1997 WNBA Finals
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1997 WNBA Finals
The 1997 WNBA Championship was the championship game of the 1997 WNBA season, and the conclusion of the season's playoffs. The Houston Comets, top-seeded team of the league, defeated the New York Liberty, second-seeded team, 65-51 to win the league's inaugural championship. The Comets' 18–10 record gave them home court advantage over New York (17–11). For the playoffs, the top four teams overall in the league were seeded one to four. Top seed Houston played the four seed Charlotte and the two seed New York played number three Phoenix. Road to the finals Regular season series The Liberty won 3 of the 4 games in the regular season series: Game summary Time listed below is Eastern Daylight Time. The Houston Comets became the first WNBA champions, riding the unstoppable Cynthia Cooper and a suffocating defense to a 65–51 victory over the New York Liberty. Cooper, the fledgling league's leading scorer who was named Most Valuable Player earlier in the week, scored 1 ...
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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 ...
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New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the List of United States cities by population density, most densely populated major city in the United States, and is more than twice as populous as second-place Los Angeles. New York City lies at the southern tip of New York (state), New York State, and constitutes the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous Megacity, megacities, and over 58 million people live within of the city. New York City is a global city, global Culture of New ...
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Houston Comets Roster
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in 2020. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the seat and largest city of Harris County and the principal city of the Greater Houston metropolitan area, which is the fifth-most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States and the second-most populous in Texas after Dallas–Fort Worth. Houston is the southeast anchor of the greater megaregion known as the Texas Triangle. Comprising a land area of , Houston is the ninth-most expansive city in the United States (including consolidated city-counties). It is the largest city in the United States by total area whose government is not consolidated with a county, parish, or borough. Though primarily in Harris County, small portions of the ci ...
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Women's National Basketball Association Finals Most Valuable Player Award
The Women's National Basketball Association Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) is an annual Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) award given since the league's 1997 WNBA season, inaugural season. During the first four years of the league, the Houston Comets' Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, Cynthia Cooper won the award four consecutive times. The Los Angeles Sparks' Lisa Leslie won back-to-back in the subsequent two seasons. No other players have won the award in consecutive seasons, but Diana Taurasi, Sylvia Fowles, and Breanna Stewart have won the award twice. While some teams have won multiple championship since the dynasty years of the Comets and the Sparks, the match-up usually resulted in different MVPs. For example, in the Detroit Shock's three wins over six years, three different players won the award. As of 2021, there have been two non-American Finals MVPs – Lauren Jackson of Australia (2010) and Emma Meesseman of Belgium (2019). Winners Multi-time winners See al ...
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Eastern Conference (WNBA)
The Eastern Conference of the Women's National Basketball Association is made up of six teams. From the league's second season in 1998 through 2015, the WNBA operated separate playoff brackets for its Eastern and Western Conferences. Each conference's playoff was divided into two playoff rounds, the Conference Semi-Finals and the Conference Finals, with the Conference Finals winners receiving Conference Championships and advancing to the WNBA Finals to determine the WNBA champion. In the final years of this playoff scheme, all in-conference playoff series were best-of-three. Since 2016, the league has abandoned separate conference playoffs in favor of a single league-wide playoff bracket. The top eight teams in the regular season, without regard to conference affiliation, advance to the playoffs, which are seeded based strictly on regular-season record (with tiebreakers as needed). The bottom four playoff teams play single-elimination games (5 vs. 8, 6 vs. 7) in the first round, w ...
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Rebecca Lobo
Rebecca Rose Lobo-Rushin (born October 6, 1973) is an American television basketball analyst and former women's basketball player in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 1997 to 2003. Lobo, at 6'4", played the center position for much of her career. Lobo played college basketball at the University of Connecticut, where she was a member of the team that won the 1995 national championship, going 35–0 on the season in the process. Lobo was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. In April 2017, she was announced as one of the members of the 2017 class of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, alongside Tracy McGrady and Muffet McGraw. Early life and high school career Lobo was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the youngest daughter of RuthAnn (née McLaughlin) and Dennis Joseph Lobo. Her father is of Cuban descent, while her mother was of German and Irish heritage. Lobo was raised a Catholic. Her brother Jason played basketball at Dartmou ...
