This article gives a nice analysis of what each team needs next season. Not in the article: the L.A. Sparks got the No. 1 pick. I still haven't heard who they're getting, but I'm guessing it'll be Candice Parker. And considering that Lisa Leslie will also be back in action next season, and the Sparks have some other strong players like Taj McWilliams-Franklin and Sidney Spencer, they could be quite a formidable team next season. Especially if Temeka Catchings can play more.

The Chicago Sky got the second pick.

In this article, IAAF head Lamine Diack called Marion Jones "one of the biggest frauds in sporting history." Jones admitted she was using steroids during the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, where she won three gold medals in track & field. The Olympic committee is currently considering stripping Jones of her medals.

First, I commend Jones for her honesty about using performance-enhancing drugs. That doesn't mean I condone what she did, but it's better than her making stupid excuses, like someone slipped steroids in her drink or needle-popped her at a party (excuses I've heard from other Olympic athletes who tested positive for steroids).

Second, I would like to point out that one of the greatest track & field stars in U.S. history, Florence Griffith-Joyner (a.k.a. FloJo) won three gold medals at the 1988 Olympics. Because of this accomplishment, she was dogged by rumors that she used performance-enhancing drugs. And while the Olympic committee didn't start mandatory drug testing until 1989, there was never any evidence in subsequent tests that she'd used steroids. Even when she died in 1998, there was speculation that her premature death was caused by steroid use (it wasn't -- the autopsy and coroner stated her cause of death as a congenital brain defect). Despite not being allowed to run post-mortem tests for human growth hormone on FloJo's body, authorities stated there was no indication of any past or present steroid or drug use.

What I'm getting at here is that any athlete who excels in their sport, breaks records, and dominates events at the Olympics is subject to this sort of speculation. We've gotten to the point where any amazing athletic performance is suspect -- we don't believe that some athletes naturally possess an unnatural talent and can do amazing things without the aid of steroids. And admitted steroid users like Ben Johnson and Marion Jones only make that worse (Johnson, it should be noted, tested positive for steroids at the same Olympics where FloJo won her three gold medals).

So not only does steroid use blacken the names of the athletes who use them, but it calls into question the integrity of every athlete who performs beyond anybody's expectations. This is one reason I am adamantly opposed to legalizing steroid use in any sport.

Connecticut Sun center Margo Dydek is pregnant with her first child and will not play for her Spanish team in the WNBA off-season. The article also mentions that her future in the WNBA is doubtful.

I'd hate to see Margo go (just watching the 7"2 player dwarf everybody else on the court is awesome), but I understand where she's coming from.

"The three-time defending champions beat Cuba 101-71 in the championship game of the FIBA Olympic qualifying tournament in Chile..."

I love getting comments on my articles and sharing enthusiasm with fellow b-ball fans (WOO HOO MERCURY!), but I think there's been a couple cases of mistaken identity on Yardbarker, as I've gotten a few comments and messages directed at Diana Taurasi.

Dee's blog, which is of course much better than mine, is here:

http://www.yardbarker.com/dianataurasi

I'm just a fan who posts a lot.

I am sad that Westhead is indeed leaving the Mercury, but it comes as no big surprise. Now the question is: who will the new coach be?

Phoenix Mercury player and WNBA finals MVP Cappie Pondexter has a new blog on wnba.com. She's posting pretty regularly thus far and giving updates on Team USA, etc. Check it out.

PANKRATION: WHEN WOMEN COULDN'T WATCH

Pankration is arguably the oldest comprehensive fighting system in history. It originated in ancient Greece, and combined wrestling, joint locks, chokes, throws, and strikes. It was the martial fighting system of the Spartans and Alexander the Great's Macedonian phalanx, as well as a competitive sport (introduced at the Greek Olympic games in 648 B.C.) that was believed to be hugely popular. Severe injuries were common in matches, which continued until one fighter submitted, was rendered unconscious, or killed. There were only two rules, both of which endure in mixed martial arts competitions today: no eye gouging, and no biting. Much of the ancient pankration system has been lost now, but there are modern variants based on the evidence that's been preserved.

Unlike in ancient Rome (which we must remember is younger than ancient Greece), where evidence has been discovered that there were female gladiators, women were forbidden from fighting in ancient Greece. The punishment for a woman caught even watching a fight was to be thrown from a cliff.

I'm glad things have changed; otherwise, I'd have been thrown off a hundred cliffs already. I love watched mixed martial arts competitions, even when the guys are rolling around on the floor for three minutes. As long as I see some strategy and action at some point -- somebody out to win the fight instead of trying to just not lose -- I'm happy. I love a hard storm of strikes, but I also appreciate the techniques of grappling and submission holds. And thankfully, in our modern world, women are welcomed as spectators at MMA events. Especially if they've got big, bouncy boobs.

But what about women...as competitors?

AND IN THIS CORNER, WEARING THE BLACK SPORTS BRA...

