After a long career, Lisa Leslie has much to smile about with her daughter, Lauren Jolie Lockwood.Los Angeles Sparks coach Michael Cooper knows about basketball legends in the City of Angels.
He played with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Showtime Lakers of the 1980s. He’s been around to see the city as Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant hoisted multiple championship trophies.
So it’s fitting Cooper’s WNBA coaching career would be linked to another Los Angeles basketball legend, Sparks center Lisa Leslie.
One of the original WNBA players, Leslie plans to retire at the end of the season. And since the league began in 1997, Leslie has been one of the best and most recognizable players in the league.
She’s the WNBA’s all-time leader in points (6,047), rebounds (3,224), shots made (2,240) and second in blocks (801).
“She’s a marquee player,” Cooper said. “Every L.A. team has always had a marquee player, and it’s always been a center. She’s like that dominating center that every team needs. Wilt (Chamberlain), Kareem, Vlade (Divac), Shaq.”
Barring a miraculous turnaround by Sacramento that creates another Sparks-Monarchs playoff matchup, tonight’s game at Arco Arena will be Leslie’s last at Arco.
And as the game has changed, with 6-foot-5 players like Seattle’s Lauren Jackson becoming proficient three-point shooters, the 6-5 Leslie made her name playing in the paint.
“I think her identity came as that true legitimate center,” Cooper said.
Leslie’s accomplishments are many. She’s a member of two WNBA championship teams (2001, 2002) and was Finals Most Valuable Player after each title. She is a three-time league MVP (2001, 2004, 2006) and twice the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year (2004, 2008). She has won a gold medal in the last four Olympics and became the first player to dunk in a WNBA game on June 30, 2002.
Leslie, however, said Arco would always be a special place in her career.
“The fans there are always great,” Leslie said. “Whether they’re booing or cheering, they’re always loud. With the cowbells and with their chant of ‘Beat L.A.,’ it was like it was invented there.”
Leslie said some of her worst games have been at Arco, thanks to the constant defensive pressure the Monarchs put on her at the height of their rivalry.
Leslie battled Yolanda Griffith in the paint in the regular season and playoffs and was always the focal point of the Monarchs’ scheme.
“Yo played extra hard when she played against Lisa because she knew Lisa was the dominant force and the face of the league,” Monarchs coach John Whisenant said. ” … Lisa’s always been a challenge and she’s always been our No. 1 player to stop. If we had an advantage, Yo played her most inspired games against Lisa.”
Long before Leslie took on the Monarchs, she’d been synonymous with women’s basketball in Southern California.
She scored 101 points in one half as a senior while playing for Morningside High School in Inglewood in 1990. She went on to become a three-time All-American at USC. Those feats, along with her WNBA and international success, make Leslie one of the most accomplished women in sports.
But Leslie is focused on getting the Sparks, fifth in the conference standings, back into the playoffs for one last title run.
Talk of her legacy can wait.
“I’ve always played basketball, and it’s always been what have you done for me lately,” Leslie said. “I think I’ve represented my family name, city, country to the best of my ability. I try to leave it out on the floor and stay positive.”
But Leslie’s legacy has been established for some time.
“It’s obvious she’s been the face of the league,” Whisenant said. “She’s been an All-Star since she started. She’s very professional, highly competitive but remains lady like. She’s not only led the Sparks, but led the WNBA and the U.S. in the Olympics with a lot of class. It’s been enjoyable competing against her.”
Leslie’s role as a mentor for other players means her impact will continue to be felt. Sparks teammate Candace Parker is poised to take Leslie’s place as the WNBA’s marquee name after winning MVP and Rookie of the Year last season.
And Leslie, who took off the 2007 season for the birth of her daughter, is also helping Parker, a new mother herself, in that role.
“She’s showing (Parker) some moves on the court that only another player can show you,” Cooper said.
Leslie believes the WNBA is in a good place as she leaves. And she expects nothing but a fight tonight, even if the Monarchs have the worst record in the league.
“I don’t think it means anything with the record,” Leslie said. “With Sacramento, they’ll play the spoiler and try to win as many games as possible.”

Lakeside Little League of Granite Bay and Loomis will play Sunday for the West Region championship and a trip to Williamsport, Pa., for the World Series.
