Phoenix Mercury hosts second annual Jewish Family Event
JOSH SAYLES
Staff Writer
Mercury player Tangela Smith, in white, and Sparks superstar Candice Parker fight for the jump ball at the beginning of the game. The Sparks would go on to defeat the Mercury, 81-78.
Photo by Joel Zolondek
A month and a half ago, when I was informed of the Phoenix Mercury's second annual Jewish Family Event, scheduled for Sept. 13, it never crossed my mind that I wouldn't attend. I've never been a fan of the WNBA, but I am Jewish News'"sportswriter," and hey, press row or not, courtside seats, no matter the game, are the best ticket in sports.
Several days before the game I realized: Sept. 13 was the first Sunday of the NFL regular season, my friends had invited me to go tubing down the Salt River, the Red Sox - my hometown team -- were playing a doubleheader, and I would be stuck at a WNBA game. To make matters worse, it was the last game of the regular season and the Mercury had already locked up the top seed in the playoffs, so they were resting their best player and biggest attraction, Diana Taurasi. I don't think I could have been less excited.
My attitude began to improve a little bit about an hour before tipoff. I got to walk on the court during pregame warm-ups as Mercury player Brooke Smith took a group picture with those attending the Jewish Family Event. I was unaware, until a brief pregame ceremony, that it was Los Angeles Sparks player and future Hall-of-Famer Lisa Leslie's final regular-season game, which was special to have attended. During the game, I was so close to the Sparks bench that I could hear their coach, former Lakers star Michael Cooper, yell at his team. Plus, although the Mercury lost 81-78, the game was close all the way through, and a much higher level of basketball than I expected.
Furthermore, I had Mercury Head Coach Corey Gaines - whom I had heard speak at the Suns' first Jewish Heritage Night last December, and who also spoke at the Mercury's first Jewish Family Event last September - to look forward to. He was addressing those who had purchased Jewish Family Event tickets on the practice court during a postgame ceremony. Gaines spent five seasons in the NBA and five seasons in Israel, among other stops, during a long basketball career, was a captivating speaker, and had a lot of good to say about Israel.
Gaines, 44, lived in Eilat and Haifa while playing abroad, and has also spent much of his still-young coaching career overseas. During the offseason he coaches Spartek, a team based outside Moscow that Taurasi plays for, too, as well as a team in China. He says he returns to Israel twice a year to visit, and one of his favorite activities is Shabbat dinner (he refers to them as family dinners), even though he is not Jewish. He speaks glowingly of Israel's beaches. He says he feels safer there than he does in the United States. "If you ever need a spokesman for Israel," he says, "I'm the one, because I love it."
During the question-and-answer segment of his talk, a little girl in the audience asked him if he thought she had a shot at the WNBA. He replied that he made it to the NBA not because he was the most talented, the smartest or the toughest, but because he was the hardest worker. "Work hard," he told her. "You never know who's watching."
Someone else asked him if, prior to the Mercury, he had ever coached women's basketball, and if there was a difference between coaching men versus women. The answer to both questions was, "No."
He elaborated: His mentor, former Mercury Head Coach Paul Westhead, who brought Gaines on as an assistant coach with the Mercury in 2006 (Gaines was handed the reins to the team in 2008), taught him, "There's no difference between coaching men and women. We're coaching basketball players. When a woman's a doctor, you treat her as a doctor. When a woman's a lawyer, you treat her as a lawyer. When a woman's a basketball player, you treat her as a basketball player."
* * *
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't impressed by Gaines' work ethic and his open-mindedness about women in sports, as well as about new cultures such as Israel's. "I was hesitant to go," he remembers. "I knew nothing about it, like most Americans. But I went and I loved it."
I have to admit that my bad attitude prior to the game was, at least in part, due to my closed-mindedness and my negative preconceived notions about the WNBA. Yes, there were several other activities in which I would have rather partaken on that day, and honestly, if I had my choice, I still would have rather pursued other avenues of entertainment. But it worries me that I had so easily, however subconsciously, shut myself off from the event. It scares me that someone else could be equally closed-minded - or even more so - toward issues that are far more important than women's basketball, such as the well-being of Israel. There has to be an opposite to Corey Gaines, right?
Gaines, intentionally or not, helped me realize that I had, without any evidence to support my ideas, declared fiction as fact. The next time I am approached by someone who is closed-minded toward Israel, perhaps I'll have a better understanding of where that person is coming from. And with this new experience, maybe I'll have an easier time setting the record straight.
Thank you, Corey Gaines.
The Phoenix Suns are hosting their second annual Jewish Heritage Night Sunday, Feb. 21, 2010, when they play the Sacramento Kings. The Kings chose Omri Casspi with the 23rd pick of the 2009 NBA draft, making him the first Israeli ever selected in the first round. Check future issues of Jewish News for details.
The Mercury's Jewish Family Event was sponsored by Jewish News.
