Need a hot rumor during the WNBA off-season?
<br><br>Try this one, from a top-notch source: Seattle Storm
General Manager and Coach Lin Dunn, who holds the
league's first pick in the April 20 draft, will consider
sending it to the Washington Mystics for Chamique
Holdsclaw, another player yet to be named and Washington's
first-round pick, the ninth overall. <br><br>The Storm,
richly deserving of the first pick after a 6-26 2000
season, needs a complete overhaul, but mostly a big-time
center. Turns out the alleged best player in the world
not in the WNBA is 6-6 Australian Lauren Jackson, 20.
<br><br>The other major element here is that the new coach of
the Mystics is Tom Maher, also an Aussie. He was the
Australian Olympic team coach last year. See how this all
fits? <br><br>Maher, who inherits a 14-18 team, is in
Europe scouting players. Dunn was in Memphis to scout
the Southeastern Conference tournament. <br><br>She
denied she has been approached by Washington with such a
deal but she seemed to be sandbagging a bit too. "You
mean I could wind up with Chamique Holdsclaw?
Goshalmighty!" she said. <br><br>Told the rumor also involved
another, yet-to-be named Washington player and the
Mystics' ninth pick, Dunn seemed open-minded. <br><br>"I'd
talk to them about that, sure," she said. "I keep
hearing Washington is interested in acquiring that first
pick, but they haven't contacted me yet."
<br><br>Holdsclaw, in her second season, finished seventh among WNBA
rebounders last summer and eighth in scoring. If Dunn
surrenders the first pick, Seattle still needs a center in
the deal. So would the second Mystic player be 6-5
Heather Owen or 6-3 Tausha Mills? <br><br>Said Dunn: "If
I had the ninth pick, I think there could be at
least one of three good centers still left--Camille
Cooper of Purdue, Kelly Schumacher of Connecticut or
Tammy Sutton-Brown of Rutgers."