The 12-year-old all-star team remained undefeated in the West Region Tournament in San Bernardino by beating Arrowhead Little League of Glendale, Ariz., 9-8 in the semifinals Friday.
Lakeside will play Park View Little League of Chula Vista at 5 p.m. Sunday. Chula Vista defeated Las Vegas 12-2 in the early semifinal. The game will be televised on ESPN2.
Lakeside pitcher Nick Frank hit a two-run home run in the top of the third inning. Lakeside scored five runs in the fourth and two in the sixth to take the lead. Mitch Hart stole home in the six to tie the game, followed by a home run by Zach Hall.
– Bee Sports staff
Challenger tennis at Natomas
There will be a Challenger men’s tennis tournament in Sacramento this year, after all.
The Natomas Racquet Club will play host to a $50,000 event Oct. 3-11, officials announced Friday. Because of the recession, the Sutter Lawn Tennis Club was unable to secure the necessary sponsorship to hold the tournament for the fifth consecutive year.
Challengers are equivalent to Triple A in baseball. Last year’s Sutter Lawn tournament attracted players ranked 90th to 255th in the world. Donald Young, then 19 years old and ranked No. 131, won the singles title.
Natomas tournament director Glenn Davis announced that five charter members will be inducted into the Sacramento Area Tennis Hall of Fame on Oct. 7.
Natomas Racquet Club officials will decide by the end of the year whether to continue hosting a $15,000 men’s tournament in June, Davis said.
– Paul Bauman
• Fourth-seeded Lauren Embree of Marco Island, Fla., and eighth-seeded Beatrice Capra of Ellicott City, Md., overcame slow starts to advance to a semifinal showdown in the USTA Girls’ 18 National Championships at the Berkeley Tennis Club.
Embree beat 11th-seeded Alexandra Cercone of Seminole, Fla., 0-6, 6-1, 6-0, and Capra outlasted 15th-seeded Ester Goldfeld of Brooklyn, N.Y., 1-6, 6-2, 6-4. Goldfeld stunned top-seeded Kristie Ahn of Upper Saddle River, N.J., in the round of 16.
Today’s matches begin at 10 a.m.

TODAY
BASEBALL
Philadelphia at Atlanta 1 p.m. 1320
Chicago White Sox at A’s 1:05 p.m. 950, 1380
Giants at N.Y. Mets 1:10 p.m. 40 680
River Cats at Memphis 4:05 p.m. 92.1
GOLF
PGA Championship 8 a.m. TNT
PGA Championship 11 a.m. 13
GYMNASTICS
U.S. Championships 8 p.m. 3
LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL
Missouri vs. Iowa 9 a.m. ESPN
New Eng. Regional, teams TBA 11 a.m. ESPN
Kentucky vs. Indiana 4 p.m. ESPN
Northwest Reg. teams TBA 6 p.m. ESPN
MIXED MARTIAL ARTS
Carano vs. Cyborg 10:30 p.m. SHOWTIME
MOTOR SPORTS
NASCAR Nationwide Series qual. 7:30 a.m. SPEED
NASCAR Sprint Cup practice 9:30 a.m. SPEED
NASCAR Sprint Cup final prac. 10:30 a.m. SPEED
NASCAR Nationwide Series 12:30 p.m. ESPN2
NHRA Lucas Oil Nat. qual.* 3 p.m. ESPN2
AMA Pro Motocross* 4 p.m. SPEED
AMA Pro Racing* 5 p.m. SPEED
Knoxville Nationals 7 p.m. SPEED
NFL EXHIBITION
Atlanta at Detroit 1 p.m. NFLN
Chicago at Buffalo 4 p.m. NFLN
Seattle at San Diego 7 p.m. NFLN
SOCCER
WPS, Sky Blue FC at Wash. 1 p.m. CSNBA
D.C. United at Toronto FC 1 p.m. 64
San Luis vs. Pachuca 7 p.m. 64 TENNIS
West. & South, Financial Open 10 a.m. ESPN2
Rogers Cup 4 p.m. ESPN2
Rogers Cup* 6 p.m. ESPN2
TRACK AND FIELD
IAAF World Championships 10 a.m. 3
IAAF World Championships* 4 p.m. VS
WNBA
Phoenix at San Antonio 5 p.m. NBATV
Los Angeles at Monarchs 7 p.m. 1140
SUNDAY
BASEBALL
Giants at N.Y. Mets 10:10 a.m. CSNBA 680
Boston at Texas 11 a.m. TBS
Pittsburgh at Chicago Cubs 11:10 a.m. WGN
River Cats at Memphis 11:35 a.m. 92.1
Chicago White Sox at A’s 1:05 p.m. CSNCA 950, 1380
Philadelphia at Atlanta 5 p.m. ESPN 1320
GOLF
PGA Championship 8 a.m. TNT
PGA Championship 11 a.m. 13
LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL
West Regional final, teams TBA 5 p.m. ESPN2
MOTOR SPORTS
NASCAR Sprint Cup 11 a.m. ESPN

A’s starter Brett Anderson pauses after allowing a two-run homer to the White Sox’s Ramon Castro in the second inning.OAKLAND — Alexei Ramirez led off the 10th inning with a home run, and the Chicago White Sox overcame blowing a six-run lead with an 8-7 victory over the A’s on Friday night.
