Crawley Wants WNBA's First Jam
by Associated Press
May 29, 7:32 AM

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Sylvia Crawley paused near the 3-point line, dribbled a couple times, then took off. Midway through her leap, she split her legs and stuffed a one-handed jam through the net.

The Portland Fire's 6-foot-5 center smiled. New York Liberty guard Becky Hammon was watching nearby, waiting for her team's practice to begin on the Rose Garden court.

"You can do it," Hammon said. "Just don't do it against us."

No woman has dunked during a professional game, but WNBA fans might not have to wait long. Crawley, who played at North Carolina, is the likeliest candidate to pull off the feat, but Houston Comets rookie Michelle Snow could get there first.

Houston plays Phoenix on Wednesday night, with the New York-Portland game starting 90 minutes later.

"There's no time to wait," Crawley said following Tuesday's practice. "Whenever I get the first opportunity, I've got to try to do it."

The WNBA, which has begun its sixth season, appears to have enough star power and fan support to stick around. But the game hasn't caught on with hard-core male basketball fans. Seeing a woman dunk could change some minds, or at least turn heads.

"We want to do whatever it takes to make this league survive and really keep thriving, so if that's going help, then heck, let's go for it," Portland guard Jackie Stiles said.

Crawley said she has male cousins who will drop everything and head to Los Angeles for an NBA playoff game, but they won't give the WNBA the time of day.

"They're like, 'When you dunk on somebody, then I'll come to the games,"' she said. "So there are a lot of people out there who don't support women's basketball because they feel like we don't play above the rim. They love to see the Vince Carter dunks, and that's what's missing from the women's game."

The first college woman to dunk in a game was West Virginia's Georgeann Wells, who did it Dec. 21, 1984, against Charleston. North Carolina's Charlotte Smith dunked in 1994.

Snow dunked three times during her career at Tennessee, the first time on Nov. 25, 2000. After being drafted 10th overall by the Comets, Snow said dunking is a priority.

"Coach is very adamant about me being aggressive and going for it in practices," she said during training camp.

Snow, a 6-5 center, went 0-for-3 from the field in her debut, a loss to the Sparks on Monday, and Crawley said the rookie has too much to worry about to even consider dunking.

"I think that's going to buy me more time," Crawley said.

Portland coach Linda Hargrove said the team has worked on a play specifically designed to get Crawley an outlet pass on the breakaway.

"We don't want a rookie to come in and get it before she gets a chance to get it," Hargrove said.

Lisa Leslie tried a dunk in the WNBA's inaugural game in 1997. She missed and hasn't tried again. Crawley, who won a dunk contest during the defunct American Basketball League's all-star break in 1998, nearly did it last year. But while on a breakaway the ball slipped out of her hand, and it bounced off the back of the rim and in.

"It was still two points, but not anything I want to claim as a dunk," she said. "I want it to be legit."

Biggest problem is, women players can only dunk if they get a running start at the basket, as on a breakaway. There never has been a woman player who could dunk from a flat-footed start, the way guys like Carter and Stackhouse can. That makes it much tougher to work the dunk into a game. All of Snow's, and I think Smith's too, were on breaks.

FWIW, I think too much is being made out of dunking in Women's BB. I'd rather see the game progress as it has - passing, ball handling, teamwork, solid D - and leave the high-wire stuff to the men's game. Frankly, I'd much rather see the fundamentally sound game the women play than the no-D, woofing, in-your-face trash-talking travesty the NBA tries to pass off as basketball.