Shooting Comet Turns Into Shining Star in the WNBA

In the beginning, at USC, it was simply “Coop.”

Now, more than a decade later, it’s “Super Coop.”

One of the hallmarks of this first WNBA season is the extraordinary number of long-ago U.S. college All-Americans who are playing like 22-year-olds. Players such as 34-year-old Cynthia Lynne Cooper, who leads her Houston Comets against the Sparks tonight at the Forum.

A feisty, 5-foot-10 guard from Watts who as a teenager once ran into a gunfight in the street in front of her home and demanded the thugs stop shooting at each other (they did), Cooper has played like a WNBA all-star as the season reaches the three-quarter mark.

Van Chancellor, the Houston coach, said it best the other day: “Coop can shoot, rebound, pass, lead and guard the other team’s best player. That’s about all of it, isn’t it? She’s one of the hardest-working players I’ve ever been around.”

Example: Earlier in the season, Cooper was in a shooting slump. She began arriving at practices an hour early to shoot, then stayed an hour afterward, shooting.

Problem solved.

In a three-game stretch, Cooper put together the most torrid streak of shooting in the league so far.

--On July 18 at Sacramento, she made six of eight three-point shots and had 30 points.

--On July 22 at Phoenix, she made six of seven three-pointers, was 10 for 10 from the free-throw line and had 32 points.

--On July 25, back at Sacramento, she topped it all with a 44-point performance that included seven for nine from three-point range and nine for nine on free throws.

Pat Summitt, the Tennessee coach, was talking about players such as Cooper not long ago when discussing the athletes America has forgotten, the All-American-level female collegians of 10 to 15 years ago.

“I think what U.S. pro basketball will show the country is that women athletes will mature much later than men, that the best women players will be able to play at a high level into their 40s.

“I’m amazed at the number of my players of 10 and 12 years ago who come back to visit me between their overseas seasons and tell me they’ve never been better than they are now.”

Several of those players are playing the best basketball of their lives, including:

Lynette Woodard, 35, Cleveland; Janice Lawrence-Braxton, 35, Cleveland; Kym Hampton, 34, New York; Jennifer Gillom, 33, Phoenix; Pam McGee, 34, Sacramento.

Cooper is playing as though her best basketball is still ahead of her. She plays as if she owns the court, with an unmistakable command over all that transpires in a game . . . and with a passion that transcends the games of other players.

A reporter asked her if she enjoys playing as much as she did 10 years ago.

“Are you kidding me?” she said. “I love it. I have never loved playing this game more than I do right now. I’ve wanted this most of my life--to play pro ball in my own country. I played 10 years in Italy and enjoyed it, but this tops everything.

“I am still learning this game, I learn something new every day. I’ll be a much better player three years from now and a much better player three years after that.”

Cooper, growing up in a house on the corner of 105th and Lou Dillon Avenue, never played basketball until a playground pickup game as a 16-year-old.

Eighteen months later, at Locke High, she was the Los Angeles city player of the year and was awarded a USC scholarship.

She was an integral part of USC’s national title teams of the early ‘80s, then went to Parma, Italy. She says she’ll play in Brazil after this season, then finish her career in the WNBA.

She credits her off-season conditioning work for her high production this year.

“I’m never out of shape,” she said.

“I do a lot of cardiovascular work in the off-season, when I start every day with a 20-minute run. The closer I get to training camp, the more intense that run becomes.

“Some players tell me they’re wearing down, with the travel. Not me. I feel great. I enjoy the airports, with people recognizing me and coming up and wanting to talk basketball. I love it.”

Always in focus.

“When I was growing up, my family had it tough. And I never dreamed of being a pro sports athlete. I didn’t know for sure what I wanted. But I knew what I didn’t want to be.

“I didn’t want to be a drug addict, or get pregnant, or get into gangs. . . . I wanted to be viewed as an intelligent, strong black woman, successful at something.”