WNBA Drops Ball Come Playoff Time

In 1984, the Tigers cruised to the AL East Division crown. They started 9-0, then 16-1, then 26-4, then 35-5. Nobody ever caught them. They won 104 games. Still, when the curtain was raised on the ’84 postseason, the Tigers found themselves in Kansas City, playing on the artificial rug of Royals Stadium — even though they won a full 20 games more than the Royals during the regular season. No matter. The Tigers, thanks to baseball’s silly method of awarding home field advantage to divisions in opposite years, had the misfortune of winning their division in an even-numbered year. The year for the West winner to host the first two games of the best-of-five series.

It rankled a few, as it should have. Could the Tigers, despite their April-to-September brilliance, be bumped out of the playoffs by an inferior Royals team, thanks in part to starting a short series on the road, unfairly so?

Thankfully, it didn’t come to that. The Tigers dutifully swept the Royals into their living rooms, to watch the World Series on television.

The WNBA is once again showing why they are a wannabe major league operating under bush league conditions.

The Detroit Shock, like the ’84 Tigers, made mincemeat of their division. They had sewn up the title with four regular season games remaining — out of 34. The first round of the league playoffs is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it best-of-three affair. That’s kind of weird to me, right there. But it gets weirder. For whatever reason, the series is set up so that the team with home court advantage — at least it’s determined by merit — begins on the road. So the Shock, with their glittering 24-10 record, had to begin their league title defense in New York, in hostile Madison Square Garden, against a mediocre Liberty team.

Sure enough, the Shock were tripped in Game 1. Suddenly they faced elimination, just like that, as they prepared to play Game 2 at The Palace.

The Shock slipped by the Liberty, 76-73, in Game 2. Their title defense survives for another game. Game 3, the rubber game, is set for tonight in Auburn Hills.

Now, it’s not a gimme that the Shock would have won Game 1 had it simply been played at home. The Shock, after clinching the division so early, went into that “we don’t care about wins, just health” mode, and promptly lost their last four matches. Frankly, I’ve never been comfortable with that approach heading into the playoffs, no matter the sport. Good, crisp play doesn’t come out of a spigot; you can’t just turn it on whenever you want.

So the late season half-effort is playing more than a small part, I think, in the Shock’s difficulties with the much weaker Liberty. But starting Game 1 on the road in a best-of-three, when you have home court advantage, is unacceptable.

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The WNBA is once again showing why they are a wannabe major league operating under bush league conditions.
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Why does the WNBA do it this way? To save on travel costs? In a three-game series, the home-away-home system means more traveling than the away-home-home method, granted. But is the league that cash-strapped? How much does it cost to jet the teams from Detroit to New York and back again?

Travel cost is already being saved by limiting the first round to a three-game maximum, although I always thought longer series meant more gate and concession money, but what do I know?

But I can abide the 2-of-3 mini-series if the superior team gets to start it at home, where it should. Yet nobody seems to squawk about it, so there you have it.

Still, it’s time for the WNBA to step up and act like a major league, instead of putting on minor league-style playoffs.

Laimbeer Needs To Take His Coaching Career To The Next Level

I don’t know that it’s ever happened before, but it should.

Has a coach ever been “promoted” directly from the WNBA to the NBA?

I’m not sure what Bill Laimbeer’s motivation is. I think it’s admirable that he toils in the WNBA, coaching the Detroit Shock — two league titles so far and maybe a third on the horizon. He seems to be, at least in the world of women’s professional basketball, a master motivator. He’s not shy to light into his players publicly — not that THAT’S a good idea with NBA players.

Laimbeer has his ladies cruising again after a rocky period in June. The Shock have won 11 of 12, and not coincidentally, the hot streak came after another dose of brutal honesty to the media types. He benched his starting center — who just happened to be the starter in the WNBA All-Star game — Kara Braxton, and filleted her play. Last September, during the Finals — his team down 2-1 in the best-of-five series — Laimbeer turned the focus on the folks at ESPN and his perceived unfair coverage of the series. He called out Nancy Lieberman-Cline, for example, and banded his players together in an “us against the world” mentality. The Shock won a stunning Game 4 on the road at Sacramento before taking care of business at home in Game 5 to capture the championship.

I’m intrigued — very much so — at the prospects of Bill Laimbeer on an NBA sideline.

Laimbeer and some of his championship jewelry — as player and coach

Not all of his tactics would be well-received — especially the one about dumping on his players to the press. That I understand. But there surely must be a team in the league in which he once was the biggest villain that can use his services. That is, of course, if he’s willing to give it a whirl. He seems happy with the Shock, and in the WNBA — that summer option for those who need a basketball fix.

