Astoria’s Chamique Eyes Top Rung

In 1st Pro Hoop Season

Throughout her basketball career, Astoria’s Chamique Holdsclaw has used her brilliant talents to guide her teams through championship seasons, first at Christ the King H.S. in Middle Village, then at the University of Tennessee.

While her team’s immediate destiny may be very problematical, there seems to be no doubt that the former Christ the King All-Star and three-time Player-of-the-Year at Tennessee will capture Rookie-of-the-Year honors.

Holdsclaw’s sparking Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) play so far already earned her an All-Star berth.

Next Tuesday night, when she leads her Washington Mystics into Madison Square Garden for a Women’s National Basketball Association game against the Eastern Conference leader, New York Liberty, the 6 foot 2 inch forward will be all out for another league title in her freshman pro year, no less, although it’s admittedly a long shot.

If Holdsclaw’s first appearance as a pro at the Garden is any indication, the crowd at the place will be liberally sprinkled with family and friends from Astoria/Long Island City and former fans from throughout Queens.

Holdsclaw was here as a participant for the July 14th first-ever WNBA All Star game and had to scrape up about 20 tickets for family and close friends. But she had many more requests than that and scores of friends she grew up with and from Christ the King came down to root her on.

The Mystics, who won only three games all of last year but are now riding a four-game winning streak, are now 10-17 but only one game behind fourth-place Orlando, whom they must overtake for a playoff berth.

There are only five games left in the season; two against the Liberty, one tonight in Washington, the other next Tuesday at the Garden.

So the Mystics, inspired by the 23-year old Holdsclaw and the team’s other scoring leader, Nikki McCray, have their work cut out for them. But the erstwhile division doormats, made over by the addition of Holdsclaw this season, are riding a four-game winning streak and that wave could provide the momentum to get them into the playoffs. If that happens then anything can happen, and they could make it all the way.

In their two games over last weekend, Chamique (pronounced Shuh-Meek-Wah) scored 23 points against the Cleveland Rockers in a televised game which Washington won, 63-62.

Then on Sunday, the former Christ the King H.S. star poured in another 18 points as Washington wiped out the Rockers again, 80-45. She also took in six rebounds, had four assists and two blocked shots.

Before Saturday’s game, Holdsclaw was leading her team in scoring with an 18-point-per-game average and 8.1 rebounds per game. In Saturday’s match-up, Holdsclaw scored Washington’s first six points and 12 of the team’s 27 points to tie them with Cleveland at the half.

McCray, who had a cold first half, caught fire in the second stanza and wound up with a total of 25 points.

Most of Holdsclaw’s points came on short jumpers, but she exhibited her usual poise and also excelled on defense.

Holdsclaw, who moves with quiet grace on the hardwood floor, honed her talents on the cement courts of housing projects after she came to live with her grandmother, June, in Astoria when she was 11-years-old. Holdsclaw credits her with being a major influence in her life, telling one interviewer, "She implemented structure in my life."

On the outdoor courts in Astoria she earned the nickname "Flat Out" because she would flat out leave whatever else she was doing to play basketball. And more often than not it was against the boys.

"Big boys, small boys, whoever, I was always ready to take them on. I wasn’t scared of anybody’s game."

At Christ the King, she led the team to four New York State championships and got started on career averages of 20.3 points and 8.8 rebounds a game. It is a credit to her consistency that her first-year pro performance is practically the same as her career averages.

Holdsclaw continued her fabulous performances at the University of Tennessee, leading the Lady Vols to three NCAA titles and three Southeastern Conference tournament championships while garnering two tournament MVP awards and three Player-of-the-Year titles in the conference.

In her four-year career at Tennessee, she became the school’s all-time leading scorer—male or female.

Referred toby many in the hoop world as "the female Michael Jordan," only time will tell if she’ll earn that honor. At present, the closest comparison to the former Chicago Bulls "All-World" player is that she wears Jordan’s famed number 23 on her Mystics jersey.

But it’s not to copy the magnificent Chicago Bull. Actually,in Holdsclaw’s case, the number is worn in honor of her favorite Biblical psalm.

Meanwhile, the quiet, unassuming Astorian is getting the star treatment in the fledgling WNBA already. Soon after she was drafted by the Mystics, the switchboard at their Washington offices lit up with hundreds of calls to order tickets. And she was later welcomed by 800 fans when she arrived in the nation’s capital’s Union Station.

When she was drafted, WNBA president Valerie Ackerman commented, "We’re hopeful that just as the casual fan would turn out to see Jordan, they’ll turn out to see Chamique." It’s possible that’s happening. Although the Mystics only won three games last year, their attendance is up this year.

Despite the accolades and the pressure, the rookie standout maintains her aplomb on and off the court. Holdsclaw has aspirations of pursuing a movie career after her basketball-playing days are over, but for now all her attention is on what’s going on the basketball court and possibly pulling off a major miracle in the weeks to come.