Ramirez hit an 0-2 pitch from Craig Breslow (4-4) over the fence in left field to lift Chicago to just its fourth win in its last 16 road games.
The White Sox, who led 6-0 after two innings, committed two errors and overcame another rough outing by starter Jose Contreras.
Ramon Castro homered for Chicago, while Jermaine Dye added two hits and three RBIs.
Scott Hairston homered for the A’s, who lost for the fourth time in their last 11 games.
Octavio Dotel (2-3), the fourth White Sox pitcher, struck out the side in the ninth in his only inning to get the win. Bobby Jenks gave up two hits in the 10th, then held on for his 24th save in 28 chances.
Oakland’s Brett Anderson, who had a 23-inning scoreless streak earlier this season, gave up three consecutive singles to start the game and fell behind 2-0 in the first. He gave up four runs in the second when Chicago batted around. Castro’s two-run homer highlighted the inning for the White Sox while Dye added a two-run single as Chicago took a 6-0 lead.
But Contreras couldn’t hold it. The struggling right-hander cruised through the first three innings before the wheels came off in the fourth when Oakland scored five runs. Hairston homered leading off, Mark Ellis added a bases-loaded double to drive in three runs and Cliff Pennington added an RBI single that cut Chicago’s lead to 6-5.
The A’s scored twice in the fifth to take their first lead and chase the 37-year-old, who could be headed to the bullpen after his latest rough outing. Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen mentioned before the game the White Sox were considering that as an option, and Conteras certainly didn’t help his cause to stay in the rotation after giving up seven runs, six earned, in 4 1-3 innings.

Quarterback Shaun Hill led the 49ers on a 58-yard scoring drive to start the game.SAN FRANCISCO — Kyle Orton threw interceptions in his first three series during an awful Denver debut, while San Francisco’s two quarterback candidates were steady in the 49ers’ 17-16 exhibition victory over the Broncos on Friday night.
Alex Smith threw a three-yard touchdown pass to Brit Miller following Orton’s third first-half pick in the exhibition opener for both teams, a night featuring the return of former 49ers coach Mike Nolan as Denver’s defensive coordinator.
San Francisco starter Shaun Hill completed two crisp passes to tight end Vernon Davis for 41 yards while leading the 49ers on a 58-yard scoring drive to start the game, capped by Alex Romero’s 38-yard field goal.
It was Orton’s backup, Chris Simms, who nearly led Denver to victory with a big second half. After Miller’s second touchdown of the night on a 40-yard reception from Damon Huard put the 49ers ahead 17-10, Simms hit Kenny McKinley on a 52-yard scoring pass with 2:01 left, but the Broncos failed on the two-point conversion.
New Broncos coach Josh McDaniels is stressing accuracy this training camp, and Orton was way off all night against the 49ers’ first- and second-team defenses. Even with ample time in the pocket, he misfired.
