Cooper Insists She Is Very Much the Retiring Type

When it hit the pages of the Houston Chronicle on July 4, no one believed it.

Cynthia Cooper was retiring? Why?

To many, it still makes no sense. At 37, she’s averaging 35.1 minutes and 18 points a game for the Houston Comets. She has been virtually indestructible, having had one major injury in the last 18 years when she tore ankle tendons in 1988.

She was the WNBA’s most valuable player in its first two seasons.

WNBA President Val Ackerman spoke for many when she said recently, “Cynthia is entwined with us, she defines who we are as a league.”

So perhaps no one will really believe she’s retiring until she doesn’t line up for the opening tip next summer.

“I think I am surprised, that people aren’t believing me,” she said Monday in a phone interview.

“I’ve played 15 years of professional basketball. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that I’m ready to move on, to maybe broadcasting, maybe coaching, to spend more time with my foundation and do more public speaking.

“The fact that I’m playing at a high level now is one reason why I chose this time. I don’t want to go out on crutches, or on someone else’s terms. I do think I could play for another few years at this level--but this is the right time for me.

“A few people knew I was going to announce it. [Teammate] Tina Thompson knew, I told her. But she didn’t believe me, either.”

The only WNBA players playing more minutes are both in their 20s, Katie Smith of Minnesota and Natalie Williams of Utah. Only teammate Sheryl Swoopes and Smith are averaging more points.

Her scoring average her first three WNBA seasons was phenomenally consistent: 22.2, 22.7 and 22.1. Her average this summer is down because her touches are down.

At a Houston news conference the day after the newspaper story ran, Cooper seemed to waffle a bit when she said she “reserved the right to reconsider my decision.”

But she sounded Monday as if she’d meant every word of it. And if she does, then Friday’s game between the Sparks and Comets at the Great Western Forum will mark the final Southland appearance of the kid from Locke High and USC who, more than any other athlete, helped establish women’s pro basketball in the United States.

ALL-STAR UPDATE

Houston’s Swoopes, for the second year in a row, was the WNBA’s top vote-getter in fan balloting, which determines the starters for the game next Monday at Phoenix.

She received 171,675 votes. Her teammates, Cooper, with 156,675 votes, and Thompson, with 91,809, will also start for the Western Conference. The other Western starters are Lisa Leslie, 107,514 votes, and Sacramento’s Ticha Penicheiro, 64,476.

Leslie, in the league’s inaugural game last summer in New York, was the MVP.

Eastern Conference starters: Washington’s Chamique Holdsclaw, 166,986, and Nikki McCray, 117,659; New York’s Teresa Weatherspoon, 111,057, and Sue Wicks, 48,030, and Orlando’s Taj McWilliams, 52,847.

The West coach is Houston’s Van Chancellor, the East’s New York’s Richie Adubato.

Chancellor and Adubato will select the players who were not voted to starting spots. The announcement to be made Wednesday.

HIGH TECH

What do you get when you combine a Naismith Award winner with a Stanford degree holder in computer science?

A company called Three-Headed Cyclops, or, short version, 3HC.com.

Kate Starbird, who scored 10 points against the Sparks on Sunday, is blending her WNBA career with a Palo Alto enterprise she has begun in partnership with former Stanford swimmer Barton Wells.

“We’ve developed a new computer method of creating animation with fewer man hours, basically letting computers do the long hours,” she said.

“Right now we’re putting together a demo reel that we’ll use to try and raise seed money over the next six months. When we can afford it, we’ll hire some people.”

LAYUPS

Spark assistant coach Marianne Stanley denies a Times report that she threw her shoes during a heated postgame meeting June 13, after the team had lost at Seattle. The account was based on information from an individual who was in the locker room but who now says, “I didn’t actually see” shoes thrown.

Former Spark guard Jamila Wideman, who’d missed most of the season with her new team, the Portland Fire, is back on the injured list. She suffered a severely sprained ankle during her Israeli season, played her first three games recently with Portland, then re-injured the ankle last week.

Spark Coach Michael Cooper isn’t necessarily standing pat with his winning lineup. He would like to deal for a strong inside defender. That would free DeLisha Milton to guard high-scoring perimeter players such as Swoopes. He covets Sacramento’s Latasha Byears but the Monarchs won’t deal. The Sparks have fielded calls all season from teams inquiring about Leslie’s backup, Clarisse Machanguauna.

Reggie Miller, rested after the NBA finals, resumes his Lifetime broadcasting assignment Friday at the Forum. He’ll join Michele Tafoya at courtside for the Sparks-Houston game.

The WNBA fined Utah Coach Fred Williams $1,500 Monday for failing to leave the court in “a timely manner” after his ejection in a game with Detroit last Friday.