Valeria Olivia Whiting (born April 9, 1972) (also known as Val Whiting-Raymond) is a former collegiate and professional basketball player. She played center for the

Stanford Cardinal women's basketball The Stanford Cardinal women's basketball team represents Stanford University, located in Stanford, California, Stanford, California. The school's team currently competes in the Pac-12 Conference and are coached by Tara VanDerveer, in her 35th seas ...

during her four years of pre-med study at

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

. Among other collegiate honors, she was named Pac-10 Women's Basketball Player of the Year two years in a row. She also played for several USA National teams as well as professional women's basketball teams.

Early life

Whiting grew up in Wilmington, Delaware. For high school, she attended Ursuline Academy where, according to the Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame, she "led her team to four Delaware scholastic basketball titles and was a multi-year All-State performer." Whiting was a pre-med student at Stanford, where she earned a BS in Biological Sciences. She deferred her acceptance to University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine in order to play basketball in Brazil and Italy.

Basketball career

College years (Stanford 1989-1993)

Whiting played for the

team all four years of her time at Stanford. In 1990, at the end of her rookie (freshman) season, she was named Freshman of the Year both by the Pac-10 Conference and by the Women's Basketball News Service. Also in 1990, Whiting was on the USA team for the

U.S. Olympic Festival The U.S. Olympic Festival was a junior multi-sport event held in the United States by the United States Olympic Committee in the years between the Olympic Games. It was started in 1978 as an American counterpart to the communist Spartakiad – a si ...

, an amateur multi-sport event that used to be held in the years between Olympic Games by the United States Olympic Committee, which took place in Minneapolis that year. Whiting won two NCAA championships and went to the Final Four three years. Stanford also won four Pac-10 championships. She graduated as the school's all-time leading scorer and all-time leader in rebounds and blocks. She also left as the all-time leading scorer and rebounder in Pac-10 history. Including high school, Val has won 10 championships in total.

Post-college basketball

After graduating from Stanford, Whiting postponed going to medical school in order to play more basketball. She spent a year playing in Italy, followed by two years in Brazil. Whiting was one of twelve players on the USA National team that trained at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs for the

1995 Pan American Games File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

. Because only four international women's teams registered for the event, however, the women's basketball event was cancelled. Whiting was an alternate for the 1995-1996 US Olympic women's basketball team. In 1996, the US team won the gold medal at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

in Atlanta.

American Basketball League

In 1996, the American Basketball League (ABL) was the first independent professional basketball league for women in the United States. They recruited both Whiting and her Stanford teammate

Jennifer Azzi Jennifer Lynn Azzi (born August 31, 1968) is a former basketball coach, most recently the head coach of the women's team at the University of San Francisco. Azzi is also a former collegiate and professional basketball player, as well as an Olympic ...

for the

San Jose Lasers The San Jose Lasers were a women's professional basketball team in San Jose, California. It was a member of the American Basketball League. Their home games were primarily held at the San Jose State Event Center with an occasional game being p ...

. Whiting was also chosen for to play on the "West" All-Star team in the December, 1996 ABL All-Star Game. After one season with the Lasers, during which she was their leading rebounder, Whiting was traded to the Seattle Reign in 1997. In order to get Whiting, the Reign traded to the Lasers another player plus $20,000 and a third-round draft pick. At the end of the 1997–1998 season, Whiting was the Reign's second in scoring (15.4) and in rebounding (7.2) She played with the Seattle Reign from 1997 until, in 1998, the ABL folded.

Women's National Basketball League

Whiting was drafted to the Women's National Basketball Association in 1998. She played the 1999 season for the

Detroit Shock The Detroit Shock were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. They were the 2003, 2006, and 2008 WNBA champions. Debuting in 1998, the Shock were one of the league's first expansion franchises. ...

. After taking a year away from basketball, she played for two years (2001-2002) for the Minnesota Lynx.

