The 10 All Time Leading Scorers in New York Liberty History

I feel in love with women's basketball during the 1996 Olympics, when Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes and Rebecca Lobo lead a team of former models, singers and business women to a gold model. This medal lead to the formation of the W.N.B.A., which began its 12th season earlier this summer.

As a fan from inception and the child of historians, I find it interesting how the short history of the league is being inscribed. In the league's tenth year, an "All Decade Team" was announced, presumably consisting of the top players from the league's first decade. The team included veteran superstars like Lisa Leslie and Tina Thompson, but omitted some great players from the league's early years like Jennifer Gilom and Natalie Williams. To add insult to injury, the "honorable mention" list included Diana Taurasi, who at the time had only played in the league for a little more than two years.


I have always wondered if the cumulative stats would justify or disprove the hype that surrounds some players and evades others. Wnba.com only contains cumulative stats for the league as a whole. It does not contain team specific cumulative stats, such as most total points as a member of team, etc. Thus, one sleepless night, I decided to scour the website and compile the stats independently. Thus far, I have compiled the stats for total points for the New York Liberty, the Phoenix Mercury, the Los Angeles Sparks, the Houston Comets and the Sacramento Monarchs, the only 5 teams from the league's initial season that still exist (the Utah Starzz became the San Antonio Silver Stars which still exist yet I was only able to find the Utah stats very recently).

Thus, I will start with my favorite team, the New York Liberty, who are having an amazing season. Players in bold still play for the Liberty, while those in italics still play in the league but not for New York. I have put the number of years the player was with the Liberty in parenthesis.


The Top 10 Point Totals as a Member of the New York Liberty are:

1. Vickie Johnson- 3,246 (9)
   
2. Becky Hammon- 2,367 (8)
   
3. Crystal Robinson- 2,301 (7)
   
4. Tari Phillips- 1,826 (5)
   
5. Shameka Christon- 1,703 (5)
6. Tamika Whitmore- 1,394 (5)
   
7. Teresa Weatherspoon- 1,247 (7)
   
8. Sophia Witherspoon- 1,091 (3)
   
9. Catherine Kraayeveld- 979 (4)
10. Elena Baranova- 960 (3)
    

Notable Players Not on List:

Liberty veterans Kym Hampton (838) and Sue Wicks (823) came up just short of making the list. Hampton only played in the league for three years. Wicks was a fan favorite for six years but never became a consistent scorer. Rebecca Lobo (715), who was the first player assigned to the team, was hampered by injuries during her four year stint with the Liberty. Finally, Ann Wauters (465), who is currently racking up points for the first place San Antonio Silver Stars, made a significant mark in just two years with New York.

Current Players Who Could Make the List in the Future :

Loree Moore (671 in 4 years) looks like she will continue to get significant minutes as the Liberty's starting point guard. Erin Thorn (652 in 6 years) just missed the list but hasn't played much this season and is probably nearing the end of her career. Janel McCarville (649 in 2 years) has rapidly become one of New York's biggest scorers and brightest stars. Finally, Tiffany Jackson (381 in 2 years) has vastly improved this season and could become a starter in the future.

Summer Obessions

Summer is here and Degrassi is no longer providing me with mindless entertainment. The season ended with a whimper and the spoilers/ information for next season (via the fabulous fanforum. com posters) sound pretty bleak. Lauren Collins (Paige), Shnae Grimes (Darcy) and others will move on to better things by the end of this season. Degrassi is continuing it's tradition of adding several new ( and presumably annoying) characters. For eternal optimists, Daniel Clark (Sean) is set to return.

I have turned to dumb reality shows to fill my days. A somewhat fun one is I Love Money on VH1. The show brings together wierdos from other sexist (Rock of Love), racist (Flavor of Love) and just plain wrong (I Love New York) VH1 cornerstones to compete in a contest that mimics a Real World/ Road Rules Challenge. My favorite, the dominatrix Nibblz, already got kicked off and www.bourgy.com/wordpress (who has the hookup on spoilers) claims that human horrors like Pumpkin and the Entertainer will be torturing us for several more weeks. I just can't seem to resist a poorly constructed reality competition....

