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Entertainment extra • 6/5/98 thru 6/11/98
WNBA's season tip-off
is a family Portrait of
Lobopack
By Suzanne Gill
©TVData Features Syndicate
The women of summer return to
the courts this week.
No, the sport isn’t tennis; it’s pro
fessional basketball. The NBA’s
distaff league, the WNBA, begins its
second season boasting two expan
sion teams (the Washington Mystics
and Detroit Shock) and an expansion
network (ESPN). The busy new sea
son starts Thursday, June 11, on
Lifetime with Intimate Portrait:
Rebecca Lobo, followed by the New
York Liberty’s visit to Cleveland to
play the Rockers.
Mary Murphy, former coach of the
Sacramento Monarchs, is the newest
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Mary Murphy
member of Lifetime’s broadcast
team, which also includes Michele
Tafoya and Meghan Pattyson.
The advent of the WNBA was per
fectly timed for Liberty forward Lobo
and other young players who might
otherwise have retired after their
amateur careers.
“More than anything, I just feel
lucky that I came along at the right
time,” Lobo says. “At the same time,
I know we’re the first people to do
this, so we need to guard it and
behave and not ... do all the things
that have turned people away from
other professional sports.”
At 24, Lobo may be the most self
effacing 6-foot-4-inch person on the
planet. In high school, she set the
Massachusetts state record for career
scoring (boys or girls). Then she led
the University of Connecticut team
that upset Tennessee for the .1995
NCAA national championship, and
she went on to earn a gold medal at
the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. But her
attitude toward the hourlong Intimate
Portrait profile is 100 percent aw
shucks.
The WNBA’s second season begins Thursday on Lifetime, wher.
the New York Liberty travels to Cleveland to play the Rockers
Before the game, Lifetime airs Intimate Portrait: Rebecca Lobo
about the Liberty forward and her family. On Saturday, NBC
has coverage of the Liberty at the Houston Comets.
“I was really surprised, because
generally they’re for entertainers or
famous people,” Lobo says.
Cheering Lobo on in the special
are her biggest fans: mom and, dad
Ruth Ann and Dennis Lobo and big
brother Jason. (Her sister, Rachel,
had a professional obligation that
prevented her participation.) The
family’s closeness is clearly the cor
nerstone of Rebecca’s success.
For Lifetime viewers, the Lobo
family story is especially inspiring,
since it includes Ruth Ann’s battle
with breast cancer during Rebecca’s
college years. Mother and daughter
collaborated on a book to answer
many of the questions they were
asked during that period.
“We both wrote about a lot of the
same incidents,” Rebecca says, “but
when I read her stuff, it was the first
time I really realized how she felt and
what she went through.
“I get a lot of questions from little
kids, like, ‘How old were you when
you started playing?’ or ‘How tall
were you in the fifth grade?’
“But I did get a few letters from
girls who said that either their moth
er or their aunt was going through
breast cancer and wanted to know
how I dealt with it. So that’s one of
the big things I wanted to put in.
“And my mom wanted to let peo
ple know how she was able to suc
cessfully fight the disease.”
An important factor for both
women was - and is - their religious
faith.
“I think it’s what helped make me
successful in a lot of things in life,”
Rebecca says. She regrets that the
media often give the topic short
shrift.
“I spoke to a youth group one
time, and the director told me the kids
believed there were no successful
people out there who have a strong
faith. I think that’s a shame.
“(Faith) has played a big part in
my life since I was a little kid,” she
says. ■ ■ ' i - i • • <
In the case of Rebecca Lobo; that’s
a very long time indeed.
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