As League Becomes Better, Choices Getting Tougher

The regular season ends tonight, and what a season it has been.

Lisa Leslie threw down the league’s first dunk.

Seattle and Washington posted their first winning seasons and earned their first playoff berths.

The league’s talent level and competitive balance rose, thanks to a strong rookie class.

And because the talent is more evenly spread, some of the regular-season awards are tough to figure.

Only two of the awards, in this writer’s opinion, should be locks--the most valuable player and rookie of the year. Houston’s Sheryl Swoopes deserves to be the MVP, more so than Leslie, Washington’s Chamique Holdsclaw and Indiana’s Tamika Catchings.

Swoopes made a spectacular return after missing the 2001 season because of a knee injury. She ranks first among players in minutes played, is third in scoring average and third in steals.

Even though a surprising loss to Sacramento on Saturday may keep the Comets from being seeded No. 1 in the Western Conference, Swoopes was at her best in the showdowns against Los Angeles. Houston won the season series, 2-1, by winning both of the games on the Sparks’ floor. The first victory ended L.A.’s league-record 28-game home winning streak. The second made Houston the first team to beat L.A. twice at Staples Center.

Leslie, the reigning MVP, will lead the WNBA in rebounds and double-doubles. She became the first WNBA player to score 3,000 points, and won her third All-Star MVP award in four games.

But she had, by her standards, an up-and-down season. Her 16.7-point scoring average is eighth in the league and second best on the Sparks. With the Sparks having a more balanced offense, Leslie, the focal point, was held under 15 points in 13 games.

She was, at times, sapped by a virus that was never satisfactorily explained. And she was double-and triple-teamed whenever she got the ball. She still demands respect and attention.

She just didn’t have quite the impact this season that Swoopes did.

As for the top rookie, Catchings is the runaway choice. She also came back this season, after missing last year with a knee injury, and was not only the best rookie, she was one of the best players, period.

Catchings leads the league in points with 585, two more than Swoopes. She is second to Leslie in total rebounds. Most impressive, she got Indiana to the brink of the playoffs with much less talent around her than Swoopes, Leslie or Seattle’s Sue Bird, her closest comparison in this season’s rookie class.

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All-WNBA Team

Bird, who led the WNBA in assists, averaged 15.3 points and helped Seattle make the playoffs, has changed my thinking in one regard.

You can have two rookies on the All-WNBA first team. At least I will on mine.

I have Bird joining Swoopes, Leslie, Catchings and the Sparks’ Mwadi Mabika, who should be chosen as the league’s most improved player in a close vote over New York’s Tamika Whitmore.

My choices for the second team are Holdsclaw, Houston’s Tina Thompson, Seattle’s Lauren Jackson, Utah’s Marie Ferdinand and Orlando’s Shannon Johnson.

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Coach of the Year

Houston’s Van Chancellor and the Sparks’ Michael Cooper are certainly worthy. But they ought to win with the talent they have, and each has already won the award.

I liked Marianne Stanley, and Holdsclaw for MVP, when Washington jumped to a 15-6 start. But a late-season tailspin, coinciding with Holdsclaw’s injuries, cost Washington the regular-season Eastern Conference championship and has kept the Mystics in a tight battle with Charlotte for second.

That brings it back to other teams making breakthroughs.

Utah, which doesn’t get much attention in the Western Conference because of Houston and L.A., has set a franchise record for victories and will finish with the league’s third-best record. That speaks strongly for Coach Candi Harvey. Nell Fortner should receive consideration if Indiana squeaks in as the East’s fourth playoff team. But the Fever will do so with a .500 record.

Ultimately, I lean toward Seattle’s Lin Dunn, whose team also set a franchise record for wins and made the playoffs for the first time. It doesn’t hurt that the Storm also beat the Sparks twice this year.