| | Angered by what she described as only "a slight raise" from the $44,000 she was paid to play in her first season in the WNBA last year, Jennifer Azzi announced Tuesday that she is quitting the league.
"I worked really, really hard," said Azzi, a member of the gold medal-winning 1996 U.S. Olympic team who played for the Detroit Shock last year. "It takes huge motivation for
me to get into the gym and work out. I don't know what (league
officials) are thinking, what they want to do with me, whether they
value me or not.
|  | | Jennifer Azzi figured the team's leading scorer would be offered a better bump in pay. |
"Motivation is tied up somewhat in your salary. I can't
look at this as a summer job."
Azzi, a Stanford graduate who was one of the founding players of the defunct ABL, was the San Jose Lasers'
career leading scorer during the ABL's two-plus seasons, which
ended in December 1998.
ABL players absorbed into the rival
WNBA last season were limited by that league's union contract to no
more than $50,000 for the 1999 season.
Azzi led Detroit in scoring last season at 10.8 points per game, and
she led the league in 3-point field-goal accuracy at .517.
Part of her dissatisfaction with the league, she said, was having no
team in the Bay Area, where she has lived since she went to Stanford
from Oak Ridge, Tenn. Her Cardinal team won the NCAA
championship her senior year in 1990.
Playing in the Bay Area "certainly would be a nice incentive to
stay in the WNBA," she said. "It might have changed things. I don't
know."
Azzi, 31, said she is uncertain about her future but that playing in
Europe again is a possibility. Before the '96 Olympics spawned the ABL
and WNBA, she played one season in Italy, two in France and two in
Sweden. | |
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