As the WNBA starts its sixth season, let's say right off there are a lot of things right about this league.

	Val Ackerman, just the right mix of idealist and realist, has done a lot of things right as the WNBA commissioner.

It's followed what appears to be a sensible business plan, it got past its first labor negotiations (though the next round is coming up this fall), it's gotten behind very important women's issues such as breast cancer.

It's given American viewers the rest of the framework to follow the competitive career of a female basketball player. That's priceless. Team sports provide a bedrock for fan affection that individual sports just can't because, of course, individual athletes' careers are finite. Teams can last a lifetime, and there's something very substantive to fans about their team's history and how it's interwoven with their own.

That's true of college teams, but we needed to have it on a professional level in order to see the breadth of a career and the athletes at their best.

Which brings us to one of the things the WNBA hasn't done yet, but should put on the front burner. It needs to mandate that all WNBA players be in training camps for their duration. For that to happen, it will take negotiations and cooperation from overseas leagues in which many compete.

The WNBA coaches had teleconferences this week, and most of them were dealing with a similar problem. Key players had just arrived or they were still waiting for them. Some played preseason games with three expected starters not there.

"A full half of our players are playing in overseas leagues; it isn't until their teams (are finished) that they make their way back,'' WNBA president Val Ackerman said. "The good news is that in very few cases do they miss any games.''

No, but they miss preseason practice with their WNBA teammates. Talent is the key component to good basketball, but preparation is right there, too. Ackerman -- who really has been a terrific leader for this league -- said, "The WNBA in many ways represents the pinnacle.''

If that's true, shouldn't training camp be treated as essential for everybody? The way it is now, if a player in an overseas league is on a team that makes the playoffs, she's lucky to get to her WNBA team in time for a few practices before the regular-season tipoff. Even the best players need time to jell with teammates.

If you've watched the WNBA for the past five years, you've noticed that play across the board tends to rise around midseason. It's true of any sport that teams or individuals generally do improve as a season goes along.

But at times, disorganized play at the start of the WNBA season has made some games almost as unappealing as an episode of "Lost in Space.'' (Aside: One that would have been worth watching: Will Robinson pushes Dr. Smith over a cliff, then trips and goes over the edge himself, too. Rest of insufferable Robinson family and the moron pilot perish when eaten by carnivorous plants in a hallmark of basement-level special effects. The Robot lives happily ever after.)

Late arrivals have just been an accepted part of the WNBA's growing pains. But shouldn't it be closer to being resolved by now? With the number of WNBA players both foreign-born and American in overseas leagues, shouldn't it be a priority to coordinate season schedules to allow them ample time to prepare for both jobs?

"Instead of getting better, it's getting worse,'' Detroit coach Greg Williams said. "The French league is going extremely late, the Italian league is, too.''

The coaches do the best they can with who's available, but they all talk as if they have absolutely no power over when players arrive.

"I don't really know what the answer to that problem is; that's above me. I'm a little ol' lowly coach,'' Houston's Van Chancellor said. "That does concern me, but I don't know of anything I can do about it.''

Well, there's got to be somebody who can do something. We're not talking about the foreign leagues having to bend themselves into pretzels for the WNBA.

"We're talking about weeks,'' Phoenix coach Cynthia Cooper said. "If you have a dialogue (between the WNBA and foreign leagues), I don't see there being a problem.

"I think it's very obvious they don't have a relationship; if they did, these problems would be worked out.''

With everything Ackerman and her associates have done well, it might seem harsh to criticize them for not making more progress on this issue.

Ackerman is just the right mix of idealist and realist in a job that needs someone who is both. The point here isn't to throw darts.

Rather, it's to emphasize how important a better-coordinated schedule is, and that if the WNBA really targets this as a critical issue, it can be fixed.

	Phoenix coach Cynthia Cooper and Houston's Van Chancellor are troubled by late-arrivals when it comes to training camp.

Now you might say, "What the heck do the foreign leagues care about the WNBA's problems?'' Well, they should care. The WNBA gives women's basketball exposure that no other league ever has.

It doesn't matter that the WNBA is younger than most of those leagues. It's the child of the entity that controls global basketball, the NBA. The WNBA's concerns should be paramount enough in the international basketball community that a solution could be reached.

Ackerman pointed out the FIBA, the international basketball governing body, has moved the women's World Championships from May to late September to accommodate the WNBA season.

"That in many ways represented a significant concession,'' Ackerman said.

To make inroads overseas, it would be wise for the WNBA to consult with Cooper, an 11-year veteran of the Italian leagues, and other WNBA players/coaches who have first-hand knowledge of those leagues and the people involved in running them.

"I think I could help and be a liaison overseas,'' Cooper said. "I just think something needs to be done. No one has talked to me about it, but I would welcome the opportunity to go over and address some of these problems.''

The solution might not be absolutely perfect -- some players might still be looking at a week or so between the end of their overseas seasons and the beginning of WNBA training camp. But that would still be a palatable situation compared to what's happening now.

The WNBA feels most players benefit from overseas play. The players want to do it for one or all of the following reasons: to make money, to improve/maintain their skills, to be closer to home. The latter obviously doesn't apply to the Americans who go overseas, but it's important to the foreign players who have made the WNBA better.

Their welfare is important to the WNBA, and so is that of the overseas leagues. Some compromise on their end should be mutually beneficial to all.

And, frankly, if that's all naive and it takes a little bit more of a hardball approach, the WNBA, with support of the NBA, would be right to do that, too.

There are some issues that the WNBA pretty much has to live with. One is the 2004 Summer Olympics, which will begin in August. Ackerman said the WNBA is considering many alternatives to how to schedule that season, including possibly taking an in-season break like the NHL. As big an issue probably will be the availability of foreign players for the WNBA season if their nations insist they spend the summer with their Olympic teams.

Then there are other issues that I'd like to see the WNBA address but am not really holding my breath. The size of the basketball is one; I think they should poll the players and see if they'd prefer to use the standard-size international ball.

Some players swear that they shoot better with the standard-size ball. Moreover, it's what they'll use in international competitions such as the Olympics. The idea in going to the slightly smaller ball at the college level was that it would improve ballhandling, passing and other skills. Maybe it has, maybe it hasn't, but I think the standard ball makes more sense for the professional players.

The other thing is getting WNBA teams in Connecticut and Tennessee. The reasons are obvious to people who pay attention to women's basketball. These are college hotbeds, and if the league wants to make money it needs to tap into that enthusiasm.

Ackerman said that Charlotte has unintentionally provided the WNBA a test case for deviating from the league's plan to have teams only in NBA cities. With the Sting staying -- at least for this season -- after the Hornets' departure for New Orleans, a precedent may be set.

San Antonio and Oakland are the two cities next in line for expansion teams, Ackerman said. It would be good to see teams in Hartford, Conn., and Memphis or Nashville, whether by expansion or relocation. However, it would probably be best if the league doesn't get bigger than 20 teams anytime in the near future.

The WNBA seems to have managed its growth pretty well so far. Some complain about the short season. But there's something to be said for every game counting (which would still be the case if the WNBA eventually expands to as much as 40 games from the current 32).

Overall, the WNBA can start its sixth year feeling that a lot of progress was made in the first five. If it can address the late-arrival problem, that will be another big hurdle cleared.

Mechelle Voepel of the Kansas City Star is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. She can be reached at mvoepel@kcstar.com.