Here's what Cynthia Cooper had to say a month ago before the start of the WNBA season, her second as coach of the Phoenix Mercury:

		Thursday, June 27 No matter how good Cynthia Cooper was as a player, she was a very inexperienced coach. And regardless of the obstacles she might have encountered as a player, nothing could have prepared Cooper for the many demands of coaching. At this point in her life, Cooper was juggling a lot of responsibilities, from her marriage, the recent birth of her twins (June 15, with the help of a surrogate mother) and as coach of the Mercury. Add in personnel issues -- Brandy Reed's suspension, the pregnancy that kept Maria Stepanova from playing this season and a recent rift over playing time with forward Lisa Harrison, one of the team's best players -- and the timing must have been overwhelming. Travelling to road games also probably was a factor. The team had just returned from Los Angeles, and taking the babies on a five-game, 10-day road trip obviously isn't an ideal situation. I just think there comes a time when you have to make choices, and at this point, Cooper chose her family. Phoenix GM Seth Sulka and team president Bryan Colangelo are the only ones who can really tell us if Cooper was doing a good job. She was learning everyday, and trying to make herself a better coach. But that doesn't happen overnight. So where does this leave Phoenix? First of all, the Mercury, one of the WNBA's eight charter members, are one of the league's most successful teams. This franchise has a lot of tradition, and Phoenix's fan base is one of the greatest in basketball. Secondly, Phoenix is a good, talented team and a playoff contender. Sulka made some steals in the offseason, especially in adding Gordana Grubin, who's playing with tremendous confidence right now. Harrison, who didn't deserve to lose her starting spot, has been very consistent, and Jennifer Gillom is playing the best basketball she has played in some time. All the pieces are there for Phoenix, but perhaps the most important thing this team needs right now is a breather, a minute without any drama. At this point, replacing interim head coach Linda Sharp would only create more drama, so I hope they let her finish the season.

"I feel a lot more confident in what I want from my players. This is more of my team as opposed to me coaching someone else's players. We've brought in some new faces.''

And in regard to Brandy Reed, Cooper said, "The team welcomed her back. She's done everything I've asked her to do.''

Well, like we said, a whole, entire month has gone by, and all that has changed. No, it hasn't just changed, it has become the complete opposite.

Reed imploded again less than two weeks ago; in related developments, the earth continued to orbit the sun, water remained wet and dogs kept barking. Reed, from all accounts, appears to never have had a trouble-free season going all the way back to high school. Surely, somewhere there was a Brandy Reed pool going, and some of the entries had to be even earlier than June 18. That's how predictable it was that Reed would toss away yet another chance.

On June 15, the news had come that Cooper's twins, via surrogate mother, had arrived. Less than two weeks later, Cooper told her team about 90 minutes before game time that she was resigning, released a statement to the media, didn't have a press conference or answer questions, and flew home to Houston.

One might hazard a guess that Cooper realized twins are exactly twice as much work as one baby, which alone is exactly 1 million times more work than anything else on earth.

But babies don't show up overnight. And, considering these were surrogate babies, ummm ... how shall we put this ... that didn't happen by accident, did it? If it was planned, as one might presume, simple math would tell you the kids would be born a few weeks into the WNBA season. So there was time to prepare for all that.

But just say it's turned out the babies situation was harder to deal with than expected. If the reality of Cooper's departure was, as she stated, "I decided the best thing for me, my family and the organization as a whole was for me to step down,'' then why this drama-queen exit?

If you care about the players, why drop a bombshell on them right before a game? If you care about the organization, why quit on already-hectic NBA draft day? Cooper couldn't have waited a little while, given the team the news on an off day?

If Cooper really has some personal issues to attend to, she doesn't have to tell anybody the specifics. That's her business. But why not at least meet with media members and answer a few questions? The media following the Mercury deserved more consideration than that. When you blow off the media, you are by extension blowing off the fans. It's not like reporters ask questions just to satisfy their own curiosity.

You know, if the situation were really Cooper deciding, "Hey, I'm ticked because we lost by 23 to L.A., Lisa Harrison and I aren't exactly getting along, Brandy burned us again, Maria Stepanova's having a kid and missing the season, and my own kids are gonna need more attention,'' -- well, heck, that is pretty simple. There's plenty of reasons right there to just say, "For now, I'm not up to this,'' meet with the team, meet with the press and go take care of your other business.

But this has "fit of pique'' written on it whether that was Cooper's intention or not. If it were so simple, Cooper didn't have to make it appear to be so complicated and leave so many unanswered questions.

As Jeff Metcalfe, the astute reporter for the Arizona Republic wrote, "Nothing in the Mercury's six-year existence is ever simple, especially when it comes to coaches.''

Certainly not if those coaches are Cheryl Miller and Cooper, former teammates at Southern Cal who never appear in danger of bowling you over with their humility.

And there's really nothing wrong with an excess of confidence, most especially if you are a player. But, obviously, it has been suggested that Miller left in 2000 and Cooper this week because both were great players who couldn't deal with coaching players who weren't as talented as they were.

It's a popular theory in all sports, of course, but it obviously has its exceptions. Sometimes very good players do become very good coaches. Miller, from a record standpoint was a successful coach. In two seasons at her alma mater, she went 44-14. With the Mercury, she was 70-52.

	Cynthia Cooper, who was 19-23 in Phoenix, is back in Houston after retiring in 2000.

Cooper didn't give herself or us long enough to figure out what kind of coach she might be, finishing 19-23 in less than a season and a half.

Most successful coaches these days have to be great multi-taskers and know what to sweat and what to let pass. The don't have to be ego-less by any means, they just need to realize the times when they accomplish more by muting their egos. They can be motivated by emotion but cannot be dictated by it.

It's always been really hard to grasp Cooper's emotional wiring. She didn't know her father until she was 17, she has lost many people close to her. There are a lot of reasons why she can be self-absorbed and stubborn to the point of frustrating everyone around her.

And yet, like Miller, Cooper is also intelligent, funny, engaging, fascinating, enthusiastic and extremely talented. Both women can be very likable. Cooper, just from observation, seems to have the capacity to project more warmth toward strangers, especially children.

But both also can appear wholly insincere. Almost as if they are toying with people --swirling reality, fantasy and maybe even a measure of contempt in the air for fans and reporters to paw at futilely.

Of course, in a "long and winding road'' twist, the woman who coached both Miller and Cooper in the USC glory days, Linda Sharp, now takes over as interim coach of the Mercury. Her first stint was with the Sparks when the league began in 1997.

Somehow, Jennifer Gillom still has not decided, "I'm too old for all this malarkey.'' Keep on truckin', Grandmama. Harrison continues to throw in bursts of brilliance and the Mercury fans will keep giving their support.

Cooper is supposed to be co-chair of the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics, a board announced by Secretary of Education Rod Paige that will examine Title IX.

And even at age 39, Cooper would surprise no one with an unretirement and return to playing. The only thing that would be surprising is if this is the last we've heard from Cynthia Cooper on the basketball court or sidelines. No way. There's something more coming, even if we have no idea just what.

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