Detroit Shock Wins WNBA Championship!!

Shock wins third WNBA title in six years
By MICHAEL ROSENBERG • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • October 5, 2008

So you want to win a championship? No problem. According to the Detroit Shock’s new Championship How-To Book, all you have to do is:


• 1. Trade your biggest star.


• 2. Lose another to a knee injury.


• 3. Follow that up, moments later, with one of the ugliest sports brawls in recent memory.


• 4. Watch so many of your players get suspended for that brawl, the league must stagger them in alphabetical order.


• 4.5. This is not mandatory, but if at all possible, see if you can get your highest-profile assistant coach suspended, too.


• 5. Try the cheapest, most transparent PR stunt you can think of — you know, like adding your 50-year-old former coach to your roster.


• 6. Don’t play a single game of the final round in your home arena.


There you go. That’s all it takes! Just follow those six steps and … oh, wait. Forgot one thing.

“We have the best players in the world,” coach Bill Laimbeer said Sunday. “No question about it.”

Yeah, that helps.

The Shock swept its way to its third championship in six years Sunday night. The final score of Game 3 of the WNBA Finals was 76-60, but in deference to the battered San Antonio Silver Stars, let’s call it a three-round knockout.

The Shock outrebounded San Antonio, 44-27, including 16-4 in the fourth quarter at Eastern Michigan’s Convocation Center. Detroit absolutely destroyed San Antonio’s little star, Becky Hammon, who missed nine of 10 shots and had more turnovers (four) than assists (three).

Three titles in six years probably qualifies this franchise as a WNBA dynasty. But like other modern sports dynasties, the Shock has had to change on the fly. And that was most apparent two months ago, in the wake of a disastrous game against the Los Angeles Sparks, when rebounding fiend Cheryl Ford tore her anterior cruciate ligament and the Shock responded with a nationally televised brawl.

Seven players and assistant coach Rick Mahorn were suspended. It was an embarrassment for both franchises, and for the league, but once everybody stopped blushing, Laimbeer had a bigger concern: replacing Ford.

He promptly stole Taj McWilliams-Franklin from the Washington Mystics. She had 13 points and eight rebounds Sunday.

“We knew Bill was going to work his magic,” forward Katie Smith said. “If we don’t have Taj, I don’t think we’re here,”

If they don’t have Smith’s performance Sunday, they are still here, in the Finals, hoping to wrap it up in Game 4. With the Shock clinging to a two-point lead early in the fourth quarter, Smith poured in 11 points to turn a tight Game 3 into a blowout.

She was the Finals MVP by acclimation; even the Silver Stars would have stuffed the ballot box for her.

Somewhere, maybe Swin Cash was watching. Cash was the face of the franchise and an extremely important player on the 2003 and 2006 title teams, but she and Laimbeer did not see eye-to-eye. Sometimes, it was unclear if they were even looking at each other. After the Shock lost in last year’s Finals, Laimbeer traded Cash.

Some die-hard Cash fans probably thought they’d see former coach Nancy Lieberman, now an ESPN analyst, suit up for the Shock before it won another championship. And for reasons I’ll never understand, that actually happened this summer.

But then the Shock resumed one of the quickest, most remarkable rebuilding jobs you’ll ever see in sports. Without Cash, and then without Ford, the Shock still led the league in scoring differential and rebounding differential.

As the final seconds wound down Sunday night, the architect of the dynasty, Laimbeer, the former Bad Boy, held his hands up in triumph. He’d done it again. In the locker room soon after, Laimbeer took a giant swig of champagne, then looked at the bottle, as though he didn’t know what he was drinking.

Uh, Bill, you should recognize that stuff by now. And you might just be drinking it again next year at this time — after all, Ford is coming back, and who is going to doubt this team?

That, however, is a challenge for another day. Sunday night, the Shock had something else in mind.

“Party!” said starting guard Deanna Nolan, a Flint native.

That’s never been a problem for you, huh?

“That’s never a problem,” she said. “Especially in Detroit.”

Especially for this franchise.

Good they deserve it they worked there ass off

and fought hard...literally! YAY GIRLZ

Too bad they don't get much media attention.

They won a Championship this year


The Tigers; Lions and Pistons can't say that!


Congrats Shock!

Shock!

It really does not hurt having a superstar such as Laimbeer as your coach either!!

Go Shock (I guess)! I still preferred the Red Wings championship over this one

catbox_9 wrote:

Go Shock (I guess)! I still preferred the Red Wings championship over this one

As did the half a million people that flocked Woodward for the Wings Parade last June,

They had a rally for the Shock

Wonder how many people showed?

about 600 fans, according to the Freep
But never mind! They are the true fans! and not everyone could make it who wanted to!

ya the red wings ahd a bigger turn out but more poeple where able to come instead of like the wnba which didnt have many people able to come

laprimamirala wrote:

about 600 fans, according to the Freep
But never mind! They are the true fans! and not everyone could make it who wanted to!

Or knew about it;

gs u got a point

Ooooooooo...

go...Shock...