September 4, 1999. The WNBA is in its third Finals and the Houston Comets are imposing a dictatorship on this nascent women's league. Champions in 1997 and 1998, the Houston players lead 1-0 against Teresa Weatherspoon's New York Liberty. And at the time, the Finals were played in the best of three matches. A home victory in Game 2 and it's the triple.
We get closer in the final moments, after a basket by Tina Thompson gives us a two-point lead with 2.4 seconds left and almost gives us the title. The 16,285 spectators start to celebrate this new trophy.
The ball ends up in Teresa Weatherspoon's hands. She dribbles and, almost at the halfway line, she sends a prayer. With the help of the backboard, it falls in! Victory 68-67 for New York, which equalizes. This shot – reminiscent of Jerry West's in the 1970 Finals – immediately entered the legend of the WNBA, under a well-known name, inspired by Michael Jordan: “The Shot”.
However, it is not a good memory for the current coach of the Chicago Sky… “I didn't watch that shoot for many years because we didn't win the title”, is justified the one who entered the Hall of Fame in 2019.
The context and the defeat in Game 3 colored this legendary shot
It was not only the result of the Finals, since the next day, on September 5, 1999, the Comets would win the last game (59-47), that spoiled this great moment. But also the personal context of the player. Her 19-year-old nephew, Anthony, had died in a car accident a few weeks before, and her friend Kim Perrot, a former Houston player, had also passed away, from lung cancer, on August 19, 1999.
“That year was probably one of the most difficult for me and my family,” she recalls. “When that shot went in, only my teammates knew what my family and I were going through at that time. It was bigger than people thought, something I never really talk about. Sure, it gave us another chance to play, but it also meant something to me and my family.”
Hall of Fame Reunion
Van Chancellor, Houston's coach in the Finals, knows that whenever he runs into Teresa Weatherspoon at the Hall of Fame again, they'll be talking about that shot again. “She's going to tell me that yes, she scored that shot, but I have her championship ring. That's all that matters to me.”says the coach.
Twenty-five years later, nothing to do, even if this shot is legendary, it does not completely go down well with the former player, because as soon as she speaks to her opponents from Houston, the defeat of Game 3 always comes very quickly. “I am still bitter about that moment”she concedes. “Afterwards, I recognize the merits of each one. It was a hell of a basketball team. We gave everything to try to win.”
