Canada's Sutton-Brown Close to WNBA Glory

Source: By DUANE WATSON, AOL Sports

Posted: 09/29/09 4:01PM

Filed Under: Columnists

Tammy Sutton-Brown sits in the Indiana Fever locker room at her stall, fatigued and clearly spent. The six-foot, four-inch centre has bags of ice taped over both knees while her feet are perched over a tub of ice waiting to numb her toes - yet the warmth of her smile right now is enough to melt the Baltoro Glacier.

Led by her 17-point, seven-rebound performance on Saturday, the Fever earned the franchise’s first-ever appearance in the WNBA Finals, beating current league champions the Detroit Shock. The three game Eastern Conference Finals went to the limit, and the Fever finally overcame the squad that had knocked them out of the playoffs for the past three seasons.

“I’m going to enjoy this one tonight” Sutton-Brown says. “Take a well needed rest tomorrow and come back and know that we’re not finished. There’s still work to be done and the season is not over and I’m excited to get ready for the Finals on Tuesday.”

It’s that same focus and determination that took the Markham, Ontario, native and former high school prospect to Rutgers University, competing in the NCAA Final Four and, later, representing Canada at the 2000 Olympics. While the WNBA boasts 29 players from nine different countries and territories, Sutton-Brown proudly points out that she is "the only Canadian playing in the WNBA."

And she’s definitely made her mark.

Drafted in 2001, she was the first Canadian to play in the WNBA All-Star Game and is currently in the top 20 of four different WNBA all-time statistical categories. In addition, she spends her off seasons in Turkey with the defending champions Fenerbache, essentially playing basketball year-round.

Her new-found pride of the last two years is her girl’s basketball camp, which she runs in her hometown. “We actually had three camps this summer, and we had so many girls come out,” she says. “It feels great. The reason I do it, is when I grew up, there wasn’t anything (for girls). Just to give them that opportunity is something. There’s so much talent in Canada but they just need that coaching, that little push. They just want to play.”

This is Sutton-Brown’s first trip back to the Finals since her rookie season with the Charlotte Sting. Thrown into the fire and matched up against the best centre in league history, Lisa Leslie, she held her own. However, the Sting were swept and Leslie went on to earn Playoff MVP honours.

“As a rookie I think I got spoiled, like ‘Oh this is how it’s going to be every year,’ and I never got back there. So I think this is definitely more fulfilling and you definitely appreciate it more.” states Sutton-Brown.

But make no mistake, she’s not simply content to just be in the Finals.

“I’ve been playing in this league for nine years now, I want this ring before I retire,” she says resolutely. “With any player, you don’t play just to play the game, you play for that championship. We have a great team this year and this is a great opportunity for us.”

It’s also a great opportunity for Sutton-Brown personally, and would cement her status as Canada’s biggest basketball export after Steve Nash. None of her male counterparts can speak to the success she has achieved in her career, and none (Nash included), have been a member of a championship team at the highest level.

“I think I’ve done different things in my life like representing Canada in the Olympics, and I’ve played in leagues overseas and got championships. But this ring right here … the WNBA probably being the best league in the world, to get this ring right here would mean an awful lot.”

The championship is also significant to the people of Indiana, where basketball can be found in their DNA. When they brought out the customary Eastern Conference Championship hats and t-shirts for the players to wear after their victory, Sutton-Brown held hers up in the air and walked sideline to sideline with it acknowledging and applauding the fans, letting them know that the victory was just as much theirs as it was the team’s.

“They come out every single night and they’ve been with us all season,” she said.

The 9,210 hometown fans were boisterous in their support during the Fever’s Game 2 win, but even more troops were rallied for Game 3 on Saturday. Indiana Pacers’ president Larry Bird purchased the entire 9,000 seat upper bowl of the Conseco Fieldhouse with the sole intent to fill up the arena. The box office gave out all the free tickets by noon ensuring that over 18,000 Fever fans would have a chance to support them for the pivotal game.

Regardless of whether the tickets were covered by the Pacers or Larry Bird’s own wallet, Bird’s generous act sends a message about the significance of the league in Indiana.

“I think it’s an incredibly positive statement,” says WNBA president Donna Orender. “I think what it says is he believes in this league, he believes in the women and athletes that play and he believes in the community. That’s what WNBA basketball is all about and we’re glad to have Larry Bird on the team.”

As the 2009 campaign nears its conclusion, Sutton-Brown is oh-so-close to the champions’ finish line after a year filled with its fair share of ups and downs.

After starting the season with solid stats as a key contributor to the Fever as they dominated the league, she earned WNBA Player of the Week honours in July. Shortly thereafter she inexplicably was left off the Eastern Conference All-Star roster and later suffered a stress reaction to her big toe which forced her to miss six games in order to prevent it from becoming a stress fracture.

While her toe isn’t completely healed, she has not even considered slowing down now.

“My body is saying it needs to rest, but it’s going to hang in there,” she says. “But if it needs to go five games, I’m good to go five games. That’s the point that I’m at right now.”

Once the Finals are wrapped up, she’ll likely need a few extra bags of ice to take care of the aches, pains and swelling. But no amount of ice will numb the thrill and satisfaction of winning her first WNBA Championship.