Sports


Injuries to stars extinguish Comets

WNBA Report

Christian Schmidt

Cynthia Cooper's comeback just got derailed. The Comets star, returning to play for the team after spending the past two seasons as coach of the Phoenix Mercury, will be forced to sit out the remainder of this season with a torn rotator cuff in her right arm.

Cooper, a former two-time Most Valuable Player of the league, was averaging 16 points and 5.5 assists per game in four games this season.

The Comets are also without the services of forward Sheryl Swoopes, widely regarded as the best player in the league, for two to three weeks as she recovers from a sprained ankle.

Another comeback story

Edna Campbell's story should be an inspiration to all of us. The Sacramento Monarchs' guard played only one game in the WNBA last season while she was recovering from breast cancer -- a disease that threatened not only her career but her life as well.

The former Texas Lady Longhorn was diagnosed with cancer early in the 2002 season and sat out while receiving treatment. She was with the team, offering support and encouragement to her team even though she couldn't help on the floor.

This season, Campbell is back and looks to be in good form. She is averaging 8.7 points per game, just below her career average, and 1.9 assists per game. She also scored 15 points on June 12 against Minnesota, the highest single-game total in her WNBA career.

Sparks cruising

If anyone thought Los Angeles wasn't the best team in the league, the Sparks are well on their way to proving it. With a 9-0 start to the season, the team has already tied its own WNBA record for consecutive wins to begin a season.

The Sparks have a four and one-half game lead on the next team in the West, the Minnesota Lynx. Los Angeles is the only team in the West with a winning record.

Minnesota may be this season's surprise team. Led by the sharp shooters Katie Smith and Svetlana Abrosimova, the Lynx are 4-5 and are establishing themselves as perhaps the second-best team in their conference.

And in the east

The Eastern Conference has seven teams. Six of those teams are within one game of first place. Detroit, which has played just four games is in first place with a 3-1 record after starting the season with a loss. New York is in sixth place with a 3-3 record to this point. Only Washington, which has struggled without leader Chamique Holdsclaw who is struggling with injuries, is further back in the East, with a 2-5 record overall.

Another MVP candidate

With her play in the first few weeks of the season, one player has made it clear she deserves to be talked about as a serious candidate for MVP this season. After finishing fourth in scoring last year, Seattle forward Lauren Jackson has improved her game and is now second in the league with 18.9 points per game.

The 6-5 forward-center ranks in the top-10 in a number of offensive categories. Jackson isn't just a low-post scorer, either. She has already made 10 three-point field goals in just seven games.

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