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gillomfan · Joined: 16 Jun 2002 Posts: 262

If anyone cares Cynthia Cooper is coming back to play for the Houston Comets. Official announcement will be sometime next week. This has helped me to finally over come the heart ache of her quiting as head coach of the Mercury. The farther away it gets from last season the better I am. Coop haters can blast her all you want. I like her. You don't. Thats life. At any rate I am very excited she will be playing again. I look forward to her return to AWA as a player. She will burn us bad but I hope we win. Oh the drama! 2003 season can't get here soon enough. GO MERCURY and GO COOP!!!!

Dunkin' Dan · Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2003 12:55 am Post subject:

Yeah I think she'll save an extra special performance for her first game back at AWA ;)

Personally I'm glad to see her back - purely for the extra drama & interest that she brings to the league. (Is there anything funnier than infighting between Comets fans? :P )

mb · Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2003 3:13 pm Post subject:

Hannah,

First, nobody "hates" Coop. Some, myself included, disagreed with her coaching tactics.

Second, myself and others have always maintained that we respect her abilities as a player.

Third, most of us hope she has a successful return as a player because it would be a good thing for the league.

Fourth, even if she scores 50 points when she returns to PHX, she remains a good player and not so good coach.

Fifth, one can speculate that her return is an ego driven attempt to diminish the memories of her coaching debacle.

Sixth, a coach or player remembering a fan by name speaks well of them, yet has no correlation to their abilities.

Seventh, your level of passion for this league and certain players is most admirable.

Eight, best of luck to the Mercury, Cooper, and the WNBA.

Ninth, please understand this post as an honest reflection of opinions with positive intentions.

gillomfan · Joined: 16 Jun 2002 Posts: 262

MB, I never said scoring 50 points would prove Cooper was a great coach. To some nothing she could do would make you believe in her coaching abilities. I still say she was great. But I am not going to get upset with you or the other critics any more. Last season I let my emotions get out of control. It made the hard season even worse. It also left me drained after the season was over. People are going to say things. So be it. What does it matter what you and many others think? We all have different views. Life goes on.

It is the dawn of a new era. John Shumate is at the helm. We are all rallied behind him. Bring on the 2003 WNBA season. Go Mercury!

mb · Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2003 9:46 am Post subject:

Gillom fan,

Very well...let us hope Coach Shumate leads our Mercury to a number of victories.

In addition, let us hope Coop does well enough to bring additional fans to fill the seats around the league.

Go Mercury! Long live the WNBA!

SportsFan48 · Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 1137

gillomfan, the first article on Cooper's potential return came out in December.

There is another article on the WNBA site that you might find interesting. Apparently, Cooper has NOT made up her mind yet as to whether she will be playing this season. The team owner announced rather prematurely that Cooper would be back, but that appears to be news to the GM and Coach Chancellor.

When Cooper retired, she still had a lot of game left. It will be interesting to see what she can still do. I don't think she will be the dominating player that she once was, but she will still have an impact.

And if she does come back to play, I believe she will be received warmly by the Phoenix fans: mb, myself, and others included.