Archive for the ‘griffith’ Category

Griffith’s Season Over

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

Sad news today from Indianapolis, where the Indiana Fever announced today that center Yolanda Griffith ruptured her left Achilles tendon when she went down in the first quarter of yesterday’s game against the Storm. Griffith will have to undergo surgery to repair the tendon and is out for the year. Previously, Griffith had indicated that 2009 would be the final season of her 11-year WNBA career.

The Storm got a chance to see Griffith’s work ethic, leadership and intensity up close when she spent the 2008 campaign in Seattle after nearly a decade as a rival with the Sacramento Monarchs. Now, the organization is disappointed to see Griffith’s year come to a premature end, especially against the Storm.

“We wish Yolanda the best for a successful surgery and recovery,” said Storm CEO Karen Bryant. “Yolanda established herself as one of the most dominant forces in WNBA history, and we were fortunate to have her veteran leadership on our team last season.”

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Griffith Signs With Fever

Friday, February 20th, 2009


The Indiana Fever announced Friday morning the signing of former Storm center Yolanda Griffith. An unrestricted free agent, Griffith negotiated with the Storm about a possible return before ultimately deciding the Indiana Fever was a better fit at this stage of her career.

“We are disappointed that Yolanda will not be returning to the Storm for a second season, but we respect her decision to join the Indiana Fever,” Storm Head Coach Brian Agler said in a statement.

“We were fortunate to have Yolanda on our team this past season – her veteran leadership was invaluable. We can’t thank her enough for the contributions she made on the court and in the Seattle community, and we wish her the best of luck with her new team.”

The Storm already bolstered its depth at center last week by bringing back Janell Burse, the team’s starter at the position from 2005 through 2007 before deciding to sit last season out, and re-signing reserve post Ashley Robinson. With plenty of room under the salary cap, Agler and company will be able to sign another player as part of the frontcourt rotation while leaving space for unrestricted free agent Lauren Jackson.

Griffith signed with the Storm as an unrestricted free agent last April and started all 30 games she played during her lone season in Seattle, averaging 7.2 points and 6.3 rebounds per game.

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Griffith Update

Friday, January 16th, 2009

I got an e-mail the other day from Rejina wondering about an update on Yolanda Griffith. I’d heard she had gone overseas, but it wasn’t until digging deeper I realized I had not noticed that Griffith had gone to play in China some time ago. In fact, her season is already over, her Henan team having been defeated in the WCBA quarterfinals.

Petrel of the Pleasant Dreams blog, who has been following the WCBA all year long with Atlanta’s Jennifer Lacy playing in China, is experienced navigating the WCBA Web site with Google Translate and was nice enough to track down Griffith’s stats: “She scored 18.4 ppg in 18 games, hit 62 percent of her free throws, averaged 16.9 rebounds a game, 0.8 blocks per game, 1.1 assists per game, and 2.7 steals per game. A double-double is not bad, even in the WCBA.”

Other WNBA players in the WCBA (which allows one import per team, usually a post player) included Chasity Melvin, Tangela Smith and Adrian Williams-Strong.

At the end of the season, Griffith indicated she wanted to play another WNBA season at age 39. The latest I’ve heard is she was planning to make a final decision after returning from China. Griffith is an unrestricted free agent.

Tangentially-related note: Did you know that former Sonics Head Coach Bob Weiss is coaching in China’s men’s league, the CBA?

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Griffith Goes Through Practice

Thursday, June 19th, 2008

After going through Thursday’s practice, Seattle Storm center Yolanda Griffith is a game-time decision for Friday when the Storm hosts the Indiana Fever (7:00 p.m., 1150 AM KKNW, TIX). Griffith, who injured her left knee and left ankle last Friday in San Antonio and has missed the Storm’s two games since then, both losses, is clearly making progress in her recovery.

