PHOENIX — It was the play the 4,021 in attendance at US Airways Center on Sunday hoped to see.
The Mercury’s No. 1 overall pick, Brittney Griner, ran down the court on a fast break and into an open lane, took a pass from Diana Taurasi and soared toward the basket for the dunk.
Sunday’s 87-64 preseason win over the Japanese national team at US Airways Center wasn’t the last chance for the Mercury players on the fringe of a roster spot to prove their worth.
But it was still a big opportunity as preseason training camp winds down this week.
He was compelled to write a note. To show his appreciation. His excitement.
When Mercury General Manager and coach Corey Gaines saw point guard Samantha Prahalis last month when she reported to the team, he saw a different person. When he witnessed her play in informal workouts, he saw a better player. A more dedicated one.
The “skyhook” helped basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar score 38,387 points, the most in NBA history. It’s a move the Mercury’s 6-foot-8 rookie Brittney Griner hopes to learn.
That process started on Wednesday. Abdul-Jabbar was on hand then to watch Griner and the Mercury practice at US Airways Center. After talking to the team and answering questions, he had a 15-minute 1-on-1 session with Griner; an introductory course to the iconic skyhook.
TUCSON — It was a historic game. A historic matchup. And a historic win.
With two goals in the last seven minutes of the match, adult amateur club FC Tucson came back to beat favored, professional team Phoenix FC 2-1 on Tuesday night in the first round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in front of 910 at Kino Sports Complex North Grandstand.
For the first time in Arizona prep softball history, a team in the sport’s highest division has won four state championships in a row.
Photos: Arizona high school softball – 2013
The setup was perfect. Brittney Griner screened Diana Taurasi’s defender outside the lane then rolled to the basket.
The pass was on point. Taurasi tossed the ball right to Griner, who has an open lane for an easy basket.
Three-time defending champion Mesa Red Mountain is playing in the Division I softball tournament title game and Peoria Sunrise Mountain is playing in its second straight Division II championship game. In other news, you can read.
This was expected of two of the better teams in the state. But what wasn’t expected, are the teams they’ll be facing Monday at ASU’s Farrington Stadium in Tempe. Scottsdale Chaparral (Division I) and Tucson Ironwood Ride (Division II) surprised many in advancing this far into their respective tournaments.
The spotlight was hers and hers alone.
Was.
Some of the muscles, she didn’t even know existed. But they hurt when she woke up.
Brittney Griner ooh’ed and ah’ed in a painful tone when she erected herself off of bed Tuesday morning. But she got up with no remorse; no desire to lay her head back to rest.
It was 6 a.m. and Brittney Griner was already awake, three hours earlier than usual. She was just too eager to end her publicity tour and get to the reason why she was traveling the country in the first place.
Her initial practice with the Mercury, though, was still four hours away. “So I kind of just sat on the couch and watched the network where they sell you stuff,” Griner said on Monday after the Mercury opened training camp. “I don’t know. I was so bored.”
For Oro Valley Canyon del Oro, Saturday’s Division II tournament elimination game was a chance to make a statement.
A proclamation that the Division II defending champions are far from done.
Confidence can get you far in your journey. But it can’t take you through to the end.
For much of Friday night, Phoenix FC played like a team on a two-match unbeaten streak hungry for the expansion franchise’s first ever winning streak at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium.
Even as the top seed in the Division I softball tournament, Glendale Mountain Ridge didn’t get any respect.
It wasn’t the popular pick to win the state championship. That notoriety was given to Mountain Ridge’s opponent Wednesday in the third round of the tournament, eighth-seeded Phoenix Horizon.
The number of innings also matched the number of story lines.
Saturday’s Division I softball state tournament first-round game between No. 17 Gilbert Perry and No. 16 host Tempe Corona del Sol goes deeper than the 12 innings played.
He has wings on his back.
The feathers are drawn from the top of his shoulders down to the end of his torso. But Benson Henderson, the reigning UFC lightweight champion, hasn’t had to use them yet. Everything else in his arsenal has been enough.
It’s official. After months of refusing to acknowledge what everyone else already knew, the Mercury selected 6-foot-8 Baylor center Brittney Griner with the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft on Monday as expected.
“Now I can say her name: Brittney Griner,” Mercury General Manager and coach Corey Gaines said. “She’s definitely going to be a player that changes the game as we know it today. I’ve been talking to her and texting her. She’s definitely excited and nervous. She wants to work. She wants to learn.”
Darren Mackie has played just 28 minutes total on U.S. soil. And yet, the Phoenix FC forward may already be the most popular player in the entire USL PRO league.
Mackie, 31, earned a large fan following during his 13 seasons at Aberdeen FC, his hometown club, in the Scottish Premier League. Three fake Twitter accounts have been created in his name. Two Facebook pages have been dedicated to him — “We are All Darren Mackie” and “Messi wears the No. 10 shirt in awe of Darren Mackie.”
The Mercury are going to draft Brittney Griner on Monday.
Team officials won’t say it on record until they make the selection official at the WNBA draft in front of a nationwide primetime TV audience, but let’s not kid ourselves. Griner, Baylor’s 6-foot-8 phenomenon, is unlike any player before her.
None of the scores were close. But that’s not what they were here for.
Phoenix Xavier Prep swept Fountain Hills in the state sand volleyball championship Wednesday at Victory Lanes Sports Park in Glendale, repeating as champions in the “emerging sport” that is two years in. But the state title wasn’t as important as helping the sport grow at the high school level.
Sunday night was a lesson. A welcome-to-USL-PRO-and-back-to-earth moment for Phoenix FC.
The expansion USL PRO club was hosting the league’s best team on a night that isn’t attendance friendly.
The grass is still green. The ball, still round. And the game, still beautiful.
But Phoenix FC’s three Brazilian players came to the U.S. for something different. Another adventure. A new challenge.
A raucous sold-out home crowd. A spectacular goal. The first win.
It could not have gone any better for Phoenix FC last Saturday in its first ever home match, a 1-0 victory over VSI Tampa Bay FC at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium. Even Phoenix FC coach David Robertson, who played several years at the highest level with Scottish powerhouse club Rangers FC, couldn’t help but admire the moment.
The blast that erupted the crowd wasn’t the pre-match fireworks. It was the 22-yard screamer that lifted off from Phoenix FC midfielder Netinho’s right foot and into the back of the net.
It was Phoenix FC’s first ever goal in its first ever home match for its first ever win. The Phoenix FC Wolves held on 1-0 over the VSI Tampa Bay FC Flames in a match between two expansion teams in the USL PRO league and in front of a sell-out crowd of 4,198 at an expanded Sun Devil Soccer Stadium on Saturday night.
When that first touch caresses the ball and thousands erupt to signal the beginning of professional soccer in the Valley, it will mean more than just a dawning of something new.
It will be about revival.