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Vickie Johnson
Vickie Johnson (born April 15, 1972) is an American former basketball player and head coach of the Dallas Wings. Johnson is the former head coach of the San Antonio Stars. Upon the sale and relocation of the Stars, Johnson was hired by head coach Bill Laimbeer as an assistant coach of the Las Vegas Aces, the Stars' decedent team. Early years Johnson grew up in Coushatta, Louisiana. Johnson was a letter-man in basketball and track and field. In track and field, she was the Louisiana State Champion on the long jump as a senior. College years Vickie Johnson was a two-time All-American and Sun Belt Conference MVP at Louisiana Tech University. She led the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters basketball, Lady Techsters to the 1994 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament, 1994 NCAA Championship Game, was named Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year in 1995 and earned Louisiana Player of the Year honors in 1996. She finished her career at Louisiana Tech with 1,891 career points and 831 reb ...
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WNBA Finals MVP Award
The Women's National Basketball Association Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) is an annual Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) award given since the league's inaugural season. During the first four years of the league, the Houston Comets' Cynthia Cooper won the award four consecutive times. The Los Angeles Sparks' Lisa Leslie won back-to-back in the subsequent two seasons. No other players have won the award in consecutive seasons, but Diana Taurasi, Sylvia Fowles, and Breanna Stewart have won the award twice. While some teams have won multiple championship since the dynasty years of the Comets and the Sparks, the match-up usually resulted in different MVPs. For example, in the Detroit Shock's three wins over six years, three different players won the award. As of 2021, there have been two non-American Finals MVPs – Lauren Jackson of Australia (2010) and Emma Meesseman of Belgium (2019). Winners Multi-time winners See also * List of sports awards honori ...
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Houston Rockets
The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its home games at the Toyota Center, located in Downtown Houston. Throughout its history, Houston has won two NBA championships and four Western Conference titles. It was established in 1967 as the San Diego Rockets, an expansion team originally based in San Diego. In 1971, the Rockets relocated to Houston. The Rockets won only 15 games in their debut season as a franchise in 1967. In the 1968 NBA draft, the Rockets were awarded the first overall pick and selected power forward Elvin Hayes, who would lead the team to its first playoff appearance in his rookie season. The Rockets did not finish a season with a winning record for almost a decade until the 1976–77 season, when they traded for All-Star center Moses Malone. Malone went on to ...
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Tina Thompson
Tina Marie Thompson (born February 10, 1975) is an American former WNBA professional basketball player who served as the head coach of the Virginia Cavaliers women's basketball team from 2018-2022. Thompson was inducted into both the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018. The first college draft pick in WNBA history, Thompson was selected first by the Houston Comets. She helped lead the Comets to four consecutive WNBA Championships in 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000. She won two Olympic gold medals and made nine WNBA All-Star Game appearances. Until 2017 she was the WNBA's all-time leading scorer and, as of 2019, she ranks second in WNBA history. Early years Thompson was born in Los Angeles, California. She grew up playing basketball with her brother TJ and his friends at Robertson Park in West Los Angeles, California. She recorded more than 1,500 points and 1,000 rebounds in her high school career at Morningside High School in In ...
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WNBA MVP
The Women's National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player (MVP) is an annual Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) award given since the league's inaugural season -- 1997. MVP voting takes place immediately following the regular season. The award recipient is decided by a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States. Panel members were asked to select their top five choices for the award, with 10 points being awarded for a first place vote, seven for second, five for third, three for fourth and one for fifth. In 2008, fans could also have a say in who won the award. Fans were able to vote online for their top five MVP picks. These selections accounted for 25% of the total vote, while the media panel's selections accounted for the other 75%. Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Lauren Jackson have won the award three times. Elena Delle Donne is the only player to have won the award with two teams—in 2015 with the Chicago Sky and 2019 with the W ...
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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 ...
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