WNBA career statistics

Regular season

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1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, align="left" , Detroit , 31 , , 20 , , 24.6 , , .380 , , .000 , , .455 , , 6.7 , , 1.6 , , 1.3 , , 1.0 , , 1.5 , , 6.5 , - , align="left" ,

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, align="left" , Minnesota , 26 , , 15 , , 17.8 , , .267 , , .000 , , .741 , , 3.2 , , 0.6 , , 0.6 , , 0.5 , , 1.3 , , 3.4 , - , align="left" ,

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, align="left" , Minnesota , 6 , , 3 , , 8.7 , , .308 , , .000 , , .417 , , 1.5 , , 0.8 , , 0.3 , , 0.3 , , 0.7 , , 2.2 , - , align="left" , Career , align="left" , 3 years, 2 teams , 63 , , 38 , , 20.3 , , .343 , , .000 , , .540 , , 4.7 , , 1.1 , , 0.9 , , 0.7 , , 1.3 , , 4.8

Playoffs

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, align="left" , Detroit , 1 , , 1 , , 27.0 , , .286 , , .000 , , .600 , , 6.0 , , 1.0 , , 2.0 , , 1.0 , , 2.0 , , 7.0 , - , align="left" , Career , align="left" , 1 year, 1 team , 1 , , 1 , , 27.0 , , .286 , , .000 , , .600 , , 6.0 , , 1.0 , , 2.0 , , 1.0 , , 2.0 , , 7.0

Awards and honors

College

*Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame (inducted in 2000) *ESPY Award Finalist *Naismith Award Finalist *In 2010, ESPN named her one of the Top 25 NCAA Players of the Past 25 years. *2x All-American (1992, 1993) Both Kodak and U.S. Basketball Writers Association each time *2x Pac-10 Player of the Year (1992, 1993) *1990 Pac-10 Freshman of the Year *1990 National Freshman of the Year *2x All-Pac-10 First Team (1992, 1993) *Pac-10 All-Freshman Team (1990) *1992 All-Final Four Team *1991 West Region MVP *2x All-West Region Team (1991, 1992) · 2,077 career points o Currently 6th all-time at Stanford and 16th in the Pac-12 o Both Stanford and conference leader at the time she graduated · 16.1 career PPG o Currently 7th all-time at Stanford and was 2nd when she graduated · 481 career FT made o Currently 4th all-time at Stanford and was 1st when she graduated · 1,134 career rebounds o Currently 6th all-time at Stanford and 14th in the Pac-12 o Both Stanford and conference leader at the time she graduated · 8.8 career RPG o Currently 3rd all-time at Stanford and 15th in the Pac-12 o Both Stanford and conference leader at the time she graduated · 201 career blocks o Currently 3rd all-time at Stanford and 10th in the Pac-12 o Stanford's leader and second in conference history at the time she graduated.

Professional

*ABL All-Star Team 1996 *WNBA Community Assist Award

Hall of Fames

*Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame *The Hall of Fame of Delaware Women *The Delaware Basketball Hall of Fame *Delaware Afro-American Sports Hall of Fame *Delaware Sports Hall of Fame.

USA Basketball

*US Olympic Festival 1990 *R. William Jones Cup Team 19911991 WOMEN'S R. WILLIAM JONES CUP Taipei, Taiwan - June 30-July 7, 1991
/ref> *Was named to USA Basketball Pan-American Games Team in 1995 *Alternate to the 1995 US National team that went on to win the gold medal at the 1996 Olympics

References

External links

1992 ''Sports Illustrated'' profileYouTube 2020 podcast interview ''The Dan Wilkins Show''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whiting, Val 1972 births Living people All-American college women's basketball players American women's basketball players Basketball players from Delaware Centers (basketball) Detroit Shock players Minnesota Lynx players Parade High School All-Americans (girls' basketball) Power forwards (basketball) San Jose Lasers players Seattle Reign (basketball) players Stanford Cardinal women's basketball players