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Sheryl Swoopes

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Sheryl Swoopes
Personal information
Born (1971-03-25) March 25, 1971 (age 53)
Brownfield, Texas
NationalityUnited States American
Listed height6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Listed weight145 lb (66 kg)
Career information
CollegeTexas Tech
Playing career1997–present
PositionGuard/Forward
Number22
Career highlights and awards
6× WNBA All-Star (1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006)
4× WNBA Champion (1997,1998, 1999, 2000)
3× WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Award
3× WNBA MVP Award
2× WNBA scoring champion (2000, 2005)
Stats at Basketball Reference Edit this at Wikidata
Medals
Women's Basketball
Representing  United States
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 1996 Atlanta National Team
Gold medal – first place 2000 Sydney National Team
Gold medal – first place 2004 Athens National Team
World Championship
Bronze medal – third place 2006 Brazil National Team

Sheryl Denise Swoopes (born March 25, 1971) is a retired American professional basketball player who most recently played with the Tulsa Shock in 2011. She was the first player to be signed in the WNBA when it was created.[1] She has won three Olympic Gold Medals and is a three-time WNBA MVP. Frequently referred to as the "female Michael Jordan," Swoopes is famous for both her offensive and defensive skills. In 2005, she averaged 18.6 points, 85% free throws, 4.3 assists, 2.65 steals and 37.1 minutes playing time per game. In 2011, she was voted in by fans as one of the Top 15 players in WNBA history. In 2013, she was been named the head coach of the women's basketball team at Loyola University Chicago.

Early success

Born in Brownfield, Texas, Swoopes was raised by her mother Louise Swoopes, and played basketball with her three older brothers.[2] She began competing at age seven, in a local children's league called Little Dribblers.[3] Coached under Dickie Faught and Kathey Granger, Swoopes was a member and junior on the 1988 Texas State Championship team.[4]

College years

Initially recruited by the University of Texas, Swoopes left the school shortly after her arrival without playing a game, and enrolled at South Plains College. After playing at South Plains for two years, Swoopes transferred to Texas Tech.[2]

In 1993 Swoopes won the NCAA women's basketball championship with the Texas Tech Lady Raiders during her senior season. Her jersey was retired by the school the following year, making her one of only three Lady Raiders to be honored in this way. The others are Carolyn Thompson and Krista Kirkland, Swoopes' teammate from the 1993 championship team.[5]

As of 2010, Swoopes was still a part of the NCAA women's basketball record books in many categories, including single-game scoring record (53 points on March 13, 1993 vs. Texas, tied for tenth place), single-season scoring (955 points in the 1993 season, fourth place), highest Championship Tournament scoring average (35.4 in the 1993 tournament, second place), best single-game championship scoring performance (47 points vs. Ohio State,[6] 1993 championship), which broke Bill Walton's record,[2] and scoring record for championship series (177 points, five games). She set the record for the most field goals in the Championship game with sixteen.[7]

Swoopes also set several school records at Texas Tech. She scored 955 points in the 1992-93 season, which is an all-time scoring record for a single season (as of 2006). Swoopes' 24.9 points-per-game average for her career is the best in school history; she also boasts three triple-doubles and twenty-three double-doubles, fourteen of which came during her senior year.[8]

Swoopes was the 1993 winner of the Naismith College Player of the Year award, was selected as that year's WBCA Player of the Year, and was chosen to the Division I All-American squad in both 1992 and 1993. Swoopes was named the 1993 Sportswoman of the Year (in the team category) by the Women's Sports Foundation.[9]

WNBA career

Swoopes was recruited for the Houston Comets of the WNBA during the 1997 inaugural season. She returned only six weeks after giving birth to her son to play the last third of the WNBA inaugural season[10] and lead the Comets in the 1997 WNBA Championship. As a member of the Houston Comets, she has accumulated over 2,000 career points, 500 career rebounds, 300 career assists and 200 career steals. Her extraordinary scoring and defensive ability have made her the first three-time WNBA MVP (2000, 2002, 2005) and the first three-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year (2000, 2002, 2003). Swoopes is a four-time WNBA champion (1997–2000).

Swoopes is the second player in WNBA history to win both the regular season MVP award and the All-Star Game MVP award in the same season. The first player to accomplish this was Lisa Leslie. Swoopes is also the first player in WNBA history to record a playoff triple-double.

Swoopes gained national prominence when she won the gold medal with the USA Basketball Women's National Team (WNT) at the 1996 Olympic Games and became a focal point of the fledgling WNBA. The 1996 Olympic win over Brazil (117–87) is considered by some to be the "best woman's basketball game they'd ever seen."[11] She is a three-time Olympic gold medalist (1996, 2000, 2004).

