Prior to the 1999 WNBA draft, most analysts and experts on the national scene urged the Utah Starzz to take a point guard with their first pick. One of the very best to take, they said, would be former ABL all-star Jennifer Azzi, a veteran of three World Championship teams and the gold-medal 1996 Olympic team.
It would have been a natural. Point guard has always been Utah's need.
And why not one who would bring another "double-z" name to Salt Lake City?
The Starzz, of course, stayed at home and took former ABL MVP power forward Natalie Williams, who grew up in Utah and was MVP of the 1999 WNBA All-Star Game and one of the league's top scorers and rebounders.
Azzi went to Detroit with the No. 5 overall pick in '99.
"Now I have both of them," said Starzz coach Fred Williams after Utah engineered a Monday afternoon trade with Detroit that sent Utah's two first-round draft spots, the third and eighth slots, to the Shock for Azzi and the No. 12 pick in Tuesday morning's 2000 WNBA Draft.
Azzi had announced in mid-March that she would not return to the WNBA because of a minimal raise from her 1999 salary of $44,000. WNBA salaries are paid by the league, which owns player contracts. She was also unhappy that there are no WNBA teams in the San Francisco Bay area, where she has made her home.
Azzi, a 1990 Stanford graduate who helped the Cardinal win the NCAA championship that year, was born in Tennessee but stayed out West. She played three seasons with the ABL San Jose Lasers and has played professionally in Italy, France and Sweden. In March, she indicated to ESPN.com that if there were a Bay-area team, she might reconsider playing in the WNBA.
Utah is close enough. She signed a 2000 WNBA contract Monday, just before being traded, with her blessing.
"It was a fair adjustment, a fair deal on both ends," said Fred Williams of Monday's swap, which he said was actually in the making for a couple of months and culminated as soon as Azzi signed her 2000 WNBA contract. "She totally knew about the whole process. She's not shocked," Williams said, not trying to be punny. "She's delighted to put on a Starzz uniform."
"I worked really, really hard," Azzi told ESPN.com after announcing she would quit the league in March. "It takes huge motivation for me to get into the gym and work out. I don't know what (league officials) are thinking, what they want to do with me, whether they value me or not. Motivation is tied up somewhat in your salary. I can't look at this as a summer job."
Azzi was a founding player of the ABL, which folded in December 1998. Partly because of the new WNBA players' union negotiating to protect its original players, ABLers who joined the WNBA last season could be paid no more than $50,000 for that season. But they were signed to one-year contracts, meaning they could quickly renegotiate.
Azzi topped Detroit scoring at 10.8 points per 1999 game. She was the WNBA's No. 1 player in 3-point field-goal accuracy at .517 (30-for-58). She was also seventh in field-goal percentage (.514, 93-181), 10th in assists (3.8, 106 assists) and 11th in free-throw percentage (.827, 86-104).
"The addition of Azzi to our lineup with Natalie Williams will provide us with our own 'Stockton to Malone' combination," said Fred Williams.
"She's the player I pretty much had my eye on to make this work for us," he said. "Jennifer is a strong, committed player, a triple-threat player who can slash to the middle while dribbling, distribute the ball and has outside shooting. It's a great combination."
Utah finally has a big-time point guard for the first time in its four-season existence — someone to get the ball to what should be a very productive unit including insiders Natalie Williams, Cindy Brown and 7-foot-2 Margo Dydek and perimeters Adrienne Goodson, LaTonya Johnson, Korie Hlede and Kate Starbird, who was acquired in the off-season for the eighth draft pick, and Elena Baranova.
"We will have a great backcourt combination (with Hlede) and a great front line," Fred Williams said.
Natalie Williams told the Web site (www.starzzfan.com) that she is thrilled with the acquisition, and she and Azzi are friends.
At 5-8, Azzi, backed by 5-10 Dalma Ivanyi, will give Utah a little more size to defend big point guards like Sacramento's Ticha Penicheiro. Former Starzz points Debbie Black (5-4) and Chantel Tremitiere (5-6) were lost in December's expansion draft.
"I am quite confident with Dalma's ability to run the point," said Williams, "but the opportunity to get veteran leadership in Jennifer Azzi was most definitely an opportunity that as a coach, you just can't pass on."
The Shock seem to be Utah's favorite trade partner. Brown and Hlede came to Utah in late July 1999 in a trade that sent Wendy Palmer and Olympia Scott-Richardson to Detroit. And the Shock have former Starzz assistant coach Greg Williams as an assistant now.
Williams said last week that he didn't foresee any trades being made prior to the draft, despite the length of the Azzi negotiations, and Monday he said he really felt then that there would be no movement.
WNBA director of player personnel Renee Brown coached Azzi at Stanford. In last year's post-WNBA draft analysis, Brown said of Azzi, "She has a lot of love for the game, and it's real. She's the kind of player that can make other people look good. She's a real leader that can make a team better. When she comes to practice, she's always ready to compete. That rubs off on people. She can penetrate, handle the ball with lots of consistency and when she takes the ball to the hole, she does it with explosiveness."
You can reach Linda Hamilton by e-mail at lham@desnews.com