Womhoops Guru

Mel Greenberg covered college and professional women’s basketball for the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he worked for 40 plus years. Greenberg pioneered national coverage of the game, including the original Top 25 women's college poll. His knowledge has earned him nicknames such as "The Guru" and "The Godfather," as well as induction into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.

Thursday, May 23, 2024

The Guru Report: Full Circle for Chicago Sky Head Coach Teresa Weatherspoon

By Andy Lipton
Leading the ‘Break

NEW YORK - Once upon a time Teresa Weatherspoon helped lead the New York Liberty to four WNBA Finals in the first six years of the league’s existence.

Her talent, spirit and passion helped establish the popularity of the WNBA. She was with the Liberty in the WNBA’s inaugural season.

The Liberty averaged between 13,000 and 15,000 fans during those six years at the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden.1

 And the Women’s Basketball and Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer was a big, big deal for fans in New York City as well as being one of the faces of the WNBA in her eight years as a player, the final one in Los Angeles.

So as women’s basketball has been surging in popularity over the last year, it ’s fitting that Weatherspoon returned to New York Thursday night in the second week of the league’s new season in
her first year as a WNBA head coach with Chicago playing the Liberty, who now call the Barclays Center home in Brooklyn. 

Weatherspoon’s homecoming came on a day the league formally announced Toronto will be the 14th team in 2026 and second straight expansion team following Golden State’s launch next summer.

Among Weatherspoon’s players is rookie Angel Reese, the LSU all-American and seventh overall pick of last month’s draft, who has been a part of the surge in popularity.

Ironically, both women came to the league out of Louisiana, Weatherspoon having starred at Louisiana Tech, where she led the team her senior year to the NCAA title in 1988 and several months later was a member of the USA gold medalists at the Olympics in South Korea. She was also the Wade Trophy national player of the year that season.

Reese won an NCAA title a year ago, playing for Hall of Famer Kim Mulkey, who was an associate head coach of Weatherspoon at Louisiana Tech, where Mulkey was the point guard on the first NCAA women’s championship team in 1982.

Welcome back Teresa. You have always been in the hearts of New York basketball fans.

https://www.acrossthetimeline.com/wnba/attendance 1

posted by Mel Greenberg | 1:48 PM | 0 comments