2010 phoenix mercury playoff media guide - WNBA.com
2010 phoenix mercury playoff media guide - WNBA.com
2010 phoenix mercury playoff media guide - WNBA.com
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<strong>2010</strong> PHOENIX MERCURY POSTSEASON MEDIA GUIDE<br />
President, General Manager, Mercury<br />
Vice President, Suns<br />
One of the true pioneers in women‘s basketball, Hall of Famer and award-winning broadcaster<br />
Ann Meyers Drysdale is <strong>com</strong>pleting her fourth season as General Manager of the two-time<br />
<strong>WNBA</strong> Champion Phoenix Mercury (2009,2007). Meyers Drysdale was named the third General<br />
Manager in Mercury history on Tuesday, September 12, 2006 and added the title of president in<br />
late June of this season.<br />
Enshrined into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. as a player in<br />
1993, Meyers Drysdale‘s basketball resume spans over four decades after be<strong>com</strong>ing the first high<br />
school player ever to make a United States National Team in 1974.<br />
As an amateur, Meyers Drysdale was the first woman to receive a full athletic scholarship<br />
from UCLA. The UCLA basketball legend was a four-time Kodak All-American, the first male or<br />
female to achieve that honor. Upon graduation, Meyers Drysdale held 12 of 13 school records and<br />
led the Bruins to a national championship in 1978. Meyers Drysdale, who was the first female to be<br />
named to the school‘s Athletic Hall of Fame and had her jersey No. 15 retired, also <strong>com</strong>peted in<br />
volleyball and won a national championship in track in 1975.<br />
An outstanding all-around player, the 5-9, 140-pound guard represented the United States in the 1976 Olympics, 1975 and<br />
‘79 Pan American Games and the 1975 and ‘79 World Championships. She earned a silver medal as part of the first women‘s US<br />
Olympic Basketball team at the Montreal Games in 1976.<br />
Meyers Drysdale remains the only female ever to sign a free-agent contract with an NBA team when she signed with the<br />
Indiana Pacers in 1979. After being released by the Pacers, she provided color <strong>com</strong>mentary for Pacers broadcasts and was the first<br />
woman to broadcast an NBA game.<br />
The first player drafted in the Women‘s Professional Basketball League (WBL) in 1978, Meyers Drysdale resumed her playing<br />
career for the New Jersey Gems, where she was named MVP after leading the league in steals and averaging 22.2 points. She also<br />
took home the title as one of only two women to win the ABC Sports Superstars <strong>com</strong>petition three years in a row from 1981 – 1983<br />
and was the only woman to participate in the men‘s <strong>com</strong>petition.<br />
Most recently, Meyers Drysdale has established herself as an expert analyst on ESPN, NBC, ABC, FOX Sports and CBS and<br />
has done <strong>com</strong>mentary for men‘s and women‘s basketball, softball, tennis, volleyball and baseball since 1979. Meyers Drysdale‘s illustrious<br />
broadcasting resume includes the 1984, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics as well as a stint as a broadcaster for the 1988-89<br />
Loyola Marymount men‘s basketball team, coached by former Mercury Head Coach Paul Westhead and featuring Mercury Head<br />
Coach Corey Gaines, a guard on the team. Meyers Drysdale is also a frequent contributor to <strong>WNBA</strong>.<strong>com</strong>. Her incredible sports journalism<br />
contributions were recently honored as the 2006 winner of the United States Sports Academy‘s (USSA) Ronald Reagan Media<br />
Award, joining an elite group of winners that includes Howard Cosell, Bob Costas, Keith Jackson, Frank Deford and Rupert Murdoch.<br />
In her role as President and General Manager, Meyers Drysdale is in charge of all basketball operations, including player<br />
procurement, scheduling, and management of the league‘s salary cap.<br />
Meyers Drysdale has five sisters and five brothers, including brother Dave Meyers, who also played college basketball at<br />
UCLA, under legendary coach John Wooden and won two NCAA Championships with teammate Bill Walton. He played five seasons<br />
(1975-80) for the Milwaukee Bucks after being one of four players traded from the Los Angeles Lakers for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar<br />
in 1975.<br />
In 1986, she married former Los Angeles Dodgers Hall of Fame pitcher Don Drysdale and took the name Ann Meyers Drysdale.<br />
It was the first time that a married couple was members of their respective sports‘ Hall of Fame. The Southern Californian native<br />
and Drysdale, who passed away in 1993, have three children together: sons Don Jr. (D.J.) and Darren, and daughter Drew.<br />
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