Navonda Moore Makes Roster of WNBA?s Minnesota Lynx
5/21/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn -- Former Tide women's basketball star Navonda Moore has beaten the odds to make her first WNBA roster just months after closing her career at Alabama. Moore, who was not selected in the league's draft in early April, was invited to the camp of the Minnesota Lynx and was good enough to make the team's official roster.
"It's been a great process for me, considering I wasn't drafted coming into camp," Moore said. "In the first conversation I had with Coach Zierden, he told me he needed an athletic perimeter player to compliment Seimone (Augustus), crash the boards and play defense, so that was my mindset coming here. At Alabama, I was a bit more of a scorer, but here I needed to play defense and hit the boards, which I thought would be my best chance of making the team. So that's the way I came in and tried to play every day in camp. Fortunately it worked out for me."
Minnesota's regular season schedule opened on May 19 at Indiana. The Lynx played its first home game the following day against the Sacramento Monarchs.
"It's crazy how great the players are in this league," Moore said. "The first time I played was in a scrimmage in Las Vegas and I was just in awe, playing with players that I grew up watching. Just to be on the floor with all of them is something that I've dreamed about for a long time. The game here is so much quicker and you have to catch on much more quickly, so that's a big difference. The league is much more physical and you have to move to a whole new level of physicality to compete."
Minnesota, who went 10-24 in 2006, plays its home games at the Target Center in Minneapolis, which also serves as the home court of the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Lynx roster features three former SEC stars. Moore joins former LSU All-American and Naismith Player of the Year Seimone Augustus, who was the WNBA Rookie of the Year in 2006. Former Florida center Vanessa Hayden is also on the team, along with Kansas State All-American Nicole Ohlde and rookie Lindsey Harding from Duke.
"The team had a rough season last year and it's going to be a fight for us this year," Moore said. "We have five rookies on the roster, so we have a lot to learn. We are one of the youngest teams in the league, so we are learning every day. Our veterans are working hard to help us and we all want it to be different this year, so we are working very hard every day to help turn this thing around."
Moore has appeared in both games in the early season for Lynx head coach Don Zierden, averaging 12.5 minutes in the two outings. She scored eight points in her professional debut in a loss to the Indiana Fever.
A former prep standout who earned Mississippi Player of the Year honors as a senior at Murrah High School in Jackson, Miss., Moore finished her career in the top 15 in scoring at the Capstone. She also finished in the top 10 in career steals with the Tide and was named second team All-SEC twice.
Moore becomes the seventh former Tide player to make a WNBA roster, joining Dominique Canty, Shalonda Enis, Tausha Mills, C.C. Moorer, Linda Burgess and Niesa Johnson as former UA stars who played in the league. Canty, who is in her eighth season in the WNBA, is the only other former Alabama player listed on an active roster in the league.
Fans can follow Moore and the Lynx at the team's official web site, www.lynxbasketball.com. The WNBA regular season runs from late May until mid-August, when the league's playoffs are held.