Orton got the No. 1 job in June but has done little to impress after the Broncos traded Pro Bowl passer Jay Cutler to the Chicago Bears in the NFL’s biggest swap of the spring. Orton was even booed by fans during a scrimmage at Invesco Field when he threw two interceptions and several other poor passes. He completed six of his first seven passes for 54 yards Friday but couldn’t capitalize.
Everybody’s curious to see how Orton handles the pressure and responsibility for an organization that has won just one playoff game since John Elway retired with two Super Bowl titles a decade ago.
San Francisco cornerback Nate Clements was constantly in the middle of the action. He had four solo tackles and an interception on Denver’s first drive, picking off a pass from Orton in the end zone intended for Daniel Graham on third and- oal from the 3.
“I saw the route and played my responsibility and he threw it,” Clements said. “I like seeing all of our (defensive backs) get interceptions and just making plays because we’re game breakers.”
Neither Hill nor Smith did anything flashy to stand out — not that coach Mike Singletary expected to have a good gauge of who might be his top quarterback after just one exhibition game. He hadn’t decided on a starter for the second exhibition game next Saturday against the Raiders.
Hill went 2 for 2 with the two completions to Davis and was sacked twice, and Smith was 5 of 7 for 33 yards with a sack.
“We were able to move the ball, and we had a big conversion on third down,” Hill said. “That last sack kind of hurt us. That was completely on me. The offensive line did a great job out there. So I’d like to have that play back and I feel like we could have gotten seven out of that.”
Hill went 5-3 over the final eight games last season, when Singletary took over Oct. 20 and later had the interim tag stripped from his title following the team’s strong finish.
Smith missed all of 2008 after re-injuring his surgically repaired right shoulder in practice two days before the season opener.
“Obviously, I was raring to go when I got out there,” Smith said. “It’s been a long time for me, so I was pretty amped up.”
Singletary is eager to name a starter who can turn around a team that’s endured a franchise-worst six consecutive losing seasons, yet he’s said he might wait until after the third exhibition game.

The Monarchs’ Laura Harper draws a double team from the Sparks’ Candace Parker, left, and Lisa Leslie.LOS ANGELES — Rebekkah Brunson scored 19 points, Nicole Powell added 18, and the Monarchs rallied in the fourth quarter to beat the Los Angeles Sparks 85-79 Friday night.
Lisa Leslie scored 25 points and blocked her 800th career shot in the first quarter for the Sparks, who lost their second in a row against a conference-worst team. They were beaten by the New York Liberty, who trail the Eastern Conference standings, on Tuesday.
It was Leslie’s highest-scoring game since she returned from a right knee injury on Aug. 4.
Brunson had her strongest outing in her third game back from a knee injury. Kara Lawson added 12 points, and Ticha Penicheiro had 10 points and 10 assists for the last-place Monarchs, who will host the Sparks in a rematch tonight.
Noelle Quinn added 13 points, Tina Thompson 12 and Candace Parker 10 for Los Angeles. Quinn scored six in the final 1:44. Parker was fouled with 51 seconds remaining but missed the first free throw and made the second to leave the Sparks trailing by four.
Sacramento used an 11-0 run to take its largest lead of the fourth, 77-68, with 2:38 remaining. Powell scored four points, Lawson hit a three-pointer and Brunson made two free throws in the spurt.
The Sparks answered with six in a row, including two baskets by Quinn, to get to 77-74. From there, the Monarchs outscored Los Angeles 8-4 to end the game.
Los Angeles scored six in a row midway through the third to take its first lead since the start of the game. Parker capped the run that put the Sparks ahead 56-53. Sacramento answered with a 4-0 run before Leslie completed a three-point play to send the Sparks into the fourth leading 59-57.
The Sparks rallied from a 14-point deficit to get within one at halftime. They staggered out of the gate, committing seven turnovers and getting dominated 18-8 in the paint in the first 10 minutes.
But Leslie found her shooting touch, scoring 11 points, and in the second quarter, her teammates followed suit. The Sparks outscored the Monarchs 25-14 in the period, getting balanced offense with Leslie contributing just four points.

Bee file, 1989
Ricky Berry conducted a free basketball clinic for underprivileged children at Sacramento State three days before he committed suicide with a 9 mm pistol. He was 24.Some days there are reminders that bring it back. Ricky Berry, in clear focus.