“Practice went good,” Griffith said after practice. “I still have some soreness in my ankle. That’s the concern right now. I’ve got to deal with a little soreness. Yesterday, I worked out for like 25 minutes individually with our conditioning coach working on cuts, rebounding, stuff like that. Today, did a full practice with the team. In the morning, we’ll see if there’s any swelling in my ankle and my knee. If not, it’s the trainer’s call.”

Griffith practiced wearing a brace on her left ankle for extra support. She also had a brace on her left knee that she said would help “calm down” the ligament she tweaked.

Storm Head Coach Brian Agler did not notice much of an effect on Griffith’s game of playing with the braces.

“The time that she was out there, she looked good,” he said. “We will anticipate taking a strong look at her again tomorrow.

“I think she’s a need no matter who we’re playing. She just gives us a presence inside. She has the ability to do a lot of dirty work around the basket. When she got back out there today, you could see that what she had given us in the past, we were missing for a period of time.”

Griffith knows her value to the Storm and admitted it was somewhat frustrating watching the Connecticut Sun pound the offensive glass during Monday’s win at KeyArena. However, she also is thinking long-term and doesn’t want to rush back and do further damage.

“I know it’s important for me to help this team and be the center they need me to be,” Griffith said, “but it’s also important to be smart about the whole situation.”

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Tonight: Griffith Back in Sacramento

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

Did you know? The Storm has played the Sacramento Monarchs far more often than any other preseason opponent. The two teams have played nine preseason games over the last eight years; next on the list is the now-defunct Utah Starzz, with four preseason meetings.

The 10th preseason matchup between these two teams is on tap for tonight at ARCO Arena. The game tips off at 7 p.m. and with Sacramento broadcasting on local radio, you should be able to get the feed online via storm.wnba.com. However, technical difficulties are common early in the season, so be prepared for the possibility we might be limited to WNBA.com’s live updates.

This game will have a little extra meeting because it is the first trip back to Sacramento for new Storm center Yolanda Griffith after nine years with the Monarchs, including an MVP and the 2005 WNBA championship.

Earlier this week, Griffith was focused on practice and the Storm’s preseason opener in Chicago and wasn’t really thinking ahead to tonight, other than looking forward to getting home and seeing her family. By the time the Storm practiced in Sacramento yesterday, she was ready to talk about the game with the Sacramento Bee.

“The hardest part is adjusting to the colors,” she remarked of her new green and red uniform. “And I’m adjusting to a new city. I’ve lived in Sacramento for such a long time. My family has stayed here, so being away is hard. … But (my daughter) Candace understands; Mama got to work.”

Columnist Ailene Voisin also considered the incongrinuity of Griffith in a Storm uniform in a column that touches on how she came to Sacramento in the first place.

First, though, she was the sneaky-brilliant draft pick that former Monarchs general manager Jerry Reynolds plucked after Katie Smith and Shannon Johnson had been allocated in the ABL dispersal draft, Chamique Holdsclaw had been drafted by the Washington Mystics with the No. 1 pick, and while the higher-profile former UCLA star, Natalie Williams, remained on the board.

“I wanted ‘Yo’ because she had the slim body type that would last longer,” Reynolds recalled, “and I thought she was the player you could build a franchise around.”

The Monarchs may have bigger issues on their mind than Griffith, however. Yesterday, they learned that forward DeMya Walker will miss the season with a fractured right patella. Walker had been returning from tearing the patella tendon, which holds the patella in place, in the same knee. That injury forced her to miss the final 29 games of the season, but Sacramento may find it more difficult to overcome Walker’s absence without Griffith. The Monarchs have options, including using Nicole Powell primarily at power forward or putting Rebekkah Brunson at the four alongside first-round pick Laura Harper, but those represent a step down from a Brunson-Walker frontcourt.

The Walker news came the same day as Minnesota announced that point guard Lindsey Harding has a stress fracture of her left patella that will sideline her indefinitely. Harding told reporters she expects to miss about a month with the injury. Like Walker, Harding was coming back from a torn ligament, in this case a torn ACL. Fortunately, the Lynx has depth at guard after signing Anna DeForge and drafting Candice Wiggins, but you want to see Harding get healthy and have a chance to make good on the potential that made her the top overall pick of the 2007 WNBA Draft.

