I am over at the NBA Offices in Secaucus, NJ today covering the WNBA Draft.  To keep things simple for you guys, I am going to keep everything in this post, and update it throughout the day with different interviews, observations, and any other additional tidbits that come up.  Hopefully by the end of the day, I will get up all of the audio from the respective interviews.

WNBA President Donna Orender

• The first thing that I noticed when we entered President Orender’s dressing room was the excitement.  This draft is an exciting time for the WNBA.  With the Connecticut Women’s team coming off their second straight undefeated team, people are excited about women’s basketball, and they are hoping to translate this into fans.  This year, the draft will be aired at 3:00 on ESPN2 and ESPN3.com.
• The next thing that President Orendar talked about was the family environment.  “The NBA and MLB are in different arenas.  We want parents to be able to bring their daughters and sons.”  Family is an important aspect of the WNBA, and it is on full display here at the draft.

College Coaches

• About 30 minutes before the draft started, we got to spend some time with 4 college coaches who were there to support their players.  They were Bill Fennelly from Iowa State University, Sherri Coale from Oklahoma University, Debbie Ryan from Virginia University, and Connie Yori from Nebraska.
• The fact that we were there talking with these coaches about prospects who were expected to be from the first round, and they weren’t from the usual powerhouses really goes to show the increase in talent in Women’s College Basketball, that could only mean good things for the WNBA.
• The coaches were asked about the impact of having a WNBA-caliber prospect on their respective programs.  While it is a given that it makes the team more talented, they all seemed to agree that their players’ work ethic seemed to rub off on the rest of the team.  As coach Fennelly put it, “Our players see someone who has done the work, and it shows what can be done if they work at it and get better.  They are a great example.”

Tina Charles

• There wasn’t much debate about who the #1 pick was going to be.  Tina Charles will be continuing her career in Connecticut as the Sun made her the first pick of the 2010 draft.
• When asked about her wild 48 hours where she won the NCAA championship for the second straight year and then became the #1 pick, Charles gave a pretty candid answer.  “It’s unbelievable, my heart is still pounding out of my chest.  I am very grateful, definitely a dream come true, but I am more interested in what kind of impact I can have on the team rather than being the #1 pick.”
• Charles then talked about what she can bring to the Sun, “Hopefully everything and more that I did for UConn.  Still want to learn, still want to improve on my game.”

I actually had to head out early due to class, but all things considered I had a great time at the WNBA draft.  While I am more of a NBA guy (I think that is a given), I was pretty interesting to see how the atmosphere is different compared to the NBA.  In general there is more of a “family” type feel, and I think that has a lot to do with President Donna Orender.

With the Bobcats down 1 (with 22 seconds left) and needing a win to clinch a spot in the playoffs, you knew that Larry Brown would draw up something special.  As the Bobcats came out of the timeout, you just had a feeling that they were going to run something good.  Even if they missed, Larry Brown was going to take this possession seriously, if only to work on late game situations for the playoffs:

As the ball gets handed to Stephen Jackson, Boris Diaw quickly turns and puts his defender on his back to receive the basketball.  This is the second time in two days we have seen this, and I think we are going to be seeing this more often, especially if you are confident with how your PF handles the basketball.  Why risk a 5 second violation running a play when you can quickly get it to your PF and run a play from there (its a given that you are talking about a situation where there is time on the clock.  If there is 1 or 2 seconds left, teams won’t be doing this).

Read more…