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A blog on UConn women's basketball.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

4 former Huskies on WNBA's top 15 player ballot

Former UConn stars Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Nykesha Sales and Diana Taurasi are among 30 players on the ballot as the WNBA celebrates its 15th season by recognizing the 15 best players in league history.

The ballot featuring the 30 candidates is currently available at www.wnba.com/top15players with fans being allowed to vote beginning Thursday at noon. Voting runs through July 14.

Taurasi's 20.7 career scoring average trails only former Houston star Cynthia Cooper's mark of 21.0 in WNBA history. Taurasi, a four-time WNBA scoring champion, is also sixth on the WNBA career scoring list, Sales is 17th while Bird and Cash rank 20th and 21st heading into Tuesday's action.

Taurasi and Bird also rank fourth and sixth on the WNBA career charts with 593 and 483 3-pointers while Bird is second on the WNBA career list with 1,635 assists.
Sales, a member of UConn's first national championship team, was the first of four former Huskies on the list to make her WNBA debut as she debuted with the Orlando Miracle in 1999. She remained with the franchise when it relocated to Connecticut in 2003 and scored 3,955 points in 278 games.

Bird and Cash were taken by Seattle and Detroit with the top two picks in the 2002 WNBA draft.

Bird led Seattle to its first WNBA title two years later. Cash beat her former college teammate and roommate by a year, winning the first of her two WNBA championships with Detroit in her second season in the league. Cash reunited with Bird and as they led Seattle to the 2010 WNBA title.

Taurasi was the top overall pick in the 2004 WNBA draft and was a driving force on Phoenix's run to the 2007 and 2009 league titles. She is also the only former UConn player to be named the MVP of the WNBA finals.

Sales is one of four former Connecticut Sun players on the list joining Katie Douglas, Shannon Johnson and Taj McWilliams- Franklin.

Here is the list of candidates (retired players noted with *):
Seimone Augustus
Sue Bird
Ruthie Bolton*
Swin Cash
Tamika Catchings
Cynthia Cooper*
Katie Douglas
Cheryl Ford
Yolanda Griffith*
Becky Hammon
Chamique Holdsclaw
Lauren Jackson
Shannon Johnson*
Lisa Leslie*
Taj McWilliams-Franklin
Delisha Milton-Jones
Deanna Nolan
Candace Parker
Ticha Penicheiro
Cappie Pondexter
Nykesha Sales*
Katie Smith
Tangela Smith
Dawn Staley*
Sheryl Swoopes
Diana Taurasi
Penny Taylor
Tina Thompson
Teresa Weatherspoon*
Natalie Williams*

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