Indiana @ Chicago, Minnesota @ Seattle (Game 1)

I found this old article from John Altavilla.  It reads:

Meadors was an assistant with Doug Bruno and Sun assistant coach Jen Gillom. She is currently not working but is still being paid by the Dream, who fired her late last season.

 The Dream initially extended her contract in 2011 to the end of the 2013 season.  This means that Meadors can now return to coaching in 2014, if she wants to.  The question is, does she want to ?  Meadors is now 70 years old, and most people are thinking about retirement at that age.  I'd like to see her back in the league at some capacity, but we'll probably never see her in Atlanta again as long as either Angel McCoughtry or the current ownership are still there.

(* * *)

 I got a call from an old basketball friend last night, where we talked about the woeful state of the Dream.

* Le'coe Willingham's contract extends to the end of the 2014 season.  So Senor Fred's only hope is to trade Willingham.  However, now that the rest of the league has seen her play, that might not be possible.  The only other option might be to hide her at the bottom of the bench until we make a trade where the price of the trade is taking Willingham, too.

* I agreed with him that the Dream are sort of doomed.  His west coast friend swears up and down that the Dream are going to be relocated to California the second that Brock and Loeffler get tired of running the team.  His friend's claim is that the Dream will move to Oakland and the Minnesota Lynx will be shuffled over to the Eastern Conference.

Indeed, there are lots of people out there - a surprising number - that are not only willing but eager to ax Atlanta's franchise.  The logic is that since the team doesn't draw, it must be moved.

The only kernel of real logic there is that empty arenas look bad on TV.  But Atlanta suffers from a great deal of woes that only time can overcome:

1.  It's a town of transplants, and many transplants have an attachment to the teams where they grew up.
2.  Towns like New York, Boston, Chicago have had pro sports for over a century.  So they have thriving sports cultures.  But pro sports didn't give a damn about Atlanta at all until the 1960s or so. 

Braves: 1966
Falcons: 1966
Hawks:  1968

That's not even fifty years, people.

3.  We don't own the arena.  That's a big one.  Teams like New York, Phoenix, Minnesota are owned by the NBA owner, so they own the arena.  Our owners don't.  They have to lease it.  I'll also bet money that the Dream don't get a slice either of parking or of concessions.  Every dollar you have to spend on necessities is one that you can't spend on promotion.

But until the Dream truly are doomed, I'm hanging on.  I know they'll be around at least until the end of 2014.  And as the proverb says, "Maybe the donkey will speak Hebrew."

(* * *)

Watched most of Indiana @ Chicago and part of Minnesota @ Seattle.  The latter one can be ignored, the only question was not if the Lynx would win, but when.  Seattle is now off to the Tacoma Dome on Sunday where they'll probably end their season.

Indiana vs. Chicago was surprising.  Looks like Katie Douglas is hurt again.  Even so, Indiana turned on the intensity and just showed the Sky what playoff basketball looks like.  Chicago kept trying to high-lo the ball into the interior and the Fever just weren't having it.  Game Two at Indiana is going to be very interesting; what is the WNBA going to do if the Eastern Conference Finals are Indiana vs. Washington?

WNBA and ESPN officials would love to see Chicago vs. Phoenix in the Finals.  That's the difference between Three to See and Nothing to See Here.