Muammar Al Khadafi

I'm late with this post, but in the midst of the news about the NBA canceling 2011-2012 season games no thanks to the lockout, had to show the WNBA and the Minnesota Lynx some TransGriot love.

I was a proud season ticket holder during the Houston Comets dynasty (sniff sniff) from 1997-2000 when they won four consecutive WNBA titles.  The Minnesota Lynx joined the league in 1999 along with the Orlando Miracle as an expansion franchise.  

Back in the day we Comet fans would watch our Big Four of Cooper, Swoopes, Thompson and Janeth Arcain blow them out in WNBA basketball mismatches, make jokes about the Minnesota Missing Lynx or as a nod to the then popular game show at the time, call them 'the Weakest Lynx'.

Well, fast forward a decade to the WNBA's 15th season. My beloved Comets, one of the Original Eight WNBA franchises that started play in 1997 have been extinct for several years while the expansion team I gleefully made jokes about while ensconced in my Section 117 Compaq Center aisle seat is still in the league and is now the 2011 WNBA Champion.

And oh yeah, Compaq Center is now the sanctuary of Lakewood Church

Donna Orender, I and other Houston Comets fans are still pissed about how the WNBA handled the situation in 2008, and it's making it hard for me to regain the level of passion I once had for the WNBA.

Putting a new Houston Comets expansion team in the WNBA would be a nice start, but back to discussing 2011 WNBA ball and the new WNBA champs.  


The Lynx drafted UConn's Maya Moore with the number one overall pick and rolled to a league best 27-7 record in the always tough WNBA Western Conference   

They faced the fourth place San Antonio Silver Stars in the opening round best of three series and won it 2-1 to advance to the Western Conference finals against the Phoenix Mercury, who upset the defending WNBA champion Seattle Storm 2-1.  Minnesota swept Phoenix in the Western Conference Finals 2-0 to advance to their first WNBA final against the Atlanta Dream.

The Dream finished third at 20-14 and one game behind the Eastern Conference regular season winners the Indiana Fever and Connecticut Sun.  Both teams had identical 21-13 records but Indiana was seeded first due to winning the regular season series against the Sun.  

The Angel McCoughtry led Dream got hot in the playoffs. They swept the Connecticut Sun 2-0, won the Eastern Conference title and advanced to the WNBA finals for the second straight year by getting past WNBA MVP Tamika Catchings and her Fever teammates 2-1.

The dream of a WNBA title for the ATL-based WNBA ballers died once again as the Lynx swept the Dream in the best of five WNBA Finals 3-0 with the help of Moore and WNBA Finals MVP Seimone Augustus to claim their first WNBA championship.

Maya Moore was also named WNBA Rookie Of the Year to cap off a marvelous rookie season.
 

In the recently completed FIBA Americas men's tournament, the Argentinians faced off against their bitter South American rivals Brazil and came away with the title.   Both qualified for London.

It was deja vu in the 2011 FIBA Americas Championship for Women as it was once again a championship game showdown between Argentina and Brazil with the title and a single Olympic berth on the line.

Both teams came into this game as the unbeaten winners of their respective groups and victors in their semifinal games.   Brazil knocked off the Cubans 66-53 while Argentina escaped with a 61-59 win over a determined Canadian squad. .  

The script was flipped in the final as the Brazilians blew out Argentina 74-33 to win their fifth FIBA Americas women's title and grab the automatic qualifying spot to London.  

In the Third Place game Canada shook off their disappointing semifinal loss to Argentina and claimed the bronze medal by knocking off Cuba 59-46.  

Silver medalist Argentina, bronze medalist Canada and Cuba will represent the FIBA Americas Zone and have one last chance to quality for the London Games women's basketball tournament by playing in the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament that takes place at a site to be determined from June 25-July 1.

Five sports will be up for grabs, and the FIBA Americas teams will contest them against teams from Croatia, France, Czech Republic, Turkey, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and two from the FIBA Africa Zone that will conclude their women's tournament today.

Senegal is going for their tenth FIBA African women's title when they play in today's championship game against Angola, while host Mali plays Nigeria in the Third Place game. 

Champion gets their ticket punched to London as the FIBA Africa rep, the silver and bronze medalists head to the Olympic Qualifying tournament.

But congrats to Brazil.  They will get to exhale, savor their fifth title and prepare to play in London next summer.

The FIBA Americas Championship for Women is currently being contested in Neiva, Colombia for the lone FIBA Americas ticket to the women's Olympic basketball tournament in London next summer.