Katie Smith, the Shock leader in the backcourt, spoke these words about her boss to me last fall, when I asked her what Laimbeer’s biggest negative was:

“He likes to hear himself talk,” she said with a giggle. “He always has something to say.”

Again, maybe not the best trait for an NBA coach who’s in it for the long haul.

Still, should he want it, I think Laimbeer would make a marvelous NBA head coach. He played on teams that were nothing if not about teamwork and one player being no better than the other. He spent 10 years with Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, and Chuck Daly. I think he’s learned a thing or two from that decade. Clearly he’s showing as much directing the Shock — the cream of the WNBA at the moment.

In February 1989, shortly after the Pistons acquired Mark Aguirre from Dallas for Adrian Dantley — one of the most controversial trades in team history — some Pistons took Aguirre out for dinner. The idea wasn’t to nosh so much as it was to clue the new guy in about what it meant to be a Bad Boy — especially since Aguirre’s reputation preceded him as being, at times, selfish and boorish.

“Everything I’ve heard about you isn’t good,” Laimbeer snarled to Aguirre in that dinner, according to Jerry Green’s book, The Detroit Pistons: Capturing A Remarkable Era. “But I’m willing to give you a chance because Isiah vouches for you.”

Aguirre himself called the dinner significant and a powerful first impression as to life as a Piston. The Pistons cruised after the trade and went thru the NBA like a hot knife thru butter in the postseason (15-2), winning the title.

Bill Laimbeer is doing a terrific job in the WNBA. No disrespect to the ladies he coaches, or to the league in which he’s doing it, but it’s time that he graduate. Some NBA team could use him. It would be foolish to think that one couldn’t.

WNBA Could Use Some Dunks And Winter Ball

Tell me, would the WNBA be more exciting to you if Swin Cash could streak down the lane on a fastbreak, fake a pass to Deanna Nolan, and then take the ball to the hole herself — and DUNK?

Would you find the games more compelling if each team had a low post threat who could be fed the ball, back in, and … DUNK?

Would there be more “oohs and ahhs” if Plenette Pierson grabbed an offensive rebound and, while in mid-air … DUNKED?

At the risk of alienating some readers, I will say this: there’s no question the ladies’ hoop game will never surpass the NBA in popularity, but I can’t help but think that a couple things might help it along. Those things are dunks, and games in the wintertime.

Squawk if you will, but some of the most memorable plays in NBA history — the ones that stand out because of their athleticism, grace, and “wow” factor — include some sort of wild, maniacal slam. The dunk is a punctuation mark that few sports have. It can be both a source of triumph and humiliation, of retribution and pride. And the WNBA simply doesn’t have it.

I’m not sure what the answer is. Perhaps a smaller ball — even smaller than the one that’s used now, which is slightly less of a sphere than the NBA version. Maybe baskets that are 6-12 inches shorter than the ones used now. Maybe an abolishment of the 3-second rule, or at least a change to a 5-second rule, in the lane.

Regardless, I just think that if fans could see the current WNBA stars — and reserves — throwing down every so often, it might make the games more palatable to watch. More like “guy” basketball, which is simply more exciting than the women’s game — and sorry to be so blunt.

Playing games in the wintertime is not an easy proposition, I realize that. Many WNBA teams use NBA arenas, so the scheduling might be a nightmare, if their seasons were to run side-by-side in the cold weather months. But I just have a hard time seeing where the WNBA benefits from playing their games in the summertime, with many more extracurricular activities to compete with than in winter. Swimming, baseball, cookouts, picnics, camps, and even movies seem to be all jockeying for people’s attention between May and September, when the WNBA plays its games. Who wants to drive to an arena and sit inside in the summertime?

Besides, maybe the WNBA, if it played concurrently with the NBA, could get some “overflow” fan interest. People would already be in a basketball frame of mind. And hey — don’t discount the notion of WNBA/NBA doubleheaders in the same arena. The NBA used to do it, back in the day. Madison Square Garden, in the 1950s and 1960s, would showcase, say, the Philly 76ers and the St. Louis Hawks, followed by the Knicks and the Celtics. Many NBA arenas did it, when the league was still trying to gain a foothold.

So why not have the Detroit Shock go at it with the Houston Comets at 5:30 at the Palace, followed by the Pistons game? I’m not joking. It could help the WNBA immensely, in terms of fan interest, exposure, and money.

Dunks and doubleheaders. I’m either a raving sexist, or a shrewd businessman. Then again, you can probably be both — though I’ll plead innocent to being the former.