Women’s roster set for Olympic basketball team

July 10, 2008 - Tamika Catchings, Delisha Milton-Jones and Kara Lawson are going to play ball in Beijing.

The WNBA stars have earned the final three spots on the U.S. women’s basketball team going to the Olympics, a person familiar with the choices told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement was planned for today.

Catchings would have been among the original nine picks in May had she not been slow to recover after tearing her right Achilles tendon last September. She started all eight games in Athens on the gold medal-winning 2004 Olympic team, averaging 6.9 points and 5.4 rebounds.

The other nine members of the 12 member squad heading to Beijing are headlined by three-time Olympic gold medalist Lisa Leslie (Los Angeles Sparks) and two-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Smith (Detroit Shock). In addition to Leslie and Smith, the initial roster includes 2004 Olympic gold medalists Sue Bird (Seattle Storm), Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury) and Tina Thompson (Houston Comets); while Seimone Augustus (Minnesota Lynx), Sylvia Fowles (Chicago Sky), Candace Parker (Los Angeles Sparks) and Cappie Pondexter (Phoenix Mercury) will participate in their first Olympic Games.

WNBA tells skeptics to “Expect Great”

May 8, 2008, From TV Guide today:

The WNBA’s 12th season gets underway next weekend, and the league is eager to attract new fans and change perceptions of women’s hoops.

A new marketing campaign, “Expect Great,” launches during tonight’s Celtics/Cavaliers NBA playoff game (7 pm/ET, ESPN). In a series of ads that are clearly aimed at men, three top players — the Detroit Shock’s Cheryl Ford, the Indiana Fever’s Tamika Catchings and celebrated rookie Candace Parker of the L.A. Sparks — repeat the criticisms they’ve heard. The complaints are clearly contradicted by simultaneous game clips.In Ford’s spot, the four-time WNBA All-Star says: “Let’s be honest, your rec league team would smoke us chicks without working up a sweat. I’m afraid of contact, so you can post me up all day long. Plus, the lane will be open, because no girl is gonna take a charge. We want no part of your rec league team. Believe that.” Then the screen goes dark and the words “She wouldn’t say that. Would You?” appear.

Ford and Parker’s spots premiere tonight, while Catchings’ debuts on Sunday during ABC’s coverage of the NBA Playoffs.