The warmth. The skills. The potential. And, of course, the sudden end. A man with an impulsive thought and a gun.
The Ricky Berry suicide was a tragedy that still resonates all these years later.
“Every time I do a basketball camp, I think of him,” said Harold Pressley, who lost his Kings teammate and close friend 20 years ago today.
“This camp now? Ricky would have loved all these smiles. I still feel him today, and I still can’t understand why he’s not here.”
Jeff Logan can’t shake it, either. He was Berry’s closest friend. Berry was the godfather of Logan’s daughter.
“Time,” Logan said from Los Angeles this week, “gives you perspective.”
Perspective but few answers. Berry was seemingly without burden in 1989. He played with purpose and promise, a 6-foot-8 swingman, all of 24 years old, who could score and rebound. He averaged 18.3 points and 5.8 rebounds in the final six weeks of his rookie season. And he had everything to live for: fame, fortune, family, friends.
Despite outward appearances, something troubled Berry, and he made a decision. He placed a 9 mm pistol to his temple in his new Carmichael home.
The Kings’ darkest hour wasn’t last season, when they managed a franchise-worst 17 wins. It was Aug. 14, 1989.
“Such a great kid and such a great loss,” said Jerry Reynolds, Berry’s coach with the Kings who now is in the team’s front office. “He had the potential to be a major star. And it really threw this franchise into a fog.”
Berry’s death changed lives, and it altered the course of the franchise.
“Besides the tragedy, it changed the Kings greatly,” Kings veteran TV announcer Grant Napear said. “The two biggest moves in franchise history were Mitch Richmond and Chris Webber. The Kings don’t trade for Richmond if Ricky was still alive, and Richmond later became Webber (in a trade).
“In all my years here, Ricky’s at the top of the list in terms of bewilderment, surprise, shock, sadness.”
The prevailing question then and now remains. Why?
Toxicology reports revealed Berry was drug- and alcohol-free. Those who were with him up to his final days said he seemed in typically good spirits. He conducted a free basketball clinic for underprivileged children at Sacramento State three days before his death. He and his wife of 15 months, Valerie, were to go on a cruise in the Bahamas later that August.
“Suicide, man … it’s still hard to make any sense of it,” said Bobby Gerould, the son of Kings radio voice Gary Gerould, who was with Berry hours before his death. “He had to have something going on, something deep, but to take your life? How fragile is that?”
Berry and his wife argued the night before, according to police reports and neighbors. There were reports they had feuded before. Valerie stayed overnight with friends that fateful Sunday evening. The next morning, she found Berry’s body on their living room floor, a suicide note nearby. The farewell message mentioned Berry’s dissatisfaction with his marriage. It also read, “I will feel no pain.”
“I couldn’t believe it, and I pursued it with (law enforcement) for a long time,” Gerould said. “I kept thinking someone did that to him. I refused to believe he’d shoot himself.”
Logan and Berry spoke on the phone every day. Except the final day.
“Ricky and Valerie, they had a rocky marriage,” Logan said. “Here she was thrust into this new lifestyle.
“There’s no school to prepare you to be a pro athlete’s wife, and I think that had something to do with it. And the pressure Ricky must have felt of being Ricky Berry and not a Ricky Jones had something to do with it. Bless his soul, but I wish he’d have given himself an hour, a day, to think about what he was going to do.
“He needed to get away. Maybe not talk to people in his circle – me, Bobby Gerould, Harold Pressley, whoever, because athletes don’t like to show weakness. Talk to someone on a suicide hotline, someone he doesn’t know.”
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson was also close to the Berry family. He and Berry played against each other from their youth into the NBA.
“I still think about him,” Johnson said. “I loved him and his family. I still remember going to his house after it happened and trying to understand. How can a guy so young with so much to live for have such a terrible thing going on inside, to be so unsettled, that he has to do that? It terrifies me to think about it.”
The Berrys were identified by basketball. Berry’s father, Bill, was a career coach. Young Berry lived in Sacramento from 1965 to 1972 while his dad coached at Highlands High School and Cosumnes River College. Bill was an assistant coach at Michigan State in 1979, the year Magic Johnson and the Spartans won the national championship.
