What do the 2012 Phoenix Mercury have in common with the Mike D’Antoni-era Phoenix Suns?
They don’t play D.
D, at least in terms of the Mercury, represents Diana Taurasi. The 2009 WNBA Most Valuable Player and in this writer’s opinion, the most gifted female basketball player of at least the last decade, has not played for the Mercury (4-18) since May 26th, the team’s third game of the season. Taurasi, 30, missed 16 games with what was described as a “strained left hip flexor” before the league went on sabbatical for the London Olympics. The former U Conn All-American, who led the Huskies to three consecutive national championships in her final three seasons, has missed all three games since the league returned from its five-ring hiatus.
She also serves, who only sits and waits….
Taurasi’s extended absence would not be so egregious except for two factors: 1. She led Team USA in both minutes played (24.1 per game) and scoring (12.4) as the squad went undefeated and won the gold medal in London and, 2. the franchise that finishes with the league’s worst record will have a 44% chance of winning the WNBA draft lottery and selecting Baylor center Brittney Griner, who led the Bears to an undefeated, 40-0 season and the national championship last April. Griner, a six-foot-eight studette who averaged 23.2 points, 9.5 boards and more than five blocks per game, has the potential to be a Lew Alcindor-like game-changer for whichever team drafts her.
I am strong. I am invincible. I am Woman.
Meanwhile, the WNBA, a league whose games’ attendance rivals those of 8 p.m. showings of The Dark Knight Rises, sits its prime attraction.
“The excuses the Mercury are using, to me, are comical,” said one WNBA official.
Let’s enumerate them, shall we? Since the WNBA returned to action on August 16, Taurasi has missed games…
…at Seattle, Aug. 16 (Loss), due to “arriving late from London.” Her Team USA backcourt mate, Sue Bird, a former U Conn teammate, played that night for the Storm.
…versus San Antonio, Aug. 19 (Loss), a “dental procedure” the previous day.
… versus New York, Aug. 23 (Loss), “lightheadedness” during warmups.
Perhaps Taurasi has a nagging injury (injuries) from playing overseas in Russia, then stateside, then preparing for and participating in the Olympics. If so, the Mercury should announce this as if it were a legitimate league.
Perhaps the Mercury just blatantly covet Griner, although probable No. 2 pick Elena Delle Donne, who led the NCAA in scoring last season, is no slouch (hold your Judge Smails jokes, please). Regardless, earlier this summer Phoenix cut Lynette Kizer, who was giving them quality minutes in a move that left the league’s many few keen observers scratching their heads. Taurasi, their best player, the league’s best player, has seen just 36 minutes of action all season, or seven minutes more than she saw in the gold-medal victory versus France two weeks ago… in the halcyon days before she was afflicted with dental worries, lightheadedness, the vapors, consumption, the Mondays, etc….
Delle Donne and Diana could be teammates next season.
“I think (the Mercury) are doing damage to their franchise,” said the league official, “and this hurts the integrity of the league. It’s very obvious what they’re doing.
“I don’t know why our commissioner isn’t saying, ‘If Taurasi is healthy, she should play,'” the official said. “David Stern would put pressure on a team that was holding someone out in the final week of the season. We’ve still got a month to go, and we’ve already been through the longest hip-flexor strain in sports history with her.”
The Mercury, who have lost nine straight dating back to June 29 and are tied with the Toxic Tulsa Shock for the league’s worst record, host Indiana tonight (Saturday). As of this moment Taurasi is scheduled to play but there’s always the chance that she may have to wait for the cable guy or that there’s bad traffic on the Squaw Peak Parkway (note: there’s never traffic on the weekend in Phoenix in August; ever). Then again, given the opponent’s nickname for tonight’s contest, there’s really only one DNP excuse the Mercury should use: fever.