Three WNBA teams were available. Only one had a former UConn player on its roster. So it's not really a surprise that the Orlando Miracle and former All-American Nykesha Sales are moving to Connecticut.
A source confirmed Wednesday that the Miracle will relocate to play at the Mohegan Sun this summer.
Sales, 26, the USA Today National High School Player of the Year at Bloomfield High School in 1994, has played for the Miracle since their entry into the league as an expansion team in 1999.
A three-time WNBA All-Star, Sales was a freshman when UConn won its first national championship with a 35-0 record in 1995. She is UConn's all-time leading scorer with 2,178 points.
Connecticut's newest professional team will be formally announced Tuesday at a press conference at the Mohegan Sun casino. The Mohegan tribe will own and operate the team, which will play at the 10,000-seat Mohegan Sun Arena in Montville beginning in late May.
Only a few games will be played in Hartford. As of Wednesday, two other interested parties -- the LAZ Parking group and former CBA team owner Brian Foley and his wife, Lisa Wilson-Foley -- were still trying to make deals to get games in Hartford.
Eric Zachs, a spokesman for LAZ, said the group negotiated with the WNBA until Wednesday morning, but no agreement was reached.
``One of the factors is timing,'' Zachs said. ``[The WNBA] really wants 2003. It's much easier for the Sun to do that.''
But Zachs said until the official announcement is made, anything is possible. ``As we all know from the UConn [men's basketball] game the other night, it's not over until the last second,'' Zachs said, recalling the Huskies' stunning loss to Miami Monday.
Wilson-Foley was supposed to meet with Mohegan Sun representatives Wednesday about the Hartford FoxForce, the World Team Tennis franchise she owns. She said she also wanted to bring up a WNBA proposal, but the meeting was canceled.
Wilson-Foley said she and her husband were prepared to pay half of the team's franchise fee and to cover the costs in Hartford so the team could play more of its games in the city.
Wilson-Foley said she e-mailed Mohegan Sun officials her proposal, but had not heard back.
Mitchell Etess, executive vice president of marketing at Mohegan Sun, said: ``There has been no official conversation with the Foleys regarding this project.''
Many of the Miracle players are playing overseas and were unavailable for comment. Sales, who splits her time between Orlando and Connecticut, was not available.
The Miracle's coach, former Boston Celtic Dee Brown, will remain with RDV Sports, which owns the NBA's Orlando Magic.
Only the players will come to Connecticut. They include former Purdue star Katie Douglas and Shannon ``Pee Wee'' Johnson, who played for the gold-medal-winning U.S. team at the World Championships last fall. Sales, a 6-foot guard-forward, averaged 13.5 points (also her career average) and 3.8 rebounds last season, when the Miracle went 16-16.
The Miracle were the first of four WNBA teams to cease operations after the NBA's board of governors changed the WNBA's bylaws to allow teams to be owned by individuals rather than the league. The Utah Starzz moved to San Antonio, which had been awarded an expansion franchise. The Miracle, Portland Fire and Miami Sol disbanded after their NBA teams opted not to participate in the WNBA. John Weisbrod, the chief operating officer of RDV Sports, said last October that RDV could not make the Miracle work financially in Orlando and that it wanted to focus on its NBA team.
TEAM HISTORY
September 1998: The team is assigned Bloomfield native Nykesha Sales, the University of Connecticut's scoring leader, as part of an expansion deal. Over her four-year career with the Miracle, she will average 13.5 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.9 steals per game, and will be named to the All-Star team three times (1999, 2000, 2001).
June 1999: The team plays its first game against the Houston Comets. Sales, who spent a year rehabilitating an Achilles tendon injury, gets the team's first rebound and records its first blocked shot.
Summer 2000: The team makes the WNBA playoffs for the only time in its history, but loses to Cleveland in the first round.
April: Coach Carolyn Peck, who left Purdue after winning the NCAA championship in 1999, leaves Orlando to take the head coaching job at the University of Florida.
Former Boston Celtic Dee Brown takes over as coach.
Oct. 21: After the NBA changes the WNBA's bylaws to allow individual ownership of teams, RDV Sports, the owner of the NBA's Orlando Magic and Miracle, announces that it will not assume ownership of the Miracle.
January: The Orlando Miracle moves to the Mohegan Sun, the new owner of the WNBA team.
Lori Riley
