2007 WNBA All Star Game
Late West Rally Not Enough As East Prevails
The sun rises in the east and sets in the west…yet planet WNBA may now be rotating clockwise, as its eastern hemisphere has the brightest stars following six straight years of western warmth.
The Eastern Conference wins the 2007 WNBA All Star Game, 103-99 at Washington D.C.’s Verizon Center. The first ever sellout crowd in the 8-year history of the contest was on hand to watch. It’s the second consecutive win for the East, who broke the West’s 6-game winning streak at the ’06 affair.
Despite finishing third among the game’s high scorers, Detroit Shock forward Cheryl Ford was voted the Most Valuable Player, scoring 16 points, grabbing 13 rebounds, and 4 assists.
“We just wanted to come out and win,” says Ford. “Today we had to come together as one. We were all on the same team, proud of being for the east, and that’s what we did, we had fun and we won.”
Ford is now the first player in the WNBA’s ten seasons and change to win both the Rookie Of The Year Award (2003), and now the All Star Game MVP accolade.
"I surprised myself," Ford adds. “My mom was out of her seat!”
The East’s top scorer, and second highest on Sunday was last year’s All Star Game MVP, Connecticut Sun guard Katie Douglas. She scored 18. Eastern forward Tamika Catchings of the Indiana Fever hit 15.
“I thought the key to the game was in the second half,” claims Detroit and 2007 East team coach Bill Laimbeer. “We rebounded well…I thought we played solid defense.”
The East tied the game 53-53 at halftime after trailing by 11, and not leading at all in the first 20 minutes. They broke the tie early in the third period, and never looked back. Their lead was as high as 14, and despite a late West rally, culminating in a 3-pointer from San Antonio guard Becky Hammon, (cutting the East's lead to 3), it wasn't enough.
“The well went dry in the third quarter,” says West forward Diana Taurasi of Phoenix Mercury fame. “That’s when they got their little lead, and took off with it.”
Prior to the game, Taurasi guaranteed that she, at 6-feet tall, would slam dunk the ball in the first half. Fittingly enough, this October will mark the 75th anniversary of the World Series in which Babe Ruth is said to have “called the shot” (pointed towards center field just before hitting the ball over that fence at Chicago’s Wrigley Field).
Taurasi, who wears number 3 in honor of The Babe, says her own opportunity for such prophecy fulfillment just wasn’t there.
“It was pretty serious out there,” Taurasi says about this year’s competitive edition of the all star game; she scored 13 and rebounded 4. “There wasn’t anyone giving me free lanes, so, it was what it was.”
The game-high scorer was Houston Comet forward and league legend Tina Thompson. She finished with 19 points and 6 boards.
“We lost, so that really doesn’t matter,” Thompson says. “I’m not hung up on that kind of thing. Of course I wish we would have won, you know, if I could have given some of those points back, and put us over the top, I gladly would have.”
And so, a weekend with a sold out WNBA game on ABC, and Hammon on the front page of USA Today, comes to an end with a new beginning just around the corner…the second half of the 2007 WNBA season.
Will it be exciting?
“Basketball and the WNBA are continuing to get better,” Thompson says. “That’s great!"
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