06 July 2007
“Spaniards” in the WNBA
Spanish text by Norberto de la Mata for www.feb.es (Federación Española de Baloncesto)
Translation by Jenna McKenna for Hoops Nena
6/23/2007 Imagine a European league with Pau Gasol, Vince Carter or Paul Pierce. Well, the Liga Femenina has more than a dozen WNBA regulars, stars of the caliber of Delisha Milon or Becky Hammon, long-time players like Margo Dydek or Murriel Page, and the possible Rookie of the Year, Marta Fernández of Spain.
The WNBA is the most important women’s league in the world. The league plays in the summer and, taking advantage of their summers off, many players from our clubs make the leap to the American league. They all dream of arriving there and becoming champions. Nevertheless, only a few realize their dream of facing off against the best. Marta Fernández is the only Spaniard this year to play in the United States, although she plays alongside several players from teams in the Liga Femenina.
Many players from our league spend the summer in the U.S. The reason, unknown by many fans here, is that the summertime is when the WNBA plays. The fact that so many of our stars have landed in U.S. basketball squads demonstrates that the Liga Femenina is very strong, and that our men are not the only Spanish players to find a spot in American basketball.
The summer is the season of rest for athletes. Regardless, our male and female athletes don’t stop. All the national teams play international contests, and the best players from Liga Femenina take advantage of summer’s off to go to the U.S. and try their luck.
Some of the women don’t get to establish themselves over there, but the important thing for many of them is to try to fulfill their dream of playing with the biggest stars of the basketball world. They don’t care about losing their vacations; they are battling to achieve their goals, despite the fact that many of them have guaranteed contracts with some of the best clubs in Spain. Others manage to put together a string of summers with the same team, or with different WNBA teams. Such a player is Murriel Page, a player for Hondarríbia, who has nine years in the American league.
The list our our exports is neither short nor unimportants. From Americans like Delisha Milton-Jones of Ros Casares to Brazilians like Iziane Castro Marques of Hondarribia, they hustle like crazy to make a name for themselves in the story of a league as competetive as the WNBA. No less important are the European players who play in the WNBA, although this year only two participated: Poland’s Margo Dydek, from Ros Casares, and above all, Spain’s Marta Fernández, of F.C. Barcelona.
Marta, a star on the other side of the pond
Spain’s only representative this season is the Majorcan Marta Fernández who, at 25 years old, is having a triumphant year with the Los Angeles Sparks. Her record in our league is very important: Four times league championa and three times Queen’s Cup champion, two-time winner of the Spanish Supercup. Furthermore, she has earned two bronze medals with the Spanish National Team in the European Championships in Greece and Turkey, in 2003 and 2005, respectively.
Her statistics are nothing to sneeze at for her first year in the WNBA. She plays an average of 30.7 minutes per game with 10.6 points per game. Furthermore, her 42 percent field goal percentage reflects the number of points she scored as a guard in our league. In other offensive notes, Fernández averages 4.7 assists per game, and her defensive stats include 3 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 0.7 blocks.
The Majorcan is preceded by a list of seven players who have so far played for various teams in the WNBA. We’re speaking of Amaya Valdemora, who won two rings with the Houston Comets; Betty Cebrián and Marina Ferragut, who played for the New York Liberty; Elisa Aguilar played one season with the Utah Starzz, Begoña García, who played for the Detroit Shock, as did Isabel Sánchez. Meanwhile, Núria Martínez was selected in the 2004 draft by the Sacremento Monarchs and was later traded to the Minnesota Lynx.
Americans
The majority of players who go from our league to the professional American league are from the United States. The list is extensive and all are stars in their home clubs.
There are a total of 11 U.S. players that play in our league and who have decided to make it big in the American league. Ashley Battle and Brooke Wyckoff, both of Gran Canaria, have tried their luck in big city teams like New York and Chicago, respectively. Sandora Irvin of Estudiantes will spend the summer in the shade with Becky Hammon (of Rivas Futura) in San Antonio, where they’ll try to join the men’s team in seizing the league title for that Texas city. Kelly Schumacher of Barcelona is in Phoenix to try to wipe out the memory of the Suns’ NBA upset. Murriel Page of Hondarribia has become, albeit with lower numbers, the counterpart to “our” Marta on the Los Angeles Sparks. Sancho Lyttle of Puig d’en Valls plays for the Houston Comets, the team with which Amaya Valdemoro earned her championship ring. Delisha Milton-Jones of Ros Casares tries her luck in Washington. The team with the most players representing is Perfumerías Avenida with three: Nicole Ohlde, who plays for Minnesota, and Nicole Powell, who plays with Adrian Williams in Sacramento.
Furthermore, there are two Brazilians who, after the intense Spanish season, go to play in the WNBA with the hope of winning the title that is desired by all, although only a few will manage to put it in their trophy cases. We’re talking about Iziane Castro Marques, who has landed in the quarterfinals with both Hondarribia and Seattle, and about Erika Desouza, who went from being a champion with Ros Casares to join forces with Connecticut.
Source document: "Españolas" en la NBA Femenina
