Banner Sports Sponsored by the Patriots Foundation
It has been a banner week for basketball in the city of Boston with the playing of the now celebrated BIG3 championship game and the first WNBA game played at the TD Garden.
On Sunday, a capacity crowd turned out at the Garden for a tripleheader event, which began with a celebrity showcase game featuring Bachelor T.V. star Matt Jones, LSU basketball player Flau’jae Johnson, former NFL tight end Vernon Davis, and several famous rappers. Then came the Big 3 All-Star game, headlined by former NBA players Jeff Teague and Jordan Crawford, setting the stage for the main event, the Big 3 three-on-three Championship game between Bivouac and 3’s Company.
This made-for-television extravaganza is the brainchild of rapper/actor Ice Cube and a group of his close friends and associates. It has grown in popularity since its inception in 2017, with Sunday’s title game adding to its legacy.
And the championship lived up to its hype.
Team Bivouac, coached by NBA Hall of Fame player Gary “The Glove” Payton, raced to an early 13-point advantage, thanks to the red-hot shooting of former Celtic Gerald Green, who was named the game’s Most Valuable Player with 18 points for the winners.
For Green, it was a glorious return to where he began his NBA career as a 19-year-old first-round draft pick of the Celtics in 2005. Selected 18th overall, he spent his first two seasons with the Celtics before being sent to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the trade that brought Kevin Garnett to the Celtics.
Green would spend 13 years in the NBA, returning to the Celts for the 2016-17 season, the same year Jaylen Brown was drafted by the Celtics. Green would be a reliable rotation player for the team that lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals. During the playoff run, he averaged 7.5 points in 15 minutes a night. He never won an NBA title, but after his three-on-three championship on his old home court, Green said, “A championship is a championship. You can’t take it away from me.”
Bivouac coach Gary Payton named Green the team captain. “Because of his leadership on this team from day one of the season, he said, ‘Coach, let me come off the bench and be an inspirational player,’” said Payton. “He lived up to his word, leading the Bivouac team to a 9-1 championship season, with a 50-47 triumph in the title game.”
Members of the Connecticut Sun WNBA team during a shootaround before their TD Garden game. PHOTO: CONNECTICUT SUN
Michael Beasley was brilliant in defeat, scoring 28 points and 13 rebounds for 3’s Company.
On Tuesday night, the Connecticut Sun hosted the Los Angeles Sparks in the first WNBA game ever played in Boston. Sun coach Stephanie White put the historical moment in perspective. She said, “Any time we get the chance to market our game at a venue as large and prestigious as the famous Boston Garden, you have to be excited, and our players are very excited over this opportunity to grow our game before a sellout crowd.”
Alyssa Thomas and DeWanna Bonner, the team’s two star players, echoed the coach’s sentiments. “I have spent 11 seasons playing in Uncasville, Connecticut, at the Mohegan Sun Arena before smaller crowds. Whenever I have played in big arenas like Madison Square Garden, the Staples Center, in Las Vegas, or in Phoenix, I have heard the booing against my team,” said Thomas. “It will be nice to play before a home crowd in the Boston Garden, where we will have the home-court advantage.”
Sun teammate Bonner, who won two WNBA titles as a member of the Phoenix Mercury, in 2009 and 2014, knows the magnitude of the historic game at the Garden, “When I heard that we were going to play in the Garden before a packed house, I knew how important this was for my team and the league,” Bonner said.
Amid the excitement of the Sun team lies the thought of what this game could mean to the city of Boston getting a WNBA franchise in the future. “But the long, hard road to that possible moment is made by the strong showing by the Sun in this game,” said Coach White, adding, “We, as a league, gained major attention during the Covid-19 bubble. People got a good look at our game during that time, and they liked what they saw. Our game has been growing ever since. And with the influx of the new young players like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardozo, Cameron Brink and others from the college game, we have brought a new audience to our game.”
“We are thrilled with the reception from the Boston market for our game at TD Garden,” said Jen Rizzotti, Connecticut Sun president, “It’s truly special to make history by hosting the first ever professional women’s basketball game in this arena, known for its incredible basketball prowess and championship culture. This is a tremendous opportunity to expose the Connecticut Sun brand by playing a game more centrally located to our New England fan base. Women’s sports are here to stay, and this is a wonderful celebration and confirmation of that fact.”
With a 19-7 record, second best in the WNBA standings behind the N.Y. Liberty’s 23-4 record, going into their historic game against the Sparks, the Sun, who have been strong title contenders for the last several years, feel that they are similar to the current NBA Champion Celtics. “We are like the Celtics in that we have six starters. So we keep tinkering, trying to find the lineup that gives us the best chance to win night-to-night,” said Coach White.
Bonner, who is on track to be a Hall of Fame inductee, can truly appreciate where this league has come from and where it is headed. “I remember the years of struggle for WNBA players — years of low pay, poor travel accommodations and other problems that made life difficult,” she said. “I see the improvements that we are currently enjoying, and I am looking to play for a few more years to see where we are headed.”
Thomas, another future Hall of Fame candidate, keeps things in perspective. “I know the magnitude of this game, but it is really about my team playing Connecticut Sun basketball,” she said. “We want to show the people of Boston how we play the game. As a team, we are excited for this opportunity, but when the game starts, we’ll just play our game.”
“When this league was created in 1997, I questioned then-NBA Commissioner David Stern about Boston not getting one of the original WNBA franchises,” Thomas added.
With this historic game between the Connecticut Sun and the Los Angeles Sparks before a sold-out TD Garden, the day is approaching for a WNBA franchise in Boston.
