Korie Hlede dreams of climbing big mountains, and her "ultimate favorite" food is ice cream. Utah has lots of both. And the Starzz's No. 1 craving is for an outside shooter.
Cindy Brown's favorite sports include skiing and ice skating, and she already owns an Olympic gold medal (for basketball, '88). Coincidentally, Utah will be the home of the 2002 skiing-and-skating Olympics.Now, is this a perfect WNBA pairing, or what?
The Starzz finally pulled the trigger on their first-ever big-time trade, the third trade in franchise history, just in time for the WNBA's 6 p.m. deadline on Thursday. Their trading counterpart was the Detroit Shock, which gets a pair of 6-foot-2 forwards from Utah: co-captain Wendy Palmer, 24, and new mom Olympia Scott-Richardson, 22.
Palmer's departure means Utah has only one player remaining from its original 1997 team, forward Elena Baranova. Palmer will be reunited with the Starzz's first assistant coach, Greg Williams, who joined Detroit when that franchise started.
All four traded players were to report to their new cities today to undergo physicals. If they pass, the trade will be official.
It was the only trade in the WNBA Thursday.
Starzz vice president of basketball operations Scott Layden said the talk didn't get real serious until about 5 p.m.
Coach Fred Williams said Utah and Detroit had talked often about a swap, and, "Detroit wanted to make some things happen. When Hlede's name came up, it raised some eyebrows," he said.
"We've liked Hlede back to when she was in the (WNBA) draft ('98). She was a prolific scorer in college," Layden said. "And Cindy Brown has had an unbelievable career. She will help us right away.
"These things are always bittersweet," Layden added. "It's hard to say good-bye to Wendy and Olympia."
Hlede, 24, 5-9, could be that shooting guard the Starzz have never had, and with Thursday's move they return 6-2 forward "Motown" Brown, 34, to her Western roots.
She's from Portland, went to school at Long Beach State and played for the ABL Seattle Reign, thus giving her much to talk over with Utah's Natalie Williams, who played for Portland in the ABL and owns a house in Long Beach.
Hlede (pronounced ha-LAY-day), a native of Zagreb, Croatia, led the Atlantic 10 Conference in scoring all four years, was a two-time GTE Academic All-American and a 1998 AP All-American honorable mention at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. She was WNBA Rookie of the Year runner-up last year when she was fifth in WNBA 3-point shooting (.392) and threes made (29) and was second in Shock scoring (14.1 points per game), free-throw percentage (.806), rebounds (5.2) and assists (2.7). She was among the WNBA's top 16 in each of those categories.
In '99, Hlede, coming back from anterior cruciate ligament surgery in August 1998, is averaging 8.8 points, sharing starting time with Jennifer Azzi.
Brown was a '98 All-WNBA second-teamer who led the Shock in field-goal percentage (.470), rebounds (10.0, second in the WNBA), blocked shots (.73) and double-doubles (14, second in the WNBA). She tied a WNBA record with 21 rebounds in one game, against Utah last year. At Long Beach, she was a two-time Kodak All-American who helped the school to its first NCAA Final Four berth and set the NCAA record (in 1986-87) for points in a season with 974. She also played professionally in Italy, France and Japan.
In '99, Brown averaged 6.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, and started all 21 games.
Palmer was an All-WNBA second-teamer in '97 (15.8 ppg, 8.0 rpg) who led Starzz scoring in '98 (13.5). She averaged 8.4 points, 4.2 rebounds in 22.3 minutes off the bench in '99, playing behind No. 1 draft choice Williams.
Scott-Richardson, who gave birth to a daughter on April 7, played four '99 games after being activated from the injured list July 13. In her rookie year out of Stanford '98, she averaged 5.3 points, 2.9 rebounds.
Hlede and Brown will remain in Salt Lake City while the Starzz play at Los Angeles tonight and join their new team when it returns to the Delta Center Saturday to host Sacramento. That's the first of five straight home games.
Fred Williams said he will probably have to use Hlede and Brown off the bench for at least several games until they learn the Starzz systems. The Starzz, of course, have had chemistry problems all season with Baranova, Margo Dydek and Krystyna Lara arriving just days before the start of the season from the European Championships and with Scott-Richardson and Chantel Tremitiere being activated at mid-season from the injured list.
Palmer and Scott-Richardson will likely suit up for Detroit's home game Saturday night. "We needed addition post help in terms of both depth and strength to have a more defensive presence going into the home stretch of the 1999 WNBA playoff race," said Shock GM/coach Nancy Lieberman-Cline.
Hlede, who speaks Croatian, English and German, and Brown, who speaks five languages (English, Italian, Japanese, Hebrew and Spanish), should fit right in with Baranova (Russian, English) and Dydek (Polish, English, French, Spanish, Russian).