Speaking of which, summer time means Big Brother, the show that makes Orwell's nightmare a reality, is back. The show is essentially Survivor minus the racist "tribal" setting, but the catch is that the Big Brother house can be viewed online 24/7 by those who dare (find the link on your own....I just can't endorse this). I only tried the "feeds" once and I long ago gave up watching the show, but I still enjoy following it through funny and well structured sites like www.hamsterwatch.com and bbdish.blogspot.com. My favorite is Renny but I don't think she has a chance in hell of winning.


I briefly followed the Emmy race but was turned off when nobody from Big Love, one of my favorite shows, was nominated. I'm still rooting for Christina Applegate, Alec Baldwin and others from 30 Rock and Samantha Who?, but I've turned my awards attention to the Oscars. I follow the race through the amazing thefilmexperience.net . The Oscars are months away but that doesn't ever stop film buffs from predicting stuff. All the buzz right now is about The Dark Knight, which I unfortunately have still not seen. I did however see Mama Mia! and am convinced that Meryl Streep should win every award under the sun for her marvelous turn in the film.

Ice melts during the summer so my obsession with figure skating usually cools off. I'm still blindly hoping that next season Alissa Czsiny can find a good shrink and realize her potential, while Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto can re-convince the judges that they are the best ice-dance team currently competing. Crazier things have happened right? Sigh.

And I haven't even mentioned my biggest summer obsession! That would be the Women's National Basketball League's 12th season, which just took a break for the rapidly approaching summer Olympics (a future obsession in the making). I'll post later about this. Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the summer!

Now THAT Is Comittment To Drag: 10 Quick Conclusions From "Owner of A Lonely Heart"

With that title, this episode would be about Marco. I have stated before that as a gay man, I find Marco offensive. I find him highly problematic, unrealistic and annoying. These folks live in Toronto. Why could Marco only find one other gay guy in his entire high school? Why did he allow said guy to treat him like shit?

Marco's storyline is completely dead now that Dylan is gone in Transylvania doing the time warp. So the writers took the natural next step: Marco needed to become a hustler. Except, Degrassi wouldn't even fully draw out that storyline, as cliche and trashy as that would be. We only got an episode about Marco being a selfish, materialistic asshole who almost fell into prostitution. He wasn't even considerate enough to actually become a prostitute for the viewer's amusement. What a jerk.

This episode was saved by the B plot. As abhorrent as their behavior has been in the past, I have come full circle with both Jay and Manny. Their current manifestations are fun and self-parodying. I think they are very cute together. It doesn't really matter that the circumstances under which they are dating are ridiculous because Jay and Manny always make ridiculous decisions. However, this episode was the last evidence we needed to confirm that Manny's parents both have brain defects. Why do they believe everything (let alone anything) Manny tells them? Manny and Jay are hot and I want more episodes with them and less with Mia or Marco.

With that, here's the top 10:

1. Marco and Ellie go to Toronto University! It felt good to confirm from someone outside of "The Core" that Marco and Ellie are in fact attending an actual institution of learning. I had never seen them in classes so I just assumed that Ellie had joined a cult and Marco was conning people into thinking he was in college.

2. Prostitutes and Ellie do not mix well. Devin and Ellie hated each other without even speaking. Weird. Maybe Devin hated Ellie because she obtained money so easily. Does "The Core" pay Ellie? That would make sleeping with her boss way more inappropriate! How is Ellie getting her money? Hmm, we'll look for clues in future episodes.

3. Ellie uses Facebook, not MyRoom. What up MySpace? Rupert Murdoch must hate Degrassi.

4. Jay is technically still not allowed on Degrassi school property. Also, his three favorite things are girls, fake commitment and free food. We probably already knew this but I love Jay.

5. Jay and Manny's dad are totally in love. There was crazy chemistry between these two. I feel a new slash fic couple emerging. Lets see- Jay and Joseph Santos. Will their annoying pairing name be Jaseph or Joy? I like Joy but its up to you, nonexistent readers!

6. Emma doesn't care that Manny likes Jay. Eh, why would she at this point? Her and Manny's friendships depends on them disregarding and forgiving almost everything the other person does so why bother getting mad in the first place?

7. Manny's dad won't let her date. I also like how Manny assumed her mother was implying she was pregnant when she asked "Is anything wrong?" Putting strict boundaries on Manny didn't stop her from getting pregnant. However, it did stop her from getting breast implants. We'll see how this goes.

