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| | Tuesday, July 18 Luminaries few among All-Star crowd | |||||
| Associated Press PHOENIX -- Attendance in the 19,023-seat America West Arena was 17,717, including Mike Tyson, who bought a residence in Phoenix in 1998. A handful of NBA players also were on hand, the most notable being point guards Jason Kidd of Phoenix and Gary Payton of Seattle. But the event was celebrity-shy compared with last year's game in New York, which attracted luminaries like Spike Lee, Tyra Banks, Liza Minnelli, Tom Brokaw and Queen Latifah. Whitney Houston sang the national anthem in Madison Square Garden. In Phoenix that honor went to R&B singer Kelly Price, who has collaborated with Houston and has an album ranked 12th on the Billboard Top 100. Singer Joan Jett attended both games, but the 2000 contest was an All-Star first for actress Lori Petty, who played Geena Davis' little sister in "A League of Their Own." ASU on the run to set a record The Arizona State women's basketball program took advantage of the festivities surrounding the WNBA All-Star game to announce that their Dec. 27 game against Tennessee will be held in Bank One Ballpark in an attempt to break the NCAA women's basketball attendance record. "It's been in the works for two years, and I've been selling this game for two years," Arizona State coach Charli Turner Thorne said at a news conference. "There is no downside to this event." She said the baseball stadium's retractable roof would be open unless rain was falling. The 49,000-seat ballpark can be configured to seat at least 30,000 for basketball. The women's record is 24,597 for Connecticut at Tennessee on Jan. 3, 1998. The game was held at Thompson-Bolling Arena in Knoxville. Tenn., which has played host to nine of the 10 largest crowds for a college women's game. "We have a very big arena here," Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said by phone, "but we're very excited to be part of this game." The Sun Devils were 14-15 last season, but Turner Thorne said the addition of three transfers who will be eligible this season should help her team make a game of it against Tennessee, which was 33-4 and lost to Connecticut in the NCAA championship game. Proceeds from the Dec. 27 game will benefit breast cancer research. AstraZeneca, which makes the drug Nolvadex, is the title sponsor. Injury keeps Cooper on sideline Cynthia Cooper of the Houston Comets, the WNBA's MVP in 1997 and 1998, wasn't able to start the All-Star game after spraining her right ankle in the next-to-last game before the break. Comets coach Val Chancellor chose Minnesota Lynx small forward Katie Smith, the league's No. 2 scorer at 20.5 points per game, to start at Cooper's off-guard position. Smith was one of six Western Conference All-Stars picked by coaches after fans voted for the starters. Cooper, 37, plans to retire after this season. And next year? The league hasn't decided where to stage the 2001 All-Star game. Commissioner Val Ackerman said her staff is considering other sites with strong fan support. The inaugural 1999 game was held in New York's Madison Square Garden, and Phoenix got this game because of its strong fan base. "Probably sometime within the next couple of months we're going to make the announcement," Ackerman said. Stanford a WNBA factory Thirteen of the 133 women on WNBA rosters who attended college in the United States went to Stanford. Florida and Tennessee are next, with eight each. Louisiana Tech has seven alumni in the league, while Connecticut, North Carolina State and Southern California have six apiece. The Southeastern Conference is the top league with 35 players, while the Pac-10, with more than half its 25 players from Stanford, is next. | ||||||