Sheryl Swoopes
Sheryl Swoopes
Sheryl Denise Swoopes is a retired American professional basketball player. She was the first player to be signed in the WNBA, is a three-time WNBA MVP, and was named one of the league's Top 15 Players of All Time at the 2011 WNBA All-Star Game. Swoopes has won three Olympic gold medals. She was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth25 March 1971
CityBrownfield, TX
CountryUnited States of America
We really focused on trying to slow her down a little bit and making somebody else do something to beat us. The game plan we had, defensively especially, really worked.
We could just never really get into any kind of a flow, ... We kept saying in the timeouts (that) we were playing like we had another game on Saturday, instead of like we didn't have another game Saturday.
I'm sure none of the fans did. And in all honesty, I think the only people who thought we could go to Seattle and win two games were the players. I'm not really sure that all of our coaching staff thought so.
Every practice and every game that we have, Tina is getting better and better and better,
We knew it was do or die, and I told everybody before the game that I don't want to go home. Tonight we came out ready to play. We got our transition on early and think that was the key today.
It reminded me a lot of Game 1. They got out to an eight-, 10-point lead, and then we fought back. Game 1, we just couldn't get over the hump. ... (Tonight) everyone was just really determined.
We used that as a motivating factor. Every player came in here hungry and still frustrated from not making the playoffs last year. Not having Tina when we started the season, that also made other people take their games to another level.
Of all my awards, this is probably the most special to me, ... Nobody expected the Comets to do anything this year. The only thing that would make it better is if I was in Houston right now, preparing for Game 3.
The only thing that would make this better would be if we were in Houston today getting ready to play Game 3, ... Unfortunately that's not the case, but I'm excited just to be here today.
We want to celebrate this, ... But I told them in the locker room, we can't forget about the Sparks. We owe them something.
I want to thank everybody out there who voted for me and who did believe in me. Because I felt all along that I still could compete with the best of them out there.
I think there's always been great talent in the WNBA, ... I think there are so many players this year that had incredible seasons and fortunately, or unfortunately, there's only one MVP.
My purpose for doing it has nothing to do with throwing it in anybody's face,
That was a point in my career when I was just very frustrated and said, 'Well maybe I don't need to do this anymore,' ... And I asked him (Jordan), I said, 'Son, do you want mom to retire?' And he said, 'No, mom, no, mom. You're still very good. I want to go watch. I love the WNBA.'