8. Griffin is broke. I thought he worked for that club? Is that volunteer or an internship? Why the hell did he tell Jimmy he had connections in the music industry? What a fraud.

9. Eric is a journalist, watches TV, dabbles in Sudoku and likes Jazz. What a dream boat! What does Degrassi have against jazz? I know Miles Davis is totally less talented than Taking Back Sunday or Craig Manning but give Eric a break. He deserves way better than Marco.

10. Marco has a resume. We've never seen him work before. Please say it has "Degrassi School President" on it. That would be so funny. He also didn't know what a bus boy was and still gambles even though a whole episode last season was devoted to teaching him not to. He's not coming back next season right????

Next week: Darcy gets even crazier. See you then!

What? No Hemp Underwear? 10 Quick Conclusions From "Hungry Eyes"

I thought this episode was the best by far since Spinner got cancer. I'm going on memory from seeing it last week so I could be wrong, but I enjoyed it. I agree with anyone who says Emma is the most contradictory character on television but I can't help but love her. I feel in love with that crazy face in season 1, those huge braces in season 2 and that evil glare in season 4. However, since then its been pretty down hill for Emma. This episode was saved because it had a brief resurrection of the evil Emma from season 4 (I think we should give her another name like Jessica for Nikki on "Heroes". Emma totally has split personalities. I wanna call evil Emma Vicky (perhaps in homage to The Fairly Odd Parents) but I'm open to suggestions). It also had Emma protesting which is always fun.

The B plot yet again focused on Mia and Holly J. The more I see this season of Mia the more I like her and the more I see of Sav the more I am convinced that he is a completly useless addition to the cast. More times than not I could do without Holly J. as well. However, I liked seeing Mia's temptress side and am comforted by the fact that we wont have anymore episodes this season with Mia chasing Sav.

The Top 10:

1. Sav and Anya are in like with eachother. Horrible minds think alike.

2. Mia is good at badmitton! This marks, by my count, the fourth time that a Degrassi girl has been good at a sport other than cheerleading. Kendra (who is too distraught over Spinner's cancer and her adopted father's death to go to school anymore) was good at floor hockey, Manny was good at gynastics and Alex was good at lacross. Whereas almost every boy on Degrassi is supposidly good at basketball. Just saying....

3. Liberty doesn't have the attitude of a Purple Dragon girl. Shocker!

4. Darcy has totally given up on Spirit Squad. Where was she?

5. Emma flashed the school! This was a shocking moment! Even though the N (in thier quest to ruin every Degrassi episode through the promos) showed the clip several times beforehand I still didn't really expect Emma to do it. I thought there would be some catch. They saved it for the very end. It was exciting!

6. Ms. H. thinks Emma flashing the whole school was brave. Well, now we know where Peter learned to appreciate naked women.

7. Emma's "not the girl Sean left behind". Really? She's not a selfish and shallow manipulator? Nope, pretty sure she still is. Shes not predictable? Already knew that. Her character makes no sense. One week shes a self-righteous activist, the next week shes a corporate spokesmodel.

8. Infiltrating is not an effective method of protest. Purple Dragons and the school are still doing buisness. I don't think Emma has actually ever had a sucessful protest. To my knowledge, the caf still has genetically modified food and people are still using toilet seats. Well, she means well.

9. Damien might like Emma. I'm still not convinced. I think Damien's headed for a romantic alliance with someone else who disliked him last year: Liberty. I hope Emma and Liberty throw down for Damien's love. Emma is scrappy in a fight (she usually uses lockers as a battering ramp; remember her rumble with Alex and when she pushed Peter?) but Liberty is a computer and might malfunction and electrocute Emma. To Degrassi's credit, they did have a male catfight over a girl ( when Craig and Spinner jousted for Manny) so I wouldn't feel bad about how sexist it would be if Liberty and Emma did infact fight over someone as lame as Damien.

10. Mia and Holly J. need men, not boys. Hmm, good luck ladies. Joey's dead, Mr. O got fired and Snake is taken. Toby is a senoir. I think thats the best we got for ya.

