may 17.2002«
y limited experience with
women’s basketball begins
with memories of my
friend and me tormenting
our teammate in the sixth grade
for being the first to have to wear a
bra. W hile the poor girl would go in
for a layup, we would be snickering
about her over-the-shoulder-houlder -holder.
In time, the discussions
became much more
mature, like in
college when my }
sports geek co-
workers and I
conversed about
the fundamental
differences
between women’s
and men’s basketball
strategy and the one Portland
Power game I saw where another
friend and 1 decided which players
to have crushes on.
Beyond that classic pastime
at any women’s sporting
event, with the help of Fire
fan extraordinaire Esther
Moe and the W N BA Web
site, we’ve found 10 basics
any decent spectator should
know about women’s basketball
J ust Outs sports lezzie
OEEERS IO TIPS EOR THE
®
Although a women’s basketball
. game officially has only two 20-
minute periods (halves), with full
timeouts, short timeouts, media time
outs, halftime, possible overtime and
other clock-stopping plays (foul shots,
etc.), be prepared to spend at least an
hour and a half at courtside. (This offers
ample time to decide which players to
have a crush on.)
(
z
Women’s halls are smaller than
men’s— usually by an inch or more. The
W NBA uses the same “small balls” as
BASKETBALL-CHALLENGED
BT ÎIÇLISSfi S flY ltP
N CA A teams— between 28.5 and 29 inches in
diameter. Smaller hands, smaller balls.
seconds to get over that half-court line and has
30 seconds to get a shot off.
6
for the referees to handle fouls and, of course, refs
are human and what they see and hear is often
subjective.
For th e specifics please see www.wnba.com/
analysis/wnba_rules_regulations.html or just
yell “booooo” w henever a foul is called on
your team o f ch o ice, even if... no, especially if
you didn’t actually see the play for w hich they
were penalized.
Each player gets to commit five personal fouls
. (that’s on the court). O n the sixth she is eject
ed from play for the rest of the game. Perhaps we
should adopt this rule to relationships and driving.
8
Foul shots: not
Dribbling is good.
In grade school we called it a “key," but the
. something your
.Traveling is bad.
»big kids call it an unromantic and profession
friends buy you on
B-A-D. Bad. (We can
al-sounding “lane.” T h e lane is from the ffee-
your 21st birthday.
all relate to getting in
throw line to the bottom court boundary (under
Basically, if a player is
trouble for illegal drib
the basket) and is 12 feet wide. A n offensive play
fouled taking a shot
bling, right?) If a player
er can only be there for three seconds at a time. If
and it counts, then
takes too many steps
she is caught in a lane violation, the other team
they get to shoot one
without dribbling or
Kristin
Folk!
(right)
and
former
Los
Angeles
free throw. If they
takes possession o f the ball (“booooo”).
(try not to glaze over
Sparks
guard
U
kari
Figgs
don’t
make
the
shot,
on this one)
/^*\ Last but not least: five players on the court
then they get to shoot two free throws. If they are
if she moves an established pivot foot
to play. Eleven players on the roster. Two
fouled on a three-pointer and don’t make it, then
in an illegal way relative to whether
leagues— the Eastern and Western Conference.
they get to take three free throws, and if they do
she’s going to dribble, pass or shoot,
Eight teams in each league. The
make it, then they only take one
then the other team will gain posses
Portland Fire ended last season in
free throw. If they are fouled while
sion of the ball.
seventh place o f the Western C on
not taking a shot then they take
ference. This year, surely, it will be
one free throw; if they make it,
A nother dribbling-relat-
on top!
then they get to take another.
. ed violation is over-and-
back. T his does not
G ot that?
Now, if som eone takes you to a
involve ex-girlfriends, 1
game
and this has not helped you
swear. Rather, once
There are a million (yes, a
out at all, the best thing to do is
the advancing team
. million) types o f fouls called.
make up stories about the people
There are fighting fouls, flagrant
passes the half
sitting around you, give the play
fouls, double fouls, offensive fouls,
court line it
ers new names (such as the
loose-ball fouls, away-from-the-
cannot go
m oniker my friend gave S co ttie
back over
play fouls, dribble screening fouls,
Coach Hargrove: “W e are Pippen, better known to us as
it— unless the
conduct fouls, delay-of-game
willing to work harder
“M agic Ears”), make fun o f girls in
fouls, backboard/support/basket
defense tips it
than most”
training bras or splurge on a $5
ring fouls and so on.
back.
3
9
I
7
\
5 .
T he advancing
team can’t take
more than 10
These are broken down into two cate
gories— personal fouls and technical fouls. Not
only are there a million (yes, a million) differ
ent kinds of fouls, there are also different ways
Coors Light. Mmm. J D
Production Assistant MELISSA SAYLER has given up
her training bras fo r spandex undershirts.
J ust O ut m
D
P ortland T ire ms,
“W hat are you looking
EORWARD TO AT THE
START OE THE TEAM S
THIRD SEASON?"
P h a r m a c y .
S p e c i a l t y
C on tin u ed on P age 2 8
Private one-on-one
consultation
The convenience
of free delivery
S ol ut i ons .
StatScript is a leader in providing community-based pharmacy
services for people with chronic health conditions such as:
H IV /AID S, hepatitis, organ transplant and more.
S t a r r
“W inning more
games, seeing how
DeMya W alker
improves and seeing
Lisa Leslie one
more time.
STATSCRIPT PHARM ACY
C H R O N IM E D
S p e c i a l t y
en i
Complete insurance
billing and coordination
of benefits
•Now Serving Medicaid and ADAP programs for Oregon and Washington*
pree par^ ng
1215 NW 23rd Avenue, Portland, OR 5 0 3 . 5 2 5 .9 0 9 4
For other StatScript Pharmacy locations call 800.320.2112 or visit www.5tatscript.com.
27