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WNBA ALL-STAR GAMEJuly 12, 2006Mike ThibaultNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK COACH MIKE THIBAULT: That was a fun game. It was a great atmosphere. It's a lot more fun when you win. I think the fans were entertained. I think I'm proud of the East players for how hard they played defensively and how much they ran the ball up the floor. So it was a fun win. Q. Mike, I know it's an exhibition game, but is it in your nature to still be competitive? You were talking to the officials. COACH MIKE THIBAULT: Some of that was by play. I told one of them, "I have to just remind you this is like a regular game to us down here. We'd like to shoot a few free throws, also." You know, I had to keep them on their toes a little bit. It was all in fun. But in all seriousness, the East team took the game seriously, as far as defending and running. I mean, that was the whole goal. That team has a lot of offensive firepower on the West, and we wanted to make them have to work a little bit. When you have a team that doesn't play together regularly, you can make them work. And it helped. We got out and ran the basketball. Turned them over a little bit. It's hard in an exhibition game. Q. What would you like to see happen in the next decade of the WNBA? COACH MIKE THIBAULT: Wow, I have a long list. I just think that we need to continue to grow not necessarily expansion, I'm talking about growing our fan base on a broader spectrum. I think what's happening, it takes a period of time for something, we're such an instant gratification society, that we compare things to two- and three-year periods. I look at the NBA, how long it took to reach our fan base that we have already. It was double the amount of years. I think the second thing is you have so many more young players playing, high school. They and their families are going to be our fan base as we grow older. You have more and more. I read a statistic somewhere, there's ten times the number of high school girls basketball players now today than there were 10 or 15 years ago. I just think we're getting a broader base. College basketball attendance is up. I think it's gonna carry on to our league. Every generation of players you see coming into our league are better athletes, they're bigger, stronger, quicker. That's the main thing for me, is to keep growing the game on a grass roots level. I think that's first. Q. So you think that that will transfer into more dollars in terms of salaries? COACH MIKE THIBAULT: I hope so. I mean, people forget, when I first went in the NBA in the late '70s, I think the minimum salary was around $30,000 in the NBA at that time. They were at the period in their growth, way beyond the number of years we have. It's hard to compare dollars from 20 years ago, but people think of the NBA as being a rich league. I don't remember being really rich when I came in. I don't remember our players being. It took a while. It took TV ratings to go up. We had delayed broadcast for the NBA Finals in the early '80s. It takes some time. We have to be patient. We've been patient enough to get to 10 years and see how much has happened. Keep that kind of open mind about everything. Q. Can you talk a little bit about Katie Douglas' performance tonight. COACH MIKE THIBAULT: I think it's the same performance we see every night in Connecticut. She's been consistent all year. She's already been a very good defensive player recognition-wise, but I think now she's getting recognition for both ends of floor. She's been our leading scorer for most of the season. She takes on the other team's best perimeter player every night. You saw both tonight, she guarded people on the other team that were good players and she turned around, scored, passed and rebound. She filled up the box score a little bit. I think we're getting spoiled by it now in Connecticut. I'm glad on a public stage more people got to see how she's playing. Q. She attributed her MVP to her familiarity with her teammates being on the floor with her. I was wondering if you agree with that premise. Also, do you think this takes the Sun team, the way they played tonight, what they contribute to another level in terms of its level in the league? COACH MIKE THIBAULT: Well, I would hope. I'll answer the last one first. I think I would hope after being in the Finals two years in a row that we're getting that respect. I think it helps. She's playing with Lindsay Whalen, who is a point guard she plays with every night. Taj and Margo, they all play off each other. It was fun to see them play together a little bit. I think that helps. But I think it also helped that everybody on the East played unselfishly tonight, passed the ball to each other, looked for each other, had fun running the floor. I think that's a style you're seeing of the top Eastern teams right now. If it elevates us more, great. But I'm more concerned with how we start playing on Saturday in Sacramento. I haven't really thought about what tonight would do for that. Thanks.
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