There are women MMA fighters. The best known female fighter is probably Gina Carano, whose most recent victory was over Tonya Evinger in a televised EliteXC "Uprising" match on Showtime a couple weeks ago. Carano (pictured way down below) is obviously hot, and that's obviously one of the reasons men like to watch her. She also happens to be a bad ass kick boxer with submission holds in her repertoire -- and that's the important part when it comes to fighting. She currently trains with Team Couture, alongside the man whom many consider to be the greatest UFC Champion of all-time, Randy "The Natural" Couture.

There's also kick boxer Lisa "The Black Widow" King; Olga Bakalopoulos, who's trained with both Bas Rutten and Marcos Ruas; and vale tudo fighter Debi Purcell, "the first woman to compete and win in King of the Cage." Purcell founded a Web site called fightergirls.net that list dozens more competitors. The female fighters are just as varied as the male fighters in terms of techniques, skill levels, and appearance. There are some women on fightergirls.net that look like body builders, others that look like swimsuit models, and some that look like straight-up street scrappers. The few women's MMA matches I've seen have been competitive and fun to watch, although not as brutal as some of the men's bouts I've seen.

BUT YOU DO NOT WANT TO MEET THESE WOMEN IN A DARK ALLEY

For the record, the most gruesome fight I've ever seen -- and I've seen hundreds -- was an FMW "exploding barbed wire" match between two women on May 5, 1996. It was Megumi Kudo vs. Combat Toyoda in Japan. The match lasted 24 minutes, and involved barbed wire ropes, tables rigged with C4 explosives, metal chairs, baseball bats wrapped in barbed wire, and a sickle. There was a lot of brawling and blood, and yes, it was real. There's a moment in the match when Toyoda takes the sickle and gouges it over Kudo's head, and you can hear the flesh tearing and see the chunks of scalp and hair being ripped away. Seriously. This match is violent as hell (which is why I'm posting the URL for the YouTube clip below; viewer discretion advised and all that):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBW-Nwxwqps

SO MY POINT IS...

Women have always faced adversity in male-dominated sports, but MMA is THE sport of sports when it comes to speed, strength, physicality, and injury. The match I went on a tangent about above was not an MMA match, but a Japanese pro wrestling event. In MMA competitions, nobody's allowed to brandish weapons or even eye gouge (and hair pulling's generally not allowed, either). MMA fighters must utilize skills and stamina, and earn their victories cleanly. It is very much a sport, and these fighters are athletes. They train just as hard as any boxer, if not harder. But these matches are highly physical -- people get bloodied, broken, bruised, knocked out, and choked out. So the big question is: do people want to see women doing that to each other? I've read some arguments to the effect that men will gladly watch two hot chicks duke it out, but I've also read complaints that the only prominent female MMA fighters are pretty, which makes audiences less likely to take the fight seriously.

I don't think female MMA fighters need cauliflower ears and broken noses to be taken seriously, but I personally don't care how they look as long as they give me a good fight.

We'll start with #10 and count down to the greatest follicle folly of 'em all. But you'll have to check the comments for pics of numbers 9-1.

10. Stefan Edberg: In 1990, Edberg showed the diversity of the not-quite-mullet 'do. Even if he couldn't get the back of his hair to grow longer, he managed to grow the Wimbledon trophy out of the top. Impressive.

Interesting article that addresses whether/how the WNBA finals and playing overseas will impact the U.S. Women's team. I don't agree that missing players who competed in the WNBA finals (the Mercury's Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter, the Shock's Swin Cash and Katie Smith) is hurting the US team. It's probably tiring for those players, because they're not getting a break at all, but the US team still defeated defending champs Australia quite decisively (bearing in mind that Australia's also been without Mercury players Penny Taylor and Belinda Snell, and WNBA MVP Lauren Jackson).

As for players spending their off-seasons overseas, playing for more money -- who can blame them? WNBA salaries are not lavish (I think they're shockingly small), and people have to make a living. Still, the human body can only play constant basketball for so long, and a few players have missed WNBA season games while recovering from injuries they received overseas (knock on wood for the ballers).

The argument in the article is that winter is the traditional training period for the US team, and many players are busy overseas, so this lack of team practice will affect performance. I don't agree with that, either. Every player on the US team is exceptional and knows how to play on a team, many already play or have played on teams together.

I think the possibility that the players may be (or get) worn out is the bigger problem.

Imagine this: you're traveling from Detroit to Phoenix, and the flight that was supposed to get you back to your city at noon was canceled. So you sit at the airport for hours and hours to catch another flight, exhausted because you barely got any sleep the night before. Then you sit on a 4-5 hour flight. And when you finally get to Phoenix at 3:30 p.m. and walk through the security checkpoint, maybe you're dying just to get a burrito, get home, shower, and sleep.

But there are a couple hundred people waiting for you at the checkpoint, all screaming, and each one of them wanting a piece of you. As you make your way down the escalator, there are six cameras and microphones shoved in your face, along with a blinding spotlight.

At the bottom of the escalator, there are dozens more people, again all wanting something from you -- sign this, please; take a picture with me, please -- and the police can't clear the crowd away fast enough for you to even move.

