Waiting for the Utah Starzz out in the Delta Center parking lot Friday afternoon following practice were Alli Bills, Julie Krommenhoek-Christensen and Julie's husband, Griff.
Bills said the two former Ute all-stars who were waived on Thursday by the Starzz are still good friends with the players and were going to accompany the team to Lagoon Friday afternoon, where the Starzz and some 5,000 D.A.R.E. kids had the run of the closed-that-day amusement park.
Bills said she and Krommenhoek-Christensen were sad to be cut but aren't bitter about it. She felt the need to see draft choices succeed was one reason for the termination of the two free agents from Utah. She expects that the two will probably attend some Starzz games.
Bills said coach Fred Williams told her he had fielded several calls from other teams regarding Utah's cuts, and she didn't know if that meant other teams might be interested in her or Krommenhoek-Christensen's services or just wanted to know who the cuts were.
Both would apparently be amenable to returning to the Starzz, should they be needed.
Bills said she will return to the University of Utah to assist women's basketball coach Elaine Elliott this fall. She was an assistant at BYU last season and said she enjoyed that and felt respected by Cougar players she used to play against, but the chance to learn under Elliott was too big an opportunity to pass up.
INJURY UPDATES: Williams said he was told by point guard Jennifer Azzi that her surgery for a broken bone in the hand went well Thursday. She will return to Utah for rehabilitation, then go back to San Jose, Calif., for re-evaluation in a few weeks.
Prognosis for her return to playing is three to four weeks from the surgery, or about the same as expected prior to the surgery. Williams says she'll miss about 10-15 games, but added, "I'm hoping for some sort of miracle from the Lord" to get her back sooner.
The surgery inserted five screws and a plate to hold together Azzi's spiral fracture of the third metacarpal in her right hand. She sought an opinion from a hand specialist in San Jose, and apparently, when the cast was removed, the fracture widened, necessitating the surgery. She was injured falling to the court in an exhibition game at Portland May 14.
Korie Hlede, who moved from shooting guard to point guard in Azzi's absence, went through a regular practice including scrimmage-type work Friday. Her right ankle sprained Wednesday in an exhibition game seemed fine, and her split eyebrow, also from Wednesday's game, got through OK.
WNBA FANTASY: WNBA.com says it will have the first-ever fantasy game for a professional women's sport when it opens WNBA Fantasy Hoops 2000 on Monday, opening day for the league. The game is free to users and will allow fans the chance to build their own WNBA teams and compete for prizes based on the team's performance. Fans can compete for the whole season or on a single-week basis. Weekly prizes including league merchandise and game tickets will be available, and a season grand prize winner will get a trip to the 2001 WNBA All-Star Game.