What a long, strange trip it's been!  Okay, it hasn't been that long, but the last month since new CBA was agreed upon, the expansion choices of the Atlanta Dream were announced, and free agency began, has sure been crazy!  Trades, signings, re-signings, resignings.....it's been quite a period.  But I have to admit, I feel a loss of innocence.  The league has been pretty "pure" in the sense of veterans staying home, not a lot of crazy run ins with the law, fairly non-controversial.  Well, no longer.

Sure there's some very happy people out there!  Storm fans got their team back, and a whole bunch of new, exciting players.  Atlanta should be excited and ready for some great hoops.  Indiana has to be thrilled with not only locking up Tamika Catchings long term but bringing in another All Star, who was a local star too.  There's some exciting things coming up too, with the draft coming.

But some things have happened that have left a kind of empty feeling too: 

Superstars have come into the league, stay with that team lead them to championships, then retire with that team, like Cynthia Cooper did.  Lisa Leslie is a career Spark.  Yo Griffith, Lauren Jackson, Tina Thompson...all one team all the way.  Sheryl Swoopes in Seattle?  Who would have ever expected that to happen?  Her majesty seemed destined to stay with the Comets forever, or at least until retirement.  But age, salary issues, and various other things all conspired to take that away, leaving some shocked and dismayed Houston fans.

Lennox-Agler aside, the league has been fairly low key in terms of player-coach bickering.  Swin Cash and Bill Laimbeer sure took that away!  The mutual lack of respect the two showed at the end of last season's playoffs led to the trading of the captain, the face of a franchise, the person two championships were started with.  Gone, poof!   Something had to give I guess, and it was Detroit giving Swin to Seattle.

Katie Douglas built a nice career in Connecticut.  Mike Thibault helped mold her into an All Star.  Sorry Mike, sorry Connecticut, "I wanna go home" became the mantra for KT, and rather than have a pouting star, off to Indy she goes.  As good as Tamika Whitmore may be, hardly seems like an even trade on the surface does it?  The pouting superstar, another new trait of the WNBA?

Nykesha Sales, battered and bruised over her career, is taking a year off.  Yes, there have been others before her to do this, especially Europeans like Ann Wauters, but an American multi-time all star has looked at her future and decided that the money in Europe is better than the US, so something has to give.  Goodbye Connecticut, hello summer vacation.  Send me my check in euros please.

Stay in school, even after getting your undergrad degree, and begin grad school.  You're not going to make big bucks playing in the WNBA, so you need to take advantage of the free schooling your getting, to make the most of your career.  But what happens when you have the skills, talent, and yes, looks, of Candace Parker?  You go pro.  No one could blame her.  She'll make big money overseas, and probably in endorsements.  But still....I kinda liked when they played for four years and took those extra school years.

Scandals, in the coaching ranks?  The WNBA has had coaching ineptness and some bizarre hirings, but scandals?  Not a whole lot.  Then we get Chicago and Bo Overton's resignation, which it strongly appears, was forced along by of all things an anonymous message board poster.  That's some scary stuff.  A man's reputation may have been destroyed and his job terminated over someone with a grudge for some reason?   It puts fans in a bizarre situation, of almost wishing for the sake of Chicago and the league there was something else that the Sky management knew to force Mr. Overton's resignation.  Can you imagine the legal action, speculation and criticism the league is going to have to endure if he really was let go based on this rumor?   Wow....I've always been a big fan of the message board community, but it's also always been a good place for sharing gossip as well as accurate info.   Well, that sure takes away the innocence of a good message board doesn't it?  Make it all look a whole lot different.

And finally, nationalism.  The Olympic games always meant something, a lot actually, to the women, compared to most of the NBA players.  Both USA and foreign players.  We've had before and we will again this season have nationalistic skipping of the WNBA season in parts, especially the Australians.  But to have American All Stars become nationalized citizens of another country to possibly represent them in Olympic competition?   Some may not feel the same, and that's your right, but I don't get it.  I don't think I ever will.  For all the flaws your country may have, it's still your country.  You were born there, and while I will not pretend to know other people's thoughts, I have always felt there was an inate sense of nationalism inside just about everyone.  I guess not. 

And that to me, may be the biggest innocence left on the sidelines this offseason.