Lastly, the Phoenix Mercury announced Wednesday that All-Star forward Penny Taylor will not join the team until after the Olympic break, if at all. The news was not unexpected but is still a major blow to the defending champs. Taylor was arguably Phoenix’s most valuable player a year ago, and the Mercury doesn’t have a great replacement for her either – though the Mercury was lucky to get LaToya Pringle late in the first round last month, and Pringle will see extra action filling in for Taylor.

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Yolanda Griffith Notebook

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Odds and ends from today’s press conference introducing Yolanda Griffith as the newest member of the Storm …

- Griffith has had a great WNBA career and is clearly one of the league’s elite players, but I don’t think her profile is as high amongst the casual WNBA fan as Sheryl Swoopes, for example. I’ve long thought that Griffith is one of the more underrated players in league history.

That said, I’ve got to admit even I didn’t realize quite how impressive Griffith’s career numbers were, especially given she missed the first two seasons of the WNBA while in the ABL. Check out Griffith’s Basketball-Reference.com player page and her career ranks at the bottom of the page. If they don’t impress you, I don’t know what will.

- One big question: What number will Griffith wear? She’s synonymous with No. 33, but that is Janell Burse’s number in Seattle. As a result, Griffith will switch it up this season.

“This is a new beginning for me, this is a fresh start,” she said. “I know I’ve been No. 33 my whole career, as long as I’ve been playing basketball, but JB, she’s earned it. She can keep it. I’m not going to persuade her, I’m not going to pay here. She can keep the uniform.”

- Another question: Who starts at center? Griffith said it isn’t a big deal.

“Brian (Agler) is a good coach,” she said. “He is going to put the players that need to be in the starting lineup in the starting lineup. I’m not worried about that. I’m here to help this team and whoever starts has got to do what they’ve got to do.”

Agler implied the position will be open during camp.

“Competition is always good in training camp, whether it be in this specific situation or at some other spots,” he said. “Yolanda’s always found a way to get to the floor and play a lot of minutes, and I don’t anticipate that to be any different.”

Incidentally, Griffith will be in camp from day one. Burse will likely be a couple of weeks late.

- Agler delivered his funniest line as Storm head coach responding to the notion that the Storm is an old team.

“I hope everybody thinks that Sheryl and Yolanda are over the hill, but they’re the only two players on our roster that are over 30,” he said. “People think that we may have to be bringing the Geritol out or something, but Lauren (Jackson) and Sue (Bird) and Swin (Cash) are still 27, 28 years old.” (For the record, Cash is 28, Bird is 27 and Jackson will turn 27 next month.)

- A little more on Ashley Robinson’s situation. Agler said Robinson had turned down offers so far in hopes of staying in Seattle, but that could change as she continues to talk with teams and tomorrow’s draft could affect their interest in her.

I had forgotten that Agler worked with Robinson during her rookie season in Phoenix, where he was an assistant coach.

“I’ve worked with Ashley when she was a rookie down in Phoenix and think the world of her,” he said. “I know that she really came on down the stretch and played some good minutes for Seattle.”

- Agler also talked about tomorrow morning’s WNBA Draft.

“We feel good about our roster, but we’d like to try to help ourselves tomorrow also,” he said. “I don’t see us doing anything tomorrow. We’ve talked with teams about trying to move up a little bit, we’ve talked with teams about acquiring a draft pick. I don’t envision anything happening.”

And what will be the Storm’s focus in the draft?

“We’re going to try to give us some depth in the backcourt,” said Agler.

- Remember that we’ll be blogging live on storm.wnba.com during tomorrow’s draft, so be sure to check in for league-wide analysis and the latest on the Storm. The first round will be on ESPN2 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific, while the second and third rounds move to NBA TV and ESPNU.

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