By Mel Greenberg
PHILADELPHIA - These were the days that the original WNBA calendar had called for the discussion to intensify over hopes for another Olympic gold medal as the pro league's summer season heads into a one-month pause beginning Monday so that most of the best of the league can pursue their international dreams next month in Beijing, China.
That was before Tuesday's night's little set-to in an appropriate place for brawling at the Palace of Auburn Hills, Mich., the site of the infamous NBA flareup several years ago involving the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers.
By Wednesday the league office was being swamped with calls asking when penalties will be handed down and how severe they may be after the body-crunching 25 seconds of mayhem involving the Detroit Shock, known for having a few temper tantrums, and the Los Angeles Sparks.
Appropriately, the Sparks entered sunrise Thursday morning waiting to see who might be missing in action when Los Angeles appears in another boxing venue Thursday night with a match scheduled against the Connecticut Sun in Uncasville.
Within an hour or so of the Mohegan Sun Arena tipoff, Detroit will be facing off down South against the Houston Comets.
By the time each game begins, all should know who might be missing in action.
One person already heading for the sidelines for the rest of the season is Detroit All-Star Cheryl Ford, who suffered a torn ACL in a play a minute before becoming involved in the unfriendlies.
Ford is not on the Olympic roster this time around.
Atlhough it was not known late Wednesday night what penalties were involved, a source close to the Sparks front office said all personnel would be on the premises, considering that a one-game suspension potentially to rookie Candace Parker and/or Lisa Leslie or Delisha Milton-Jones, all Olympic bound, would mean any of them could be quickly back in action Friday night when Los Angeles continues its Eastern swing of famous fight arenas by moving on to Madison Square Garden against the New York Liberty.
Thus, the Guru will be jumping the high-priced Amtrak for a quick round-trip to Mohegan in a few hours.
Ironically, Connecticut could be the beneficiary of all this by going against a potentially short-handed Los Angeles team and also perhaps gaining ground on the Shock if Detroit falls to Houston because of assessed penalties, as well as the Ford injury.
Depending on who was talking on Wednesday in the aftermath of what has always been a heated rivalry between Los Angeles and Detroit since former NBA Pistons "Bad Boy" Bill Laimbeer became the Shock coach, the altercation was either terrible for the league or great as a magnet to draw attention.
Despite being a first for the WNBA, pro women's basketball in the U.S. has already experienced imitation hockey just an hour away from Thursday night's game.
That was back in the winter of 1996 in Hartford when the former American Basketball League hosted its first all-star game.
Near the end of the contest, former Texas star Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil, a member of the New England Blizzard who was on the verge of game MVP honors, managed to deliver a strong upper cut under the basket to former Long Beach star Cindy Brown.
Davis-Wrightsil pleaded her innocence but Dawn Staley, who had been on the East bench at the time, later remarked to the Guru, "That one was coming from downtown. But those two had a history in Europe."
Needless to say Davis-Wrightsil, now a Women's Basketball Hall of Famer, was deprived of one less trophy in her enormous collection marking a prolific career.
That night, the incident made TV coverage across America, little good did it do in the long-run when the WNBA delivered its own version of a knockout to the ABL two seasons later.
Meanwhile, the Guru popped into the final regular season action prior to the summer league playoffs where a host of Drexel players were involved in the games Wednesday night.
A playoff to the playoffs needs to occur Monday night to determine the top two seeds.
That's it for now until we check in from the North later Thursday.
-- Mel
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