified for the WNBA Playoffs in twenty of their twenty-four years in Los Angeles, more than any other team in the league. The franchise has been home to many high-q ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cleveland Rockers
The Cleveland Rockers were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Cleveland, that played from 1997 until 2003. The Rockers were one of the original eight franchises of the WNBA, which started in 1997. The owner was Gordon Gund, who at the time also owned the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers. In October 2003, Gund announced that his Gund Arena Company would no longer operate the Rockers. The team folded after the 2003 season as the league was not able to find new ownership for the team. Franchise history The city of Cleveland was granted one of the original 8 franchises of the WNBA in October 1996. The Cleveland Rockers got their nickname from Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1997, they started with such players like Isabelle Fijalkowski and former Harlem Globetrotters member Lynette Woodard, who had been the first female player in Globetrotter history. The Rockers finished 15–13 in the first WNBA season ever, missing the playoffs in 1997. In 1998, the R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charlotte Sting
The Charlotte Sting were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Charlotte, North Carolina, one of the league's eight original teams. The team folded on January 3, 2007. The Sting was originally the sister organization of the Charlotte Hornets, until that NBA team relocated to New Orleans in 2002. Robert L. Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television, purchased the team in January 2003, shortly after he was announced as the principal owner of an NBA expansion franchise that replaced the departing Hornets. History Early years The Charlotte Sting was one of the eight original WNBA franchises that began play in 1997, and were then the sister team to the Charlotte Hornets. The Sting finished their first season with a 15–13 record and qualified for the first WNBA playoffs, but lost to eventual champions Houston Comets in the one-game semifinal. The 1998 Sting finished the season with an 18–12 record. In the playoffs, the Sting once again lost ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Utah Starzz
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its west by Nevada. Utah also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast. Of the fifty U.S. states, Utah is the 13th-largest by area; with a population over three million, it is the 30th-most-populous and 11th-least-densely populated. Urban development is mostly concentrated in two areas: the Wasatch Front in the north-central part of the state, which is home to roughly two-thirds of the population and includes the capital city, Salt Lake City; and Washington County in the southwest, with more than 180,000 residents. Most of the western half of Utah lies in the Great Basin. Utah has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups such as the ancient Puebloans, Navajo and Ute. The Spanish were the first Europeans to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phoenix Mercury
The Phoenix Mercury are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona, playing in the Western Conference (WNBA), Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was founded before the league's inaugural 1997 WNBA season, 1997 season began; it is one of the eight original franchises. The team is owned by Robert Sarver, who also owns the NBA team Phoenix Suns. The Mercury have qualified for the WNBA Playoffs in fifteen of its twenty-four years in Phoenix. The franchise has been home to players such as former University of Connecticut, UConn Diana Taurasi, Rutgers University, Rutgers grad Cappie Pondexter, former Temple University, Temple power forward Candice Dupree, former Baylor University, Baylor center Brittney Griner, and Australian guard Penny Taylor. In 1998 WNBA season, 1998, 2007 WNBA season, 2007, 2009 WNBA season, 2009, 2014 WNBA season, 2014, and 2021 WNBA season, 2021 the Mercury went to the WNBA Finals; they lost ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Houston Comets
The Houston Comets were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Houston. Formed in 1997, the team was one of the original eight WNBA teams and won the first four championships of the league's existence. They are one of two teams in the WNBA that are undefeated in the WNBA Finals; the Seattle Storm are the other. The Comets were the first dynasty of the WNBA and are tied with the Minnesota Lynx and Seattle Storm for the most championships of any WNBA franchise. The team was folded and disbanded by the league in 2008 during the height of the Great Recession because new ownership could not be found. The Comets were known for courting great women's basketball stars. The team had among its members Cynthia Cooper (the WNBA's first MVP); college and national team standout Sheryl Swoopes; Kim Perrot, who succumbed to cancer in 1999; and college stars Michelle Snow and Tina Thompson. Franchise history Building the first dynasty of the WNBA (1997–2000) The Come ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sacramento Monarchs
The Sacramento Monarchs were a basketball team based in Sacramento, California. They played in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 1997 until folding on November 20, 2009. They played their home games at ARCO Arena. The Monarchs were one of the WNBA's eight original franchises and were noted early on for standout players Ticha Penicheiro, Ruthie Bolton and Yolanda Griffith. They were the sister franchise of the Sacramento Kings National Basketball Association (NBA) team. They were one of the more successful WNBA franchises on the court, though they often trailed behind perennial Western Conference champions the Houston Comets and the Los Angeles Sparks. However, in 2005, the team brought Sacramento its first championship, winning the WNBA Finals for the only time. Franchise history Origins (1997–2003) The Monarchs made an impact in the WNBA almost immediately. With the hiring of Portuguese national team player Ticha Penicheiro, popular player Ruthie Bol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world's most populous megacities. Los Angeles is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Southern California. With a population of roughly 3.9 million residents within the city limits , Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic and cultural diversity, being the home of the Hollywood film industry, and its sprawling metropolitan area. The city of Los Angeles lies in a basin in Southern California adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in the west and extending through the Santa Monica Mountains and north into the San Fernando Valley, with the city bordering the San Gabriel Valley to it's east. It covers about , and is the county seat of Los Angeles County, which is the most populous county in the United States with an estim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylvania Station. It is the fourth venue to bear the name "Madison Square Garden"; the first two ( 1879 and 1890) were located on Madison Square, on East 26th Street and Madison Avenue, with the third Madison Square Garden (1925) farther uptown at Eighth Avenue and 50th Street. The Garden is used for professional ice hockey and basketball, as well as boxing, mixed martial arts, concerts, ice shows, circuses, professional wrestling and other forms of sports and entertainment. It is close to other midtown Manhattan landmarks, including the Empire State Building, Koreatown, and Macy's at Herald Square. It is home to the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL), the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louisiana Tech University
Louisiana Tech University (Louisiana Tech, La. Tech, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Ruston, Louisiana. It is part of the University of Louisiana System and classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". Louisiana Tech opened as the Industrial Institute and College of Louisiana in 1894 during the Second Industrial Revolution. The original mission of the college was for the education of students in the arts and sciences for the purpose of developing an industrial economy in post-Reconstruction Louisiana. Four years later in 1898, the state constitution changed the school's name to Louisiana Industrial Institute. In 1921, the college changed its name to Louisiana Polytechnic Institute to reflect its development as a larger institute of technology. Louisiana Polytechnic Institute became desegregated in the 1960s. It officially changed its name to Louisiana Tech University in 1970 as it satisfied criteria of a research university. Louis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teresa Weatherspoon
Teresa Gaye Weatherspoon (born December 8, 1965) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who serves as assistant coach for the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association (NBA). She played for the New York Liberty and Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and served as the head basketball coach of the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters. Weatherspoon was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010, and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019. In 2011, she was voted in by fans as one of the Top 15 players in WNBA history. In 2016, Weatherspoon was chosen to the WNBA Top 20@20, a list of the league's best 20 players ever in celebration of the WNBA's twentieth anniversary. Playing and coaching career Born in Pineland, Texas, Weatherspoon was a health and physical education major and star basketball player at Louisiana Tech. In 1988, her senior season, she led the Lady Techsters to the NCAA ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
