You can listen online here:
http://www.klup.com

Becky Hammon became a Russian citizen and played for the Russia at the 2008 Olympics and last year’s EuroBasket Women in Latvia.

Russia are second in the FIBA World Rankings for Women.

** Reports in Russia are that Spartak’s General Manager Steve Costalas is still saying that Prince will be the starting point guard for the Russian National team.

“We are a much better team than we were earlier in the year,” said Silver Stars coach Sandy Brondello, whose team’s last four losses have been by an average of 4.8 points per game. “I said to the girls at the start, ‘I feel good about tonight. I’m tired of losing close games’… we found the right combinations tonight and came away with the hard fought win.”

Hammon moved away from her usual point guard role to shooting guard after halftime. After missing her only two shots in the first half, the six-time WNBA All-Star credited that switch with helping her be more assertive on the offensive end.

“I got a little bit more aggressive going to the basket and got myself to the free throw line,” said Hammon, who was 4 for 6 from the field and made all six of her free throws in the second half. “A lot of times that’s all you need, to see the ball going in the basket.”

Monique Currie scored seven of her 22 points in the second half for the Mystics (13-10), who have lost three straight and five of six since the All-Star break.

“It’s tough to lose at home, especially a game where you really felt like we had a chance to win,” Currie said. “We just have to continue to fight and be ready to play tomorrow night.”

After being in a first-place tie last week in the tight Eastern Conference, Washington fell into a third-place tie with Connecticut, three games behind the Indiana.

In a back and forth final quarter with five lead changes and three ties, the Silver Stars broke a 69-all tie on Holdsclaw’s layup with 1:35 remaining.

Two free throws from Jayne Appel pushed the lead to 75-71 with 57.1 seconds left. After Crystal Langhorne, who scored 18 points, hit two free throws for the Mystics, Young hit a tough foul line jumper to put the Silver Stars back up four.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/Hammon_seals_key_Silver_Stars_road_victory_99601159.html?c=y&page=1#storytop

Then it will be archived at http://www.wstrradio.com/dishn-n-swishn.htm

This is a Liberty Days Round Table and will include former Liberty players:

Teresa Weatherspoon
Crystal Robinson
Vickie Johnson
Kym Hampton
Rebecca Lobo
Sue Wicks
Becky Hammon

Becky Hammon has seen a lot during her 12 years in the WNBA. The San Antonio guard helped the Silver Stars and the New York Liberty reach the WNBA Finals and has represented the Eastern and Western Conference in seven All-Star appearances.

But Hammon says she has never seen a season like this.

The Seattle Storm have the league’s top record at 17-2. But the Minnesota Lynx (7-11), Phoenix Mercury (7-12), Silver Stars (6-11), Los Angeles Sparks (5-13), and Tulsa Shock (3-15) are a combined 34 games under .500.

“I’ve never seen so many teams with losing records have a shot at the playoffs,” Hammon says.

It’s decidedly different in the East. The Atlanta Dream, an expansion team two years ago, sit atop the standings at 14-6. The Washington Mystics, with top player Alana Beard out for the season after ankle surgery, are second at 12-6.

The defending conference champion Indiana Fever (11-7) got off to a slow start. Behind them are the Connecticut Sun (11-8), with rookie of the year contender Tina Charles, the Liberty (9-9) and Chicago Sky (9-11).

Indiana head coach Lin Dunn, whose team is one of two in the East to beat Seattle, has experience in both conferences. Dunn, who coached the Storm from 2000-02, says injuries and coaching changes have impacted the West.

“What the standings don’t reflect is just how many good players the West has lost for various reasons,” Dunn said. “The Sparks see Lisa Leslie retire and then Candace Parker gets hurt. The Lynx didn’t have Seimone Augustus for most of the first half and now they’ve lost Candice Wiggins to injury.

“The Silver Stars had a great veteran guard retire (Vickie Johnson), their starting center (Ann Wauters) is sitting out the season and another center (Ruth Riley) got injured. Not to mention, four of the six teams have new coaches.”

For many years, the West teams beat their counterparts when it counted, taking nine of 13 championships. The West also won the first six All-Star Games and seven of nine between the conferences.

This season, only one West team other than Seattle — the Lynx — has won more than one game against an East opponent. The five teams are a combined 6-28 against the East.

“The numbers don’t lie,” Hammon said. “The East has some great young players, like Sylvia Fowles in Chicago, Angel McCoughtry in Atlanta and Crystal Langhorne in Washington. They’ve really benefited from some high draft picks.”