Swoopes is the first women's basketball player to have a Nike shoe named after her: the "Air Swoopes".[2]

On March 3, 2008 Swoopes signed with the Seattle Storm ending her eleven-year career with the Houston Comets. She was waived by the Storm on February 3, 2009.[12]

Two days after her fortieth birthday, sources for the Associated Press claimed that Swoopes was preparing to return to the WNBA in anticipation of an official signing announcement from the Tulsa Shock that was made on 28 March 2011.[13][14] At the 2011 WNBA All-Star Game, she was announced as one of the Top 15 players in the fifteen-year history of the WNBA.[15]

On August 26, 2011, the 40-year-old Swoopes hit a buzzer-beating shot to edge the Los Angeles Sparks 77-75 and end the Shock's WNBA-record 20-game losing streak.[16]

Swoopes became an unrestricted free agent after the 2011 season; Tulsa Shock owner Steve Swetoha announced on 15 February 2012 that the team did not intend to offer Swoopes a new contract.[17] As of the beginning of the 2012 preseason on 5 May, Swoopes remains an unsigned free agent. While there has been no official announcement, when Swoopes began blogging at the Shape magazine website during the 2012 Olympic Summer Games, she identified herself as "a former professional basketball player."[18]

WNBA career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game  RPG  Rebounds per game
 APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game  BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game
 TO  Turnovers per game  FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 Bold  Career best ° League leader

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
1997 Houston 9 0 14.3 .472 .250 .714 1.7 0.8 0.8 0.4 0.44 7.1
1998 Houston 29 29 32.3 .427 .360 .826 5.1 2.1 2.5 0.5 2.00 15.6
1999 Houston 32 32 34.4 .462 .337 .820 6.3 4.0 2.4 1.4 2.59 18.3
2000 Houston 31 31 35.2 .506 .374 .821 6.3 3.8 2.8 1.1 2.65 20.7
2002 Houston 32 32 36.1 .434 .288 .825 4.9 3.3 2.8 0.7 2.72 18.5
2003 Houston 31 30 35.0 .406 .304 .887 4.6 3.9 2.5 0.8 2.35 15.6
2004 Houston 31 31 34.5 .422 .308 .856 4.9 2.9 1.5 0.5 1.90 14.8
2005 Houston 33 33 37.1 .447 .360 .850 3.6 4.3 2.0 0.8 2.18 18.6
2006 Houston 31 31 35.8 .413 .278 .764 5.9 3.7 2.1 0.3 2.39 15.5
2007 Houston 3 3 35.3 .360 .143 1.000 5.7 3.7 1.7 0.3 3.00 7.7
2008 Seattle 29 25 24.3 .391 .222 .695 4.3 2.1 1.5 0.3 1.07 7.1
2011 Tulsa 33 28 26.6 .398 .319 .870 4.1 2.3 0.8 0.3 1.36 8.2
Career 12 years, 3 teams 324 205 32.7 .436 .316 .825 4.9 3.2 2.0 0.7 2.09 15.0

Postseason

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
1997 Houston 2 0 7.0 .000 .000 .000 1.5 0.0 0.0 0.5 0.00 0.0
1998 Houston 5 5 37.6 .443 .278 .933 10.0 5.2 1.8 1.4 3.20 14.6
1999 Houston 6 6 36.0 .358 .308 .929 3.7 1.2 2.3 0.5 2.00 14.7
2000 Houston 6 6 36.7 .471 .471 .793 5.7 3.2 2.8 0.0 2.00 18.8
2002 Houston 3 3 42.3 .397 .333 .800 7.3 5.7 4.0 0.7 2.67 24.3
2003 Houston 3 3 36.7 .435 .100 .938 6.3 4.3 1.3 0.7 1.67 18.7
2005 Houston 5 5 37.8 .402 .357 .810 5.6 3.8 1.4 0.4 3.00 18.4
2006 Houston 2 2 31.0 .389 .167 .875 2.5 1.5 1.0 1.0 1.00 11.0
2008 Seattle 3 2 24.0 .320 .200 .889 3.3 1.0 2.0 0.0 1.67 8.7
Career 9 years, 2 teams 35 32 34.3 .406 .293 .861 5.5 3.1 2.0 0.5 2.14 15.5

International career

Europe

  • 1993-1994 : Italy Basket Bari
  • 2004-2005 : Russia VBM-SGAU Samara
  • 2005-2006 : Italy Taranto Cras Basket
  • 2010: Greece Esperides Kallitheas[19]

