The WNBA Comets-Sting game at the Charlotte Coliseum
drew 18,937 fans, the "largest crowd in the history of
women's pro basketball" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 8/17).
MOTHER'S GOING TO KEEP BABY COZY AND WARM: The Comets'
Sheryl Swoopes, and her return to the court after the birth
of her son Jordan Eric Jackson seven weeks ago, was profiled
over the weekend. Advantage Int'l's Tom George, one of
Swoopes' representatives: "She's a role model to black
mothers and to working mothers, regardless of race. ... It's
marketing. Sheryl can use this for her career, to do good
while she's doing well. She can use it in the commercial
sense and in the social sense. She wants to do this."
George said that when first informed of Swoopes' pregnancy,
"there were about two hours of gnashing of teeth. There
were going to be calls to Nike and to the WNBA that were not
going to be good news. But after talking about it for a
couple of hours, everybody realized: There's nothing bad
about it. It might be a really good thing, it might be
pretty cool." George added that "a major deal will be
announced in a week, tying Swoopes to a major prenatal care
charity." Swoopes is already earning "more than" $1M
annually in off-the-court income (NEWSDAY, 8/17). In
Chicago, Melissa Isaacson, on Swoopes being a new mother and
WNBA marquee player: "[T]he question of how she will manage
this and play is a thought you'd rather not even entertain.
What you do want to do is root like hell for her to succeed"
(CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 8/17). Swoopes appeared with her husband
and baby on CBS' "This Morning." Swoopes: "When I first
found out that I was going to have a sneaker named after me,
I cried, I yelled, I screamed, because it was a tremendous
honor for me" (CBS, 8/18).
SHE'S A BELIEVER: In Miami, Michelle Kaufman wrote on
the WNBA: "If you don't like the women's game, fine. Don't
go. But don't presume it doesn't deserve to exist. I am
sick and tired of hearing some radio talk show hosts and
some of my own colleagues making jokes about the league.
Would these men be smirking if the women playing were their
sisters and daughters?" (MIAMI HERALD, 8/17).
