What's Wrong With My Comets?

photos-Crystal Smith hustling for ball, Comets coach Karleen Thompson, Tina Thompson, Michelle Snow and Sheryl Swoopes.

One thing about me that didn't change with transition is that I'm a huge sports fan. And one of the sports that I love is basketball, be it college or pro.

I'm also a huge WNBA and Houston Comets fan. I frequently attended Comets games when the WNBA started play in 1997 before I finally got smart and purchased my season tickets before the 1999 season. I enjoyed being in Compaq Center's Section 126 watching the Comets dominate the league by winning four straight titles from 1997-2000.

I knew going into this 2007 WNBA season that it might be a tough one despite the fact they made it to the Western Conference finals before falling to Sacramento. There were a lot of changes in Cometland during the off season. A new owner in Hilton Koch. With Van Chancellor leaving to take the LSU women's job Karleen Thompson got elevated to become head coach and general manager. There were new faces in the lineup like first round draft pick Ashley Shields and vets Latasha Byears and Crystal Smith. But I was also comforted by the fact that we had Olympians Sheryl Swoopes and Tina Thompson in the lineup.

The 2007 version of the Comets started off losing their first 10 games before they finally broke through to beat the LA Sparks 74-64 on June 20. They followed that up by beating down the Washington Mystics 95-85. They had two games coming up with the Phoenix Mercury, who would have to play both of them with all-everything player Diana Taurasi serving a two-game suspension and Cappie Poindexter suffering an injury.

So the Comets bad luck was finally changing, right?

Nope. I caught today's broadband broadcast of the game and saw why they are losing. Inconsistent defense. Poor basketball decisions at various times and especially down the stretch. Too many forced shots. They play like the old champs with aggressive energy and suffocating defense for stretches of the games, but disappear at critical times.

Ashley Shields is a talented ballplayer but her shot selection is horrendous. You have the WNBA's second all-time leading scorer in Tina Thompson on your squad and she barely touches the ball in the 3rd and 4th quarters. Michelle Snow has yet to become the dominant player she has the talent to be. She's 6'5", dunked in college at Tennessee, but sometimes is just too passive when the Comets need her to be a nasty, shot blocking, snatch-the-rebound-off-the-glass inside the paint force, especially at crunch time.

One thing I do give them credit for is the Comets play hard and never quit. That's all you can ask as a fan. I have no doubts that Karleen Thompson is going to be a good coach in this league. She played at USC with Tina Thompson and LA's Lisa Leslie, was an assistant with Michael Cooper's LA Sparks teams that won WNBA titles in 2001-2002 and has been on Van Chancellor's last two staffs. She's learned from two of the best coaches in the game and I know nothing would please her more than getting the Comets back to elite level status. Sheryl being out for the next two to four weeks with a back injury hasn't helped either.

I love my girls, but they have major work to do just to get into the top four teams in the Western Conference to qualify for the playoffs. Even if they do, it'll be a short stay. I don't see it happening unless they start playing 40 minute ballgames and not 10, 20 or 30 minute ones.

Designer Transition-A Sistah's Wish List

Rapid scientific progress is being made in terms of mapping human DNA thanks to the Human Genome Project. It has unlocked the secrets of which parts of the DNA strand control various aspects of human development, personality, gender and even which base pair combinations trigger susceptibility to certain diseases. It has led to gene based therapies to combat those diseases as well.

And for better or worse, its opened the door to human cloning as well.

I'm in a sci-fi kinda mood today. Let's presume that scientific knowledge has progressed to the point where I can not only transition, but look like any woman on the planet past or present and keep my personality traits. I'm happy with the way I look (about 99% of the time) but if that option were available to me, who would I choose to resemble excluding friends or family members?

My Top 30


1. Halle Berry

2. Beyonce

3. Phyllis Hyman

4. Jayne Kennedy

5. Dorothy Dandridge

6. Lena Horne

7. Diahann Carroll

8. Florence Griffith-Joyner

9. Vanessa L. Williams

10. Phylicia Rashad


11. Tyra Banks

12. Beverly Johnson

13. Meagan Good

14. Gabrielle Union

15. Jasmine Guy

16. Coretta Scott King

17. Toni Braxton

18. Pam Grier

19. Jada Pinkett Smith

20. Vivica A. Fox


21. BernNadette Stanis

22. Denise Matthews (aka Vanity)

23. Yolanda Adams

24. Aaliyah

25. Janet Jackson

26. Iman

27. LisaRaye McCoy

28. Toccara Jones

29. Sade

30. Mpule Kwelagobe

The Miss Black America Pageant

As I mentioned last month I'm a pageant fanatic. My love for them also extends to an event that was 'must see TV' when I was growing up, the Miss Black America Pageant.

The pageant was created by J. Morris Anderson as a protest noting the dearth of African-American contestants in the Miss America pageant. The first one was held on August 17, 1968 and went national the next year with contestants from 42 states participating. A decade before Vanessa Williams broke through and won Miss America, sistahs were showing the world their grace, beauty, intelligence and talent on the Miss Black America stage. Many Miss Black America contestants have gone on to greater success in other arenas, such as Oprah Winfrey, Kathleen Bradley, T'Keyah Crystal Keymah, BernNadette Stanis and CeCe Peniston. The 1969 pageant, held at Madison Square Garden served as the venue for the Jackson 5's first national television performance.

I also love the Oath of Positivity that all Miss Black America contestants take that was also penned by pageant founder J. Morris Anderson:

My physical appearance will always reveal my positive mental attitude toward life.

My head held high will indicate the mental and spiritual strength that lives within me.

My straight, cheerful manner of walking will exemplify the positive direction my life has taken.

My eloquent manner of talking will always relate the positive mental, spiritual and physical forces that reside within me.

My illustrious smile will always express the pleasure I receive from living.

The positive look in my eyes will always indicate the self confidence and positive spirits inside me.

THEREFORE:
I CAN perform any task;
I CAN sell any product;
I CAN succeed in any job;
I CAN cause any relationship to thrive;
I CAN overcome any obstacle;
I CAN accomplish any objective.
I AM a positive mental, spiritual and physical person.
I AM spiritually capable of succeeding.
I CAN successfully compete on any mental level;
I WILL succeed on any physical level of activity in which I engage.

It was also great for kids of my generation to see the women that they grew up with recognized for their beauty and talent just like the white women whose images we were bombarded with on a daily basis.

The pageant was sorely needed in an era where you still had some Black parents who idolized white standards of beauty. Some forced their kids to walk around with clothespins constricting their noses in an attempt to get the 'narrow' white nose instead of our broad African ones. Too many of us growing up heard the comments of our elders and our peeps in which dark-skinned people were shunned and light skinned people with 'good' hair were the beauty gold standard.

The pageant helps remind all of us that all Black women are beautiful, no matter whether our skin color is vanilla creme light or ebony dark.