Ask a traditional basketball fan what the good news is about the Utah Starzz season that ended Sunday and the answer is simple: the team likely will pick at or near the top of the next draft. After all, that's the consolation prize for having the worst record in the league.
But simple answers won't do in this case. Fortunately, the more one delves into the season, the better the news gets.Consider: Women's professional basketball is not a sport with a long history. Utah was fortunate to be among eight teams in the WNBA's inaugural season. The good news is Utah fans continued to support the team throughout the season. Attendance averaged over 7,000 per game, far above the 4,000 or so the league had projected it would need to be successful. That kind of support, especially for a team that won only seven out of 28 games, answered questions about whether women's basketball could survive along the Wasatch Front.
But these are the facts of business, the indicators that the game can survive financially in Utah. Go beyond that and the news is even better.
Utah already has announced it will retain Denise Taylor as coach. That is in stark contrast to teams like Los Angeles and Sacramento, which fired their coaches in mid-season despite having better records than Utah. The message here is clear, the Utah Jazz will apply its underlying philosophy to running the Starzz. That philosophy is that loyalty and long-term commitments do more than any quick fix to build a strong franchise.
Jazz management, which runs the Starzz, chose Taylor carefully. Firing her after one season would have sent a disastrous message about their own abilities to make decisions. Just as Jazz management built a successful NBA team with long-term commitments and loyalty, so the Starzz can look forward to a mature approach to the future.
For fans of women's basketball, this means Utah's team can get only better. The first season, for all its disappointments in the win-loss column, was a successful building block for what appears to be a bright future.
The best news, however, is that loyalty works two ways. Because of the Starzz, Utahns have gained a new and long-lasting respect for women athletes, and that could open new opportunities for the women who want to compete and be taken seriously.