Berry was a ballboy for that squad. He idolized Johnson. Johnson followed Berry’s career and embraced him every time the Los Angeles Lakers and Kings played. By odd coincidence, Berry killed himself on Johnson’s 30th birthday.
Berry played for his father at San Jose State, where he became the Spartans’ career scoring leader in three seasons. Bill Berry was not easy to play for. He was fired at San Jose State during Berry’s rookie season. Ten players walked out on the team, telling administrators Berry was “mentally cruel.”
On Berry’s first day as a Kings scout/assistant coach at Arco Arena, he was informed of the news: His son was dead.
The Berry family has never spoken publicly about any of this. Bill worked for the Kings for two seasons and had three more NBA assistant coaching stops.
“(I) never talked about it with Bill,” Reynolds said. “How can you? I don’t know if Bill ever got over it. I don’t think a parent ever does. I can’t imagine.”
Said Kevin Johnson: “Ricky’s dad never talks about it, to anyone. You have to respect that. Something like this would be especially hard for a dad who coached his son.”
Pressley and his wife, Laura, became close with Valerie over the years. Pressley said she is living in the area after stops on the East Coast. She has never talked about what happened 20 years ago.
“It took her forever to get over it,” Pressley said. “I can tell you she’s doing great otherwise. Strong woman.”
What have those close to Berry learned in 20 years?
“I know we never know what people are going through,” Kevin Johnson said. “Life is short, and it can be taken away in a blink of an eye, before you know it.”
Added Logan: “We should appreciate every day we have above ground.”

MARCIO SANCHEZ Associated Press
Louis Rankin scores in the third quarter of the Raiders’ exhibition win over Dallas on Thursday night.OAKLAND – It was one quarter of play.
Less than that, actually, and it was in an exhibition opener.
But JaMarcus Russell looked like a leader. He carried himself with a certain swagger that belied his first two professional seasons of uncertainty. His passes were, well, let a two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback set the scene for you.
“He played better than he looked at practice the other day when I saw him,” Jim Plunkett told me at halftime of the Raiders’ 31-10 victory over the Dallas Cowboys. “He was decisive, pretty much on target most of the time.”
Sounds uplifting, I suggested.
Plunkett smiled.
“I don’t know if it’s uplifting,” he said. “But it’s a good feeling to see him do well out there. In a lot of respects, it’s good for his confidence, and it’s good for us (as an organization) to see that.” Indeed.
Since being the No. 1 overall pick of the 2007 draft out of LSU and wrecking his rookie season by holding out until after the season opener, Russell has been the quintessential mystery wrapped in a silver riddle inside a black enigma.
No wonder, then, that Russell’s dedication to and aptitude for the game have been questioned as much as his desire to lead.
So, yes, it’s the smallest of sample sizes in this, his critical third pro season. But his pocket presence and sideline stewardship were great signs of maturity.
Then there was his on-field play.
In two series against the Cowboys’ first-string defense, Russell completed 6 of 9 passes for 50 yards.
He was sacked once by a blitzing Greg Isdaner for an 11-yard loss, though it was no fault of his own. He later rumbled for a breathless 18-yard run.
The 6-foot-6, 260-pounder had a ball knocked down at the line of scrimmage by leaping 6-4, 302-pound nose tackle Jay Ratliff.
And Russell twice underthrew rookie speedster Darrius Heyward-Bey, though one incompletion was negated by a pass interference call.
Through it all, Russell’s shoulders never slumped. He didn’t trudge back to the sideline and mope on the bench as he has more than a few times during his young career.
Instead, he seemed to find a new mark in second-year wide receiver Chaz Schilens.
A year ago, tight end Zach Miller was Russell’s favorite target. Miller caught 49 of Russell’s 198 completions, or 24.7 percent.
On Thursday night, Russell threw five passes Schilens’ way. The big-but-far-from-lumbering target hauled in four Russell passes for 43 yards in those two impressive series.
“Off to a good start,” Schilens said at halftime. “The offense is rolling.”
As a member of the Raiders’ broadcast team, Plunkett is paid to stay positive. But his enthusiasm for the guy under center was genuine.
“It looks like it’s going to be a pretty explosive offense, so the guy pulling the trigger is pretty important,” Plunkett said. “There’s a lot of pressure on the kid. Now whether that’s fair or not, that’s the way it is.”