Personal life

Swoopes was married from June 1995 to 1999 to her high school sweetheart, with whom she had a son, Jordan Eric Jackson in 1997. In October 2005, with her announcement that she is gay, Swoopes became one of the highest profile athletes in a team sport to do so publicly. She and her partner, former basketball player and Houston Comets assistant coach, Alisa Scott, whom Swoopes at the time said she would like to someday marry, together raised Swoopes's son, Jordan.[20]

Swoopes said "it doesn't change who I am. I can't help who I fall in love with. No one can. ... Discovering I'm gay just sort of happened much later in life. Being intimate with [Alisa] or any other woman never entered my mind. At the same time, I'm a firm believer that when you fall in love with somebody, you can't control that."[21]

In 2008, Sheryl Swoopes made an appearance on Shirts & Skins, a reality series from the television channel LOGO. Swoopes flew out to mentor the San Francisco Rockdogs, a gay basketball team, and shared her experiences on basketball, family, faith, and coming out, helping to bring the team closer together.[22]

As of 2009, Swoopes has been coaching the girls basketball team at Mercer Island High School, while head coach Jamie Prescott has been on maternity leave.

As of 2011, Swoopes had broken up with Alisa Scott and was reportedly engaged to a man.[23]

Swoopes joined the Texas Tech women's basketball broadcast team as a color analyst in November 2012, marking the start of her career in broadcasting.[24]

Notes

  1. ^ "WNBA's Greatest Moments". WNBA.com. Retrieved 2011-11-21.
  2. ^ a b c d Porter p 464
  3. ^ "Sheryl Swoopes Playerfile". Wnba.com. Retrieved 2011-11-21.
  4. ^ RAY GLASSAssistant Sports Editor (1999-06-27). "High School Sports - Overcoming the Odds 06/27/99". Lubbockonline.com. Retrieved 2011-11-21. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  5. ^ "Tech Hall of Honor Inducts New Class of Six". Retrieved 2007-12-03.
  6. ^ Grundy p 217
  7. ^ "Championship records remembered". NCAA. Retrieved 15 May 2012.
  8. ^ "Vote in our online poll: Sheryl Swoopes and Carolyn Thompson". The Daily Toreador. April 4, 2007. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  9. ^ "Sportswoman of the Year". Women’s Sports Foundation. Retrieved 05 Jan 2013. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  10. ^ Candace Parker is Putting Family First NY Times, January 24, 2009
  11. ^ Grundy p 216
  12. ^ Sheryl Swoopes Waived by WNBA Storm SI.com, February 3, 2009
  13. ^ Feinberg, Doug (27 March 2011), "AP Source: Swoopes to sign with Tulsa Shock", Kansas City Star
  14. ^ "Sheryl Swoopes Signs with Tulsa". Retrieved 29 March 2011.
  15. ^ Stanchak, Scott (2011-07-24). "Roundtable Discussion: WNBA Top 15 Players of All Time". WNBA.com. Retrieved 2011-11-21.
  16. ^ [1][dead link‍]
  17. ^ Lantz, Jessica (16 February 2012). "Gary Kloppenburg's Plans For The Tulsa Shock Do Not Include Sheryl Swoopes, Betty Lennox". SwishAppeal.com. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  18. ^ Swoopes, Sheryl (27 July 2012). "Olympic Fever Starts Now!". Shape.com. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
  19. ^ "Associated Press via ESPN.com, "Swoopes Replaces Wisdom-Hylton," January 6, 2010". Sports.espn.go.com. 2010-01-06. Retrieved 2011-11-21.
  20. ^ Blaine Harden (July 26, 2008). "Washington State Upholds Ban on Same-Sex Marriage". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-11-22.
  21. ^ LZ Granderson (October 28, 2008). "Three-time MVP 'tired of having to hide my feelings'". ESPN The Magazine. Retrieved 2008-12-11.
  22. ^ "Sister Swoopes (Skins & Skins: Episode 4)". Logoonline.com. Retrieved 2011-11-21.
  23. ^ "Maya Rupert: What Sheryl Swoopes' Engagement Means: Understanding the Role of Identity and Combo Guards". Huffingtonpost.com. 2011-08-01. Retrieved 2011-11-21.
  24. ^ "Sheryl Swoopes joins Texas Tech women's basketball broadcast team for 2012-13". hoopfeed.com. 8 November 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2013.

References

  • Grundy, Pamela (2005). Shattering the glass. New Press. ISBN 978-1-56584-822-1.
  • Ikard, Robert W. (2005). Just for Fun: The Story of AAU Women's Basketball. The University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 978-1-55728-889-9.
  • David L. Porter, ed. (2005). Basketball: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-30952-6.

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