The WNBA 2008 Draft will take place Wednesday as the Los Angeles Sparks have the top pick. This is the 12th annual draft for the WNBA.
The three-round draft begins at noon from Innisbrook Resort & Golf Club in Palm Harbor, Fla. The first round of the draft will be televised by ESPN2 with continued coverage of the second and third rounds moving to ESPNU and NBA TV.
Tennessee's Candace Parker is expected to be taken as the top pick by the Sparks, according to mock drafts. Parker, the 6-foot-4 phenom Lady Vols forward, surprised many by forgoing her fourth year of eligibility to enter the WNBA draft.
Unlike in the NBA, players can only enter the WNBA draft four years after they graduated high school. Parker redshirted her freshman year due to injury and played the last three years for Tennessee.
Stanford guard Candice Wiggins and LSU forward Sylvia Fowles are expected to be picked in the top five.
Parker and Wiggins battled Tuesday night in the NCAA Championship Game as Parker won her second consecutive title for the Lady Vols.
The Minnesota Lynx, Detroit Shock, and Houston Comets round out the top five in the first round, which has just 14 selections. The entire draft has three rounds and 43 selections altogether.
Maryland's Crystal Langhorne, Georgia's Tasha Humphrey, UNC's Erlana Larkins and Rutgers' Matee Ajavon are expected to be amongst the first players selected, according to mock drafts.
Source: By Trans World News
Blog Reactions to WNBA 2008 Draft
Here is what The Arena reports on 2008 WNBA Draft
Maybe the strangest thing about women’s basketball at the highest level is that the WNBA Draft is one day after the NCAA Championship Game. (I said maybe.)
Because just one other guy is doing this, and he’s not allowed to be funny, here’s your 2008 WNBA Draft live blog.
With the first pick, the Los Angeles Sparks pick Candace Parker, from the University of Tennessee.
“I just felt like as a player and also as a person, I was ready for the big jump,” she says in talking to Rebecca Lobo, who is eye-level with the future Mrs. Shelden Williams.
I wrote my piece on the world’s second best CP3 (Chris Paul, with all apologies, is first) here, but, hey, I’ll big up her anytime.
Fun synthy music takes ESPN2ers to commercial, but I’m online here, so I get the dulcet tones of one Pam Ward. Nice.
The second pick is the Chicago Sky’s, and they take Sylvia Fowles from LSU. She brings size, apparently, and started playing basketball in eighth grade, which means that she has “upside.” Okay. I believe you.
When asked who the best player in college basketball was last week, Fowles said, “Me.” So the WNBA isn’t all that different…
Stanford’s Candice Wiggins goes to the Minnesota Lynx at #3, and the Wade Trophy winner is immediately subject to intense scrutiny from ESPN’s talking heads, who all have her going somewhere else, paired with a big, later in the draft. But at least this Minnesota team actually picked someone.
Alexis Hornbuckle goes fourth to the Detroit Shock, and the ex-Lady Vol is called a “quintessential Bill Laimbeer player.” So I feel for you, WNBAers on the other end of the soon-to-be patented Hornbuckler.
“It’s about to get hard,” someone says in the commercial break. “Harder,” someone else adds. Then, even better: “I’m having a flash!”
This is the best draft EVER!
Matee Ajavon from Rutgers, maybe the best non-Final Four team this year, goes to Houston in the five hole.
And, considering that’s a hockey reference, no one gets it.
“Finishing ability” is “at a premium,” which now makes it equal to “scoring the ball.” You know what else is at a premium? Gas.
At #6, the Washington Mystics pick Crystal Langhorne, who walks to the stage to the strains of “Beautiful Day.” She led the NCAA in field-goal percentage the last three seasons, and I promise that’s the last time you’ll read a stat here.
I’m all about the superficial, like Langhorne’s supposed lack of size. The woman is 6′2″, folks, and she’s being attacked for her lack of size. Somewhere, Margo Dydek nods knowingly.
Essence Carson will be joining the New York Liberty, who take the Rutgers scorer at #7. Somewhere, Don Imus counts money.
Lobo’s back, talking to Carson, who now has flowers. FLOWERS! The WNBA has yet to spring for a hat for any of these players, but Essence Carson has flowers. Good to know.
Now we actually go to commercial for the first time, with the adidas “Brotherhood” spot. Way to represent the sisters, adidas.
James Madison’s Tamara Young will go to the Atlanta Dream with the eighth pick, and she strolls to the stage to Stanley Pringle’s theme song, The Caesars’ “Jerk It Out.”
The Atlanta Dream is a fantastic name for a team, finally filling the Abstract Concepts Trinity with the Chicago Sky and the Connecticut Sun, who are up next at pick number nine.
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