Part of what HaynieGopherFan wrote:
I know the Lynx left for Sacramento at 7am this morning, so I wonder if Smith joined the team to go to Sacramento, or if she stayed behind. That would suck for her to get to Sacramento and have to turn around and come all the way back...
According to the following article, Katie did travel with the team to Sacramento last evening. Apparently, the deal was done when the team was still in flight. Katie found out about the trade shortly after they landed, so she took another flight to Detroit afterwards. Probably one of those "red-eye" flights.
I could just imagine what her thoughts must've been racing through her mind that night! It must've been one LOOONNNNGGGG flight!
I doubt that the new players (Chandi Jones and Stacey Thomas) will be in Sacramento in time to suit up for the game, and the Lynx players are probably very shell-shocked over this, so it is going to be a very different Lynx team tonight.
I have to say that I'm a little disappointed in this too. I have a 2003 Minnesota Lynx media guide book that I was going to bring to tonight's game, and have Katie sign it, but obviously, she will be somewhere else! (I have Svet Abrosimova's autograph, though!) But I'm going to tonight's game anyway, sprained ankle and all!
Anyway, here is today's article from the
Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
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AN ERA ENDS FOR LYNX: SMITH DEALT TO DETROIT SHOCK
by Pam Schmid
Star Tribune
Published July 31, 2005
Over the past seven seasons, Katie Smith has been the face of the Lynx -- the team's leading scorer, best defender and only original player left on an often- tweaked roster.
On Saturday, the Lynx decided their best hopes for the future lay in trading their franchise player away. Two days before the WNBA's trading deadline, the team pulled the trigger on a deal that sends the five-time All-Star and a second-round draft pick to Detroit in exchange for a first-round draft pick in 2006, second-year guard Chandi Jones and forward Stacey Thomas.
Smith learned of the trade barely an hour after she and the team landed in Sacramento on Saturday afternoon. She flew to Detroit later in the evening.
"It's the end of an era," Lynx coach Suzie McConnell Serio said in a phone interview from Sacramento.
McConnell Serio continued: "[Smith] laid the foundation the years she's been here. She helped this franchise get to where we were successful the past two seasons."
But after two consecutive playoff appearances, the team has stalled this season -- losing three games in a row and six of its past nine and sinking to fifth place in the Western Conference.
The team's inconsistency and recent struggles led the front office to reassess whether it had the right mix to win a WNBA championship within the next few years, said Roger Griffith, the team's chief operating officer.
"If we'd been meeting our expectations this year, this would not have happened," he said. "It was more the realization that where we thought we'd make a big step forward this year, we'd be struggling to get back to where we were."
Smith, 31, is the only professional women's basketball player to surpass 5,000 points and has averaged 17.7 points over her seven-year WNBA career. But the 5-11 guard, who underwent offseason knee surgery, has been mired in a prolonged shooting slump, averaging 7.7 points over her past nine games. She has publicly said she will likely play three more seasons before retiring.
Detroit coach Bill Laimbeer had been asking about Smith's availability for the past couple of years, Griffith said, but the Lynx weren't interested in a trade. That changed last week, when Laimbeer dangled a first-round draft pick.
The Lynx haven't made a midseason trade since dealing Betty Lennox to Miami three years ago. But the timing was attractive to the Lynx because Detroit's struggles -- they are in fifth place in the East -- could lead to a lottery pick in next year's draft. Such a deal might not be available in the offseason, Griffith said.
Griffith acknowledged the risk of a backlash by Lynx fans.
"We were very concerned about that," he said. "... But we've said every year that we're trying to deliver a title. In good faith, we're making decisions that we think could contribute to that."
Smith was not available for comment Saturday night.
Jones, a 5-11 guard, has averaged 6.0 points, 1.5 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 15.7 minutes this season. She ranks second in the WNBA in three-point field-goal percentage at 48.6 percent.
Jones, who starred at the University of Houston, was the eighth overall pick in the 2004 WNBA draft by Phoenix and was acquired by Detroit in a four-player draft-day deal in April 2004. Griffith said the Lynx very nearly drafted the athletic combo guard but opted for center Vanessa Hayden instead.
"Chandi Jones is an athlete and a scorer," McConnell Serio said. "In the long run, with Chandi and a first-round draft pick, we believe we can become a better team. But we also have confidence in the players we have now."
Thomas, a 5-10 forward from Michigan, has played five-plus seasons in the WNBA and has career averages of 3.0 points, 2.4 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 16 minutes per game.
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