Sheryl Swoopes and Lisa Leslie are slugging it out for their first WNBA Most Valuable Player award.
Rebecca Lobo is slogging it out on her well-worn exercise bike in the final miles before returning from a second reconstructive surgery in 5 1/2 months on her left knee.
They were the first three players to sign with the WNBA in 1997. Lobo's career couldn't have taken a more divergent turn from her "We Got Next" marketing partners.
Not that any of the three is hurting financially, and Lobo has maintained a quirky visibility through her The World According to Me column on the league Web site.
But she's not in Phoenix, one of her favorite cities, for the All-Star Game tonight. So Swoopes, Leslie and Lobo's New York Liberty teammate Sue Wicks, who -- let's be real -- wouldn't be here if Lobo was healthy, offer their Shout Outs (the most popular part of Lobo's column) to a player the league needs back ASAP.
"I wish she was here to be a part of this," Swoopes said. "Not only is she a great player, but she's such a good person. Even though she hasn't played this season and missed most of last season, she's still doing a lot for the league and a lot for the game.
"You talk about women's basketball, and people still think of Rebecca Lobo and what she did at UConn. Once she's healthy and comes back, I definitely think she's going to give people something to get excited about."
To say Lobo missed most of 1999 is an understatement. She suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in the first minute of the New York Liberty's opening game, then had her initial surgery July 1.
The re-injury was "my first day back playing full court," Lobo said before a recent Mercury-Liberty game at Madison Square Garden. "It was a step-back move, and I just caught up the wrong way, and my knee wasn't really happy about that. At least I got about a half-hour in before I went down."
Surgery No. 2 was Dec. 15. Lobo is determined to return this season, although all that is left after the All-Star break is a three-week race to the playoffs.
The defending East champion Liberty (12-9) is in third place (four advance to the postseason), just a game out of first.
"Two things are involved here because I've had a lot of people with (anterior cruciate ligament tears) from Bernard King to Mark Price to Jeff Turner," said Liberty Coach Richie Adubato, who will direct the East All-Stars. "When the physical thing is over then it's the mental thing. It's being thrown into the aggressiveness in the lane.
"It's going to be difficult. It really is. That's why I think she's got to be 100 percent before she goes out on the floor. The expectations will be very high because people will forget that she's had two ACLs and hasn't played in two years."
People forget that the 6-foot-4 Lobo, the biggest star on Connecticut's 35-0 1995 NCAA title team, was beginning to blossom as a pro at the end of '98. She had five double-doubles that season, led the Liberty in rebounding in 14 of 30 games and overall stepped it up from '97, when she was All-WNBA second team member.
Her future seemed even brighter with a change of coaches to Adubato, who even in the 1999 training camp seemed to have figured out better uses for Lobo than Nancy Darsch devised.
"I still think once I get a chance to participate in Richie's system that I'm going to flourish in it," Lobo said. "It was a tough time to get injured. Fortunately, I'm fairly young. I've got a lot of goals and can't wait to get back."
The 26-year-old is so popular and recognizable that in spite of her injury she was elected as a 1999 All-Star starter and might have been again this year had she been on the ballot.
"I'm disappointed they kept me off," she deadpanned. "I figured I had enough family members to vote for me online repeatedly that I could make it and maybe play this year.
"Last year watching the game was not difficult at all because I knew I was out for the season. This year it's starting to become a struggle for me to watch."
Though the last spokesperson's job she envisioned qualifying for was with Body 1, Inc., an Internet company that spotlights medical advances and recently had a live Web cast of knee surgery, the adversity has deepened her love for basketball.
"You don't appreciate your body," Lobo said. "When the weather turned nice, so many days I've wanted to go to Central Park and go for a jog, but I couldn't. Or the light starts flashing 'Don't Walk,' I would love to be able to sprint to the other side, but instead I have to wait for the next one.
"You just appreciate your body more, and I definitely appreciate the game more. I don't know if I get more joy anywhere in the world than I do when I play."
Reach the reporter at Jeff.Metcalfe@ArizonaRepublic.com or (602) 444-8053.