What would YOU do? Well, if it was me, I'd have a hard time not being bitchy. But this was the Phoenix Mercury, the WNBA Champions, and they were so giving and gracious to everyone, even though they were all visibly exhausted. I didn't see a single player deny any fan an autograph or a picture. And the fans were so excited and plentiful, celebrating together. I love jumping up and down and screaming with other Mercury fans at games, and jockeying for position with our signs and balloons at the airport. It was great.

Thanks again, Phoenix Mercury, for bringing the 2007 WNBA Championship home. And thanks to Diana Taurasi for taking a picture with me. I posted it in my comments, but it somehow ended up in the WNBA pics section of Yardbarker, and I feel like a goon. Anyone know how to delete an accidentally-uploaded-somehow photo?

If you missed the Mercury today, see my previous blog entry for info. on the championship rally tomorrow.

WOO HOO!

A championship rally will be held for the 2007 WNBA Champions, the Phoenix Mercury, on Tuesday, September 18 at 12:30 p.m. in the Casino Arizona Pavilion at US Airways Center.

Members of the team will speak, the trophy and banner will be unveiled, highlights of the championship season will be shown and fans will have the opportunity to take a picture with the trophy.

Check the link below for more info.

YES!!!!

Congratulations to the Phoenix Mercury, who became the first team in league history to win the championship on the road, defeating Detroit 108-92. See my comments for some photos.

THANK YOU, MIGHTY MERCURY!

Phoenix, let's give a big welcome to our champions when they come home. The Mercury has posted info. on their return flight on their Web site. Here it is:

Monday, September 17, arrival at noon at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport. They're on US Airways Flight #476 in Terminal 4, concourse A.

Also: congrats to MVP Cappie "The Closer" Pondexter!

[NOTE: Since I posted this, the team's return flight info. has changed. The latest info. is below. Visit www.phoenixmercury.com for updates]

"The Phoenix Mercury is now scheduled to arrive in Phoenix at 3:30 p.m. this afternoon. The team's original flight out of Detroit was cancelled Monday morning due to mechanical difficulties. Join fans from across the Valley at Sky Harbor Airport to welcome your team back from Detroit.

The team will now arrive on a Southwest Airlines flight from Chicago. Fans can gather just outside security checkpoints at Terminal 4 to greet the team."

I thought there was something fishy about the "Cyber-opponent" feature on my new electronic dartboard. The board is a Halex Aipha #64302, which is a great board, but the manufacturers seem to have screwed up the programming on the Cyber-opponent feature. My final game of cricket last night provided the proof.

I was frustrated all week. I thought my "opponent" was getting way too many lucky shots in games. For example, the computer would throw three misses, and then the next throw, it'd nail a triple 16, a triple 20, and a bull's eye. From the "beginner" level. I'm sorry, but no "beginner" throws a trio of bounce-outs on one turn and then suddenly turns into world champion Martin "Wolfie" Adams on the next turn. I kept screaming at the board that it was cheating.

Well, last night, we were playing a very close game of no-score cricket. I was two shots away from winning -- I needed to hit a 15 and one more bull. My cyber-opponent hadn't hit any bull's eyes and needed to nail three to win the game. So it throws its first dart, and the computer proclaims, "TRIPLE! BULL'S EYE! WINNER!"

Okay, a lucky shot is one thing, but...THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A TRIPLE BULL'S EYE!!! As far as I know, there has never been a triple bull's eye on any dart board in the history of the game. I'm tempted to write a letter to Halex and tell them that if they're going to program the computer to screw people over, they should at least have programmed it to take two darts to hit a double and a single bull, rather than this magic "triple bull's eye" with a single dart. What's it gonna do next, hit a quintuple 20? And who programmed this thing anyway, the Warren Commission?

The Phoenix Mercury snuck past the Detroit Shock tonight, winning game 4 77-76. I was seated 13 rows behind the Mercury bench and had a great view of the action. I also almost had a heart attack. We were behind by three points with about a minute to go in the game, and then the Mercury popped a Cappie in Detroit's ass -- Pondexter's two baskets sealed the game for us. The Shock had the last possession, and the Mercury stopped them from scoring. It was pandemonium when the buzzer went off.

I like ya, Pee Wee, but I'm SO happy you missed that last-second shot! The way it just skidded over the basket and then circled around the rim, everything seeming to happen in slow-motion, everybody on their feet as it dropped out -- that was a looong moment.

I have to hand it to the Mercury -- They are one of the top offensive scoring teams in the league, but their defense has been awesome during these playoffs, too. Give it up for the de-fense!

So now it's back to Detroit for game 5. I'd love nothing more than to see the Phoenix Mercury take the crown from Motown. But whatever happens, I think Phoenix fans should greet the team with a hearty "welcome back" and "thank you" when they return to our city after the finals. No matter the outcome of game 5, the Mercury has been a formidable opponent for the Shock and has played their best season ever. They have given this city a reason to believe, and they have given every game their all. And if the Mercury should win the championship (go get it, ladies!), they deserve as much fanfare -- if not more -- as the Phoenix Suns.

We're still alive, baby! Bring on game 5. Bring on THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME. Bring back the ring.