Still, the Storm, who remain injury-free, are the favorites to win the title. If the playoffs started today, Seattle would have home-court advantage throughout, and the Storm are 10-0 at home.

“Seattle is very good,” Dunn says, “but whoever gets through to the Finals from the East is going to be prepared because it’s so tough every night. The East teams will definitely be battled-tested.”

(Webmaster’s Opinion & note to WNBA marketing & sales ::: if they had kids jersey’s she’s be #1)

The full list of the top sellers:

TOP 10 MOST POPULAR PLAYER JERSEYS:
1. Candace Parker – Los Angeles Sparks
2. Diana Taurasi – Phoenix Mercury
3. Lisa Leslie – Los Angeles Sparks
4. Becky Hammon – San Antonio Silver Stars
5. Janel McCarville – New York Liberty
6. Essence Carson – New York Liberty
7. Shameka Christon – New York Liberty*
8. Cappie Pondexter – New York Liberty
9. Sue Bird – Seattle Storm
10. Angel McCoughtry – Atlanta Dream

TOP 5 MOST POPULAR TEAM MERCHANDISE:
1. Los Angeles Sparks
2. Phoenix Mercury
3. San Antonio Silver Stars
4. Seattle Storm
5. New York Liberty

*Shameka Christon was traded to the Chicago Sky in March 2010.

Hammon, 33, is among five women nominated for ESPN’s annual sports award show in the category of best WNBA player. Others nominated include Tamika Catchings of Indiana, Lauren Jackson of Seattle, Candace Parker of Los Angeles and Diana Taurasi of Phoenix.

Last year, Hammon finished second in the league in scoring with 19.5 points per game and third in the league with five assists per game. Hammon was an undrafted rookie in 1999 and has played for New York Liberty and the Silver Stars in the WNBA. She also plays

professionally in Russia and was a key member of the 2008 Russian Olympic team that won a bronze medal.

Hammon was an All-American at Colorado State before entering the WNBA, and she played her high school basketball at Rapid City Stevens, where she earned South Dakota Miss Basketball and South Dakota Player of the Year Honors.

ESPY voting online, by phone and at Facebook began Thursday and runs through July 10, with fans deciding the winners in 37 categories. The winners will be announced during the show on July 14, televised live this year for the first time from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_a404d276-807a-11df-b4b7-001cc4c002e0.html

Becky Hammon added a season-best 21 points and a career-high 10 assists, and Sophia Young had 17 points for the Silver Stars (5-7), playing their first home game in 15 days.

Snow was 6 of 6 from the field in the first half and 7 of 8 overall. She added a career-best nine free throws and finished a point short of her career high.

“I feel like they don’t respect us in the post,” said Snow, whose role was amplified by an injury to her backup, Ruth Riley, at Phoenix last week. “Minnesota, to start the game, wasn’t even guarding us. We were wide open under the basket. That says a lot about what they think of you in the post.”

When the Lynx tried to clamp down around the basket in the second half, that opened things up for Hammon from the outside. She scored 17 points after halftime, including four 3-pointers.

“Michelle is extremely important to us, and we know that we want to get her active early and often,” Hammon said. “The more she gets touches early in the game, that’s just going to loosen up everybody else down the stretch.”

The Lynx entered the game with a three-game winning streak and hit their first three shots to take a 6-0 lead. But the Silver Stars scored the next nine points and led the rest of the way.

San Antonio took sole possession of second place in the Western Conference, a half-game ahead of Phoenix but six games behind Seattle. The Silver Stars, already 0-2 against the Storm this season, visit Seattle on Tuesday night.

“We knew we had to get better (defensively), and we got better in that,” said Silver Stars coach Sandy Brondello, whose team—the worst in the league in rebounding—had a 40-35 edge on the boards and held Minnesota to 38.5-percent shooting.

“My challenge is, can we do two games in a row? That’s the key now. We’ve won one game; there’s no need to jump around, ‘Hoorah!’ Seattle has dominated us in two games. Can we put our best game forward? We’ll see.”

Seimone Augustus led Minnesota (5-10) with 14 points on 6-of-20 shooting.

“We couldn’t put the ball in the hole,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. “That’s what it came down to, and those guys shot (52.8) percent. We couldn’t match that on the offensive end. Seimone Augustus is our go-to player, and she had some good opportunities. It just wasn’t her night.”

Both teams were short-handed. The Silver Stars were down to nine players after injuries to Riley (broken right pinkie) and Megan Frazee (left meniscus) in the past eight days. Minnesota was missing Candice Wiggins, out for the season after rupturing her left Achilles’ tendon Tuesday.