Jul 23 2008
The Malice at the Palace Pt. 2
Not many people care for the WNBA or follow the struggling league on a day-to-day basis. Most watch ESPN or FSN to check the scores and highlights around the world of sports and just so happen to come across one or two highlights of the WNBA. The league’s draft this year was headlined by one of the best Womens College basketball player ever, Candace Parker.
Last night we all came to a strange realization about the league, it too can be so competitive that its athletes can come to punches. The Los Angeles Sparks and Detroit Shock proved that teams in the WNBA are in fact becoming more competitive and rivalries are starting to build. There is no justification for that kind of violence that does not normally allow punches or aggression of that type.
What is sad is to see the WNBA getting this attention for all the wrong reasons. The fight is not what this blog is about, rather the intensity that surrounded the brawl to hit full circle. With 4.6 seconds left in the game is when this whole fight began and it brought back reminders to us all of the brawl in the NBA in Detroit in 2004. The Pistons, Indiana Pacers and the Fans in Detroit had one of the biggest brawls in North American Sports history.
One of the worse sites last night had to be after Shock Assistant Coach Rick Mahorn after bumping into the Lisa Leslie of the Sparks and knocking her down, another Sparks player, DeLisha Milton-Jones appeared to be punching Mahorn. Mahorn, a former Detroit Piston, has been involved in a few altercations in his career but seemed to knock over Leslie accidently while trying to stop the brawl.
During this incident, the fans inside of the Palace of Auburn Hills remained seated and did not get involved, it seems that most of the damage was done when Mahorn knocked Leslie to the ground. For sheer curiosity alone, the ratings for the next game between the Shock and Sparks will indeed receive a spike in ratings. The next time the 2 teams will meet can only be in the WNBA Finals or some time next season.
Another injury, and this was to a player not the leagues image, was to Detroits Cheryl Ford, She appeared to twist her knee when the melee broke out and had to be carted off the court in a wheel chair. Although bad for the public image of being a clean-cut organization, this brawl will draw interest in the intensity of the players in the WNBA and help draw more casual fans. Lets hope the leagues next big story will not be one of such negativity.
J.M.Saucedo
