|
|
Tuesday, September 19
Not quite head and shoulders above the rest
Associated Press
The world is moving fast in women's basketball, as Teresa
Edwards well knows.
Edwards will be playing in her fifth Olympics for the United
States next month, and the 36-year-old guard has seen firsthand how
the game has grown in other nations.
|  | | Teresa Edwards isn't sure the U.S. team will play with the sense of urgency it had in the past. |
She's facing better players, and there are more of them. Teams
are deeper and smarter. They have maturity and experience, yet come
up with promising young players.
Her take on Sydney: Winning the gold will be one tough task.
"I think the competition has gotten stiff in foreign
countries," Edwards said during a break in the Olympic team's
training at Colorado Springs. "We have elevated the women's game.
I think at one time it was considered easy. We could go out two or
three weeks and train and still beat everybody.
"But the other countries have gotten better. They've paid
attention and grown and are producing quality athletes. They've
closed the gap."
Even so, Edwards feels the United States still has the best
players. Since winning the gold medal for the first time in 1984,
U.S. women's basketball teams are 23-1 in the Olympics.
Most of the players on this team were on the unbeaten 1998 world
championship squad.
At one point, Edwards said the United States was still "head
and shoulders better than everyone," though she modified that
later.
"Did I say head and shoulders?" she said. "I don't know if
it's head and shoulders above, but we just have confidence in what
our abilities are. I just feel as American athletes, American
basketball players, we are very talented, very athletic. We always
put our heart on the line when it came to the Olympic team.
"It doesn't always take the best basketball players to win, but
the ones with the biggest heart, the most focused team, the one who
comes to get the job done."
The current team is dealing with an interrupted training
schedule brought on by the rise of the WNBA. There were no U.S. pro
leagues in 1996, when the Olympic team was able to train straight
through for a year, right up until they got to Atlanta in mid-July.
This year's team trained from September 1999 to the end of
March, then broke off for the WNBA season. Because of the WNBA
playoffs, only five players were available when training camp
resumed on Monday: Edwards, Dawn Staley, Katie Smith, Natalie
Williams and Kara Wolters.
Chamique Holdsclaw and Nikki McCray were due in Thursday, with
Ruthie Bolton-Holifield and Yolanda Griffith to arrive Friday. That
would leave only Lisa Leslie, DeLisha Milton and Sheryl Swoopes
still with their pro teams.
Two of the six alternates, former Olympians Jennifer Azzi and
Katrina McClain, have been available from the start, and coach Nell
Fortner brought in some men to fill out the practice squads.
"We're doing the best we can," said Fortner, whose team has an
exhibition game with Canada on Tuesday in San Antonio. "They've
all come in with a great attitude. They're trying to get this thing
going and set the tone for the next weeks ahead."
Edwards said she's curious to see what affect the WNBA will have
on the Olympic team and other teams the United States fields for
international competition.
The summers used to be wide open for that kind of activity. With
the WNBA, that's no longer true.
"Having that sense of urgency to come out time and time again,
given the changes in the U.S. in pro ball, do we have that
mentality in women's ball today?" Edwards said. "I think this is
going to be a pivotal Olympics to see how we handle that."
|  | |
ALSO SEE
Williams wins with second choice
|