Sorry this was late! Did you guys like it as much as I did? Were you guys as thrilled as I was when Emma got all evil and started kissing Damien, wearing high heels and promoting energy drinks like it was her job? Something about an evil blonde former activist appeals to me. Let me know and I'll see you next week!

Team Fun Kids!: 10 Quick Conclusions From "Pass the Dutchie"

What a great song! The lead singer of the band that recorded this song was very young at the time of its' release. Thus, I think Degrassi should have given the pot storyline to someone younger than Spinner, like say, Mia's daughter. That would totally go there!

Although I didn't dislike this episode, I felt that it feel short of all the hype around it. Spinner smokes pot! Spinner and Darcy back together! It just looked a lot more exciting that it actually was. I think it was ultimately a filler episode. It served to remind us that Spinner has cancer, Paige exists and Darcy is crazy. It was funny to see the amazing actor that is Shane Kippel attempt to play stoned but other than that not much happened. At least Spinner and that girl who looks like early Ellie are finally oficially dating (as denoted by that smooch). Breakups and hookups have been developing slow as molasis this season. Didn't it take Spinner and Darcy about 2 episodes to start dating in Season 5?

I love Paige and her NOT CHEAP shoes but I agree with the consensus (at least on the tv.com forum which is the only Degrassi thing other than Boycott the Caf I frequent) that her storyline this season is lacking in interest. Since when is Paige plucky? I didn't really like Ugly Betty or Devil Wears Prada the first time so I don't really need to see Lauren Collin's America Ferrera impression.

My 10:

1. Jay still has the hookup for drugs and general debauchery. Thank god! Without Jay to get them in trouble Degrassi's A crowd would be hopelessly boring.

2. Andrea likes her lattes heated to exactly 90 degrees. or was it cooled? I should know my caffinated drinks. Does cooled to 90 degrees make sense? Anyway, that woman Andrea was in the episode.

3. Black and white print makes models look less severe. Count on Paige for obscure and probably untrue fashion tips.

4. Andrea's former assistant, who I think was named Jessie but maybe I just think every white male not in high school on the show is named Jessie, got promoted to something else (photo editor?) after 4 years. It was funny to me that when Paige called out this guy was just demoted back to doing his old job again. Guess that promotion wasn't as great as Paige made it sound.

5. Darcy is crazy. I must admit I loved Darcy in this episode. She's oficially this year's hot mess. Every year Degrassi ruins the life of one female character and the character preceeds to go crazy (which seems to mean becoming permiscious and solemn). I would say examples would be Emma in season 4, Manny in season 5 and Paige in season 6 but I'm open to other opinions. However I think we all would agree that Degrassi is very dependent on the concept of the "fallen woman" and Darcy is that girl this year.

6. Ms. H. has had other students who have gone through chemotherapy. So for the record, Degrassi has now had multiple students who have been killed, contracted STDs, gotten pregnant and had cancer. The school is cursed.

7. Ms. Kwan is still stuck teaching Spinner english. Poor woman. She must be on medication now because she handled Spinner vomiting in class like a pro. She just sent him to the nurse and got a mop. A little whining but no tears. If you haven't seen the episode where a 13 year old Spinner eggs Ms. Kwan's car watch it ASAP. It's strangely captivating.

8. Darcy doesn't care about spirit squad anymore. And she has the balls to admit it! The leader of Spirit Squad always becomes uninterested and unmotivated and defers all the work to Manny only to take the credit from her later. After she established the team, Paige promptly gave up caring about the team. Darcy hasn't cared about Spirit Squad in a long time. She didn't show up to last week's badmitton tournament and last year she just used the squad as a way to persecute Mia and socialize with Peter. Manny is the only one who truly cares about Spirit Squad but she is destined never to be queen of the squad because of her soft-core porn tape from season 5. This is the convoluted logic that relegates Degrassi clubs.

9. Peter's father belongs to a yacht club. He would right?

10. Spinner's cancer medication makes him groggy and loppy. Poor guy. I wonder if taking his ridiline again would help? Or did Jimmy steal it permanently? If you havent seen that episode, its a must-watch as well. Jimmy goes nuts and attacks Sean. Those were the days.

