10 November 2014
Life Overseas
Really nice article about Bria Hartley (UConn, Mystics) and Kayla McBride (Notre Dame, Stars) playing together in Hungary:
Boris Lelchitski, an agent for Hartley and McBride, said smaller towns often had the best women’s basketball teams because they viewed them as a source of pride and would “gladly afford those teams out of the budget in the town.”
Recently, the W.N.B.A. created “time off” bonuses of up to $50,000 per team to give to players who limit their overseas competition to three months or less. But for Hartley and McBride, who, as W.N.B.A. rookies, had salaries that were among the league’s lowest, the extra money available from playing in Europe was difficult to eschew, even though other players had negative experiences in Sopron.
Shenise Johnson, McBride’s teammate with the San Antonio Stars, played here in 2012 and told McBride that she found the town to be boring, even though the residents were nice. Kelly Faris, Hartley’s teammate at Connecticut, and Tianna Hawkins, a Mystics teammate, had played for Sopron and did not enjoy it.
“They were like, ‘Good luck,’ ” Hartley said.
Hartley, who is from North Babylon, N.Y., and McBride, of Erie, Pa., became friends in high school at the 2010 McDonald’s all-American game, but competed at rival colleges: Hartley at UConn and McBride at Notre Dame. They had offers to play for separate teams in Turkey, but they chose Sopron in large part because of each other.
Boris Lelchitski, an agent for Hartley and McBride, said smaller towns often had the best women’s basketball teams because they viewed them as a source of pride and would “gladly afford those teams out of the budget in the town.”
Recently, the W.N.B.A. created “time off” bonuses of up to $50,000 per team to give to players who limit their overseas competition to three months or less. But for Hartley and McBride, who, as W.N.B.A. rookies, had salaries that were among the league’s lowest, the extra money available from playing in Europe was difficult to eschew, even though other players had negative experiences in Sopron.
Shenise Johnson, McBride’s teammate with the San Antonio Stars, played here in 2012 and told McBride that she found the town to be boring, even though the residents were nice. Kelly Faris, Hartley’s teammate at Connecticut, and Tianna Hawkins, a Mystics teammate, had played for Sopron and did not enjoy it.
“They were like, ‘Good luck,’ ” Hartley said.
Hartley, who is from North Babylon, N.Y., and McBride, of Erie, Pa., became friends in high school at the 2010 McDonald’s all-American game, but competed at rival colleges: Hartley at UConn and McBride at Notre Dame. They had offers to play for separate teams in Turkey, but they chose Sopron in large part because of each other.
Labels: UConn basketball, WNBA
# posted by mamurd @ 7:56 PM 