After a few days of group competition the ten team field has been whittled down to the four teams left in the semifinal round that kicks off play in a few hours.   

In Group A it was Argentina and Cuba advancing to the semis.  Argentina won a critical September 27 game 65-59 against Cuba that left them unbeaten and on top of the group with a 4-0 record with Cuba finishing second.at 3-1.

In Group B it was Brazil and Canada that advanced to the semis.  Brazil beat Canada.56-39 in their group play matchup on September 25 to finish 4-0 with the Canadians finishing second in group play at 3-1 as well.

The Canadian women ballers road to the semis started with an opening Group B play 72-45 win on September 24 over Mexico.  After the loss to Brazil the next day they thumped Paraguay 77-26 on September 26.   They got a well deserved day off  before closing out group play on September 28 with their 66-49 win over Jamaica to clinch second place in Group B and face Group A winner Argentina. .    

Unlike the guys, the Canadian women have a serious shot at qualifying for London and would rather handle their business now than take their chances in what is shaping up to be a tough qualifying tournament 

In the second semifinal game Group B winner Brazil, who is also unbeaten in this tournament will face off against Group A runner up Cuba..  

The semifinal game winners move on to the October 1 championship game to decide who gets their ticket punched to London as the FIBA Americas rep.   The semifinal losers will square off in the third place game.  
  

The winner will get to exhale, savor their FIBA Americas women's b-ball championship for a moment, then begin their preparations for London. 

The second, third and fourth place teams from this tournament will still have one final chance to qualify for London at the FIBA 2012 World Olympic Qualifying Tournament from June 25-July 1 at a site to be determined  in which the last five Olympic basketball berths will be up for grabs. 

Nigeria Super Phobes (oops Super Falcons) head coach Eucharia Uche made some startling comments during the recent 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in which she claimed during a June 26 press conference she removed lesbians off her team.

There was a subsequent June 29 meeting between Uche and FIFA's head of women's competitions Tatjana Haenni in which the anti discrimination policy was reiterated to her, and the Nigeria Football Federation made it clear she was still their coach for the time being.


At the same time this was blowing up, an Allout.org sponsored petition drive was gathering over 45,000 signatures and organizing a 'Give The Red Card To Homophobia' protest before the Women's World Cup semifinal game in Frankfurt urging FIFA to attack homophobia in the game with the same zeal they do racism in 'the beautiful game'.

The International Gay and Lesbian Football Association, the Federation of Gay Games and ALLOut.org jointly wrote a letter to FIFA President Sepp Blatter concerning the Uche situation.

FIFA and its affiliated organisations are to be commended for the kinds of strong measures taken against racism in football. Unfortunately we have not yet seen the same commitment to take action against homophobia. It is long overdue for FIFA to apply its own rules regarding discrimination, and help insulate the sport from ideological and religious interference that infringes on players rights.

That it is. The IGLFA and AllOut.org wrote press releases that were picked up in other parts of the Gayosphere claiming that a FIFA investigation of Uche has been launched, but the Federation of Gay Games says otherwise.

The Federation of Gay Games asserts on their FB page she's not being investigated, and had this to say.

Contrary to the press release from our friends at AllOut, cosigners of the letter to FIFA to which Jérôme Valcke has now (more than two months later) replied, FIFA has not decided to investigate the lesbophobic behavior of Nigerian women's football club Eucharia Uche.

We quote:

"Thus, in the event the FIFA Disciplinary Committee considers having enough evidence to be in a position to open proceedings, it will not fail to do so with the assistance of the FIFA administration."

We are puzzled by FIFA's request for us to provide information, as it is clear in our letter that the information provoking our letter came from the press. We do hope that FIFA will look into those sources, and eagerly await news of any investigation.

But we're not holding our breath...

Neither am I.  Nigeria's Super Falcons are in the middle of a two leg playoff for the remaining 2012 London Olympic Games women's qualifying tournament with Cameroon. 

They won the first leg 2-1 and play Cameroon on October 22 to decide who gets that other African qualifying spot.  

If there were any FIFA investigation of Uche, it would be big news in Nigeria, on the African continent, the FIFA website, the Confederation of African Football one and any site on the Net that tracks international football.   So far all I've been able to detect is cricket chirping silence on the issue.

I said this when I wrote about the controversy back on July 7:  

This situation with Uche admitting that she forced lesbians off the squad cries out for sanctions, but the likelihood of that happening is about the same as a certain appletini chugging gay rights orgs in the States hiring a transperson to run it.  

And so far, both scenarios are playing out.