And that’s the way it should be. Even for an exhibition opener.

JaMarcus Russell, talking with coach Tom Cable, kept his focus in Thursday night’s victory.

John Whisenant is a believer in his white line.
It’s his defensive philosophy. It’s about constant ball pressure, crisp rotations and everyone being in the right place or the whole thing can fall apart.
If you don’t know the white line, it’s hard to get on the court. Because in Whisenant’s system, knowing the defense is what gets you playing time.
That’s the lesson being taught to three young Monarchs who are trying to figure out where they fit defensively.
That’s why, for all her offensive ability, rookie center Courtney Paris has had her minutes monitored. It’s also why second-year posts Laura Harper and Crystal Kelly have watched as DeMya Walker, Rebekkah Brunson and even small forward Hamchétou Maïga-Ba have played up front late in games.
Walker, Brunson and Maïga-Ba are familiar with the defense. Harper, Kelly and Paris are still processing where they belong on the floor.
“It’s tough for them,” Whisenant said. “But they’re trying. They’re really trying. They’ve got to get in really great shape and react to it.”
It’s not uncommon to see the young trio after practice still being drilled on where they need to be defensively. They do this along with the regular practice and film sessions, trying to master the nuances of the defense.
“I’ve gotten the opportunity to get on the court and learn from experience,” Paris said. “I feel like every day I get a little better at it. And I recognize when I make mistakes. That’s probably the hardest part – you’re doing something wrong and you don’t even know what (you’re doing wrong) because you don’t even know the system.”
Post players in Whisenant’s system aren’t asked to simply stand in front of the basket and wait for dribble penetration. Like perimeter players, Whisenant asks his interior players to move on the perimeter and still have the ability to recover in time to compete for rebounds.
“It’s really strategic … you’ve got to see everything,” Harper said. “And I think that was an issue with me, having vision to the ball and vision through the whole court.
“I worked really hard last year on that with (former coach) Jenny (Boucek) and even more so being there in help (defense) and then find the rebound.”
Kelly, who had become accustomed to playing in crucial moments of games, has lately been replaced by players such as Brunson, who have a better grasp of Whisenant’s defense.
The basics aren’t too different from what Boucek wanted, and Kelly said the extra practice of learning Whisenant’s defense is fine with her.
“It can only help us,” Kelly said. “We play everyone on this team.”
One of the reasons Whisenant likes to use his entire roster is because of the energy he asks players to exert defensively.
That’s why Whisenant often speaks about conditioning. Paris said the physical work and mental toll make for some tiring days.
“It’s (physical) along with the energy you use being frustrated,” Paris said. “Not knowing where to go, going, ‘Oh, where do I go next?’ “

Now we know the difference between two NFL commissioners: eight games.
On Thursday, current Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Donte’ Stallworth for this season (16 games) after the car he was driving while drunk struck and killed a pedestrian in Miami.
In 1999, Goodell’s predecessor, Paul Tagliabue, suspended Leonard Little for eight games. The Rams defensive end had pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter after killing another driver while driving drunk in 1998.
Stallworth, the former Grant High School star, served 24 days of a 30-day sentence, which has caused controversy. But the Browns wide receiver worked out a settlement with the family of his victim and showed remorse the whole way. Little wasn’t as contrite as Stallworth, receiving 90 days in jail and 1,000 hours of community service.
No matter how you feel about Stallworth’s sentence – or Little’s – this shows Goodell is serious about his personal conduct policy. He has proven it with six suspensions in three years, including a harder one for Stallworth.
What to surf
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=1621: Here’s Little’s player card.
What to watch
NFL exhibition, Broncos at 49ers, NFL Network, Ch. 13, 7 p.m.: Time to start watching the quarterback battle.
What to do
Baseball, White Sox at A’s, 7:05 p.m., Oakland Coliseum: Brett Anderson pitches in the series opener.
The last word
What you’re saying on sacbee.com comments: “As the old saying goes, ‘Nice guys finish last.’ Even Mr. Cool showed some spark and Steve was as emotional as they get.” – pauls4tniners on “Way more Mr. Nice Guy from 49ers’ Smith.”