Next Week: Marco is so bored and broke he starts having sex for money. Guess that rabbit wasn't entertaining enough for him. Is Degrassi horrible enough to actually persue the male escort storyline? Are they lewd enough to actually give the one gay character aids? We'll find out. Also, Jay and Manny are getting engaged, even though the show hasn't even had them date yet. To which I say thank god! We are still waiting for Emma and Sean, Peter and Darcy and Jimmy and Ashley to break up. It took two episodes for Mia to realize Sav was a loser. I'm all for speeding up the progression of relationships. Plus, when have Manny and Jay ever made a unrushed decision?

Till next time! I'll try to post a review for "Hungry Eyes" as well. And remember, life is a prison!

Have A Bunch of Sex: 10 Quick Conclusions From Tonight's "Degrassi" Episode

It's back and stupid as it ever was!!!!:

Link: http://www.the-n.com/ntv/shows/index.php?id=67

The B plot was dumb as hell. You got it within the first two seconds: Mia=nice; Holly J=Satan; Anya=Pushover. Anya is so not the new Hazel. Hazel would've revealed that Holly J has a private tutor as well as a tapeworm (theres your reason for why Holly J's always eating off of other's trays) and then apologized a second later. Only good thing about the subplot: This was the first episode where I didnt think Holly J was terrible. I actually found it enjoyable to watch her make fun of her idiotic peers; I loved when she called Derek ugly.

The Ellie plot was decent. It was typical latter-day Degrassi in that nothing really happened. If Ellie had conveyed to Caitlin that Jessie was her boyfriend as soon as she saw them making babies a lot of the episode's problems would have been resolved. It was also rediculous that Ellie considered staying with Jessie.

However, overall I found it mildly enjoyable and there was nothing that transpired that totally offended me. With that, here are the top 10 things I deduced from this episode:

1. Ellie's alcoholism will be adressed in a future episode.

2. Paige will hook up with Griffin. Degrassi always drops dumb hints to make us feel like even bigger losers for watching the show so religiously. Paige's "Griffin's stupid party" comment should not be read as a throaway. I guess Paige and Griffin will have a relationship of the opposites attract variety.

3. Engineering students know how to party! They werent even using coasters! Craaazy.

4. Mia and Holly J are still sharing a locker. This doesn't really make sense because A) just a few episodes ago Mia kicked Holly J out of her locker and B) why wouldnt Holly J just order Anya to share her locker? Anya had all of the adjacent locker to herself.

5. Ambiguity concerning grades persist. Either Anya, Holly J and Mia are all Juniors or Derek (and thus Danny) are actually Sophmores. Or perhaps Derek is just really bad at Science and is in a 10th grade Science class. Its doubtful Anya, Holly J and Mia would be a year ahead in Science since they are all dumbasses. If Derek is indeed behind in Science, I dont think his prospects for graduating on time are high. He sucks at history as we found out in that excruciating episode from last year. Its hard enough to graduate from Degrassi on time even if you do well in your classes. Your likely to get shot or go to London. Derek better be getting super high marks in Media Immersion.

6. Anya has dislexia (Everytime I hear her name I think of the Korean character from Arrested Developement).

7. Ellie and Jessie broke up. Yay! Now she can date......Marco? Add an eligable bachelor Degrassi!

8. Ellie has the potential to be a great journalist. I think this is mostly because journalism doesn't particularly emphasize good posture. Even when she wasn't drunk, Ellie did a lot of wierd flailing and stumbling in this episode.

9. The actor who plays Sav IS the next Hazel. Was he just too busy to show up or do the producers hate him? Holly J kept inviting Anya to events that Sav was hosting. Why didnt they just have Sav walk by and invite them himself? This would've better conveyed the point that Anya is shallow and puts up with Holly J's shit in order to maintain her popularity.

10. Caitlin is still famous. I guess her world tour on AIDs was a sucess. She didn't seem to mind that Joey is dead.

P.S. This episode also maintained the pretense of Degrassi taking place on a planet where one drink gets you drunk.

Next week looks interesting. Emma isnt predictable. She makes no sense. And why doesnt she just remind them all of the time she got ghonorrhea? Nobody saw that coming. Also, she hasn't protested or eaten tofurkey in years. It's one of the episodes I'm excited about so I'll probably see yall next week for another recap. Peace