“I’m very confident. I’m ready to get going, and everything that happens I’m ready for,” says WNBA rookie center Sylvia Fowles of the Chicago Sky,1 a recent graduate of Louisiana State University.2
Relatively new to USA Basketball3 and the senior national team, Fowles, 22, wasn’t sure if the call telling her she’d been named to the team was real or imagined. “At first, I thought I was dreaming because when Renée Brown (WNBA vice president of player personnel and chair of USA Basketball’s women’s senior national team selection committee) called, I was sleeping,” Fowles recalls. “She told me I was on the USA team. I got off the phone with her and I laid back down. Ten minutes later I thought, ‘Did she really just call and tell me I was on the Olympic team?’ Then I got excited and went crazy.
“They told me I couldn’t tell anyone at the time, so I couldn’t call my mom, because she was going to tell everybody. So I had to keep it from her for almost a month. I called my best friend, Temeka Johnson (LSU graduate and a member of the Los Angeles Sparks) and told her about it. She was so excited for me.” Once Fowles told her mother, she also let her know she’d be coming along to Beijing.
During a pre-Olympics USA Basketball trip to Beijing, Fowles, 6-5, picked up some pro tips playing alongside veteran center Lisa Leslie. “She’s not just someone who wants to teach, she also is willing to learn,” Fowles says. “I always liked Lisa’s game, but once I met her and got to know her, it made me like her even more. I respect her a lot.”
A left knee sprain threatened to keep Fowles from going to Beijing, but after diligent rehab she made her return to the court on July 22. “I’m not sure how many games I missed, I wasn’t counting,” she said.4
In addition to learning more about the international game at the Olympics, Fowles will continue to hone her skills in the WNBA offseason. And although she doesn’t yet know the destination, she says she’ll definitely play overseas in the offseason.—Lois Elfman #40
Bonus Points
1. Fowles received the WNBA Community Assist Award for the month of June.
2. Although they did not win a National Championship, the Lady Tigers went to the Final Four every year Fowles was there.
3. Unlike her former coach at LSU, Van Chancellor, who guided the USA women’s Olympic team that won gold in Athens in 2004.
4. She missed 17 games.
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