Future May Look Different for the Quest and StingRays

Break up the Quest?

No, break up the Quest and the StingRays.

That could be happening in the next few weeks.

In Columbus, Ohio, where the Quest won its second consecutive ABL championship Sunday night, beating Long Beach in five games, the champions stand to lose two marquee players, if Valerie Still, 36, and Andrea Lloyd, 32, stick to retirement plans.

Still, who won her second most valuable player award of the finals, had planned to retire a year ago, but her coach, Brian Agler, talked her out of it. He’s about to try again.

If the Quest loses Still and Lloyd, the remaining core players will be reduced to wing Katie Smith and three productive guards: Shannon Johnson, Tonya Edwards and Sonja Tate.

In Long Beach, StingRay players will learn soon if they will be broken up in the first really big trade in U.S. women’s pro basketball.

The trade would presumably involve Portland’s Natalie Williams, the best rebounder in the women’s pro game.

The former UCLA All-American owns a Seal Beach condo, minutes away from the StingRays’ home, the Pyramid. And that’s where she wants to play, not at Portland’s Memorial Coliseum.

It’s a dizzying thought: Williams and Yolanda Griffith on the Long Beach front line. They were 1-2 in ABL rebounding this season, the only two with double-digit averages, Williams at 11.6, Griffith at 11.2.

Combined, they had 1,001 rebounds in the regular season.

But would there be enough quality StingRay players left to make it all worthwhile, or would they all be going to Portland?

That’s what StingRay General Manager Bill McGillis wonders.

“It’s all up to the league,” he said, a couple of hours after his team had lost the ABL title.

“It’ll have to be done quickly if it’s going to happen. We need to have our protected lists done in two weeks.”

Trades and player personnel deals are league office matters, but McGillis is adamant on one point: Griffith stays in Long Beach.

“Yolanda will not be traded for anyone, period,” he said.

The Williams case is a situation in which a pro athlete holds all the cards.

Williams told league officials at the February All-Star game that she wanted to play for Long Beach next season. She has just completed the first year of a two-year contract.

“It’s tough. I’m being pulled in two directions,” said Williams, who leaves today for Colorado Springs, where she wants to make the U.S. national team for this summer’s World Championships in Germany.

“I haven’t made a final decision. But I’ve got to in the next couple of weeks. There are several factors. I like playing in Portland and for Lin [Coach Lin Dunn], but I’ve got relatives and a lot of friends from UCLA in the Long Beach area.”

Williams can rightfully point out that the Power had the ABL’s second-best attendance last season, that her team won the Western Conference title and that she had considerable to do with both.

She can also point out that a Griffith-Williams tandem could be a kick in the pants for Long Beach attendance, which was the worst in the ABL by a wide margin.

The ABL wants her to stay put, and considerable pressure is being applied, starting from ABL chiefs in Palo Alto to Dunn and Power teammates.

If she insists on a trade and the ABL refuses, she can play out her option next season in Portland, then jump to the WNBA, maybe to the L.A. Sparks to form a Natalie-and-Lisa show with Lisa Leslie.

Or to the Utah Starzz. Her mother lives in Salt Lake City.

So, who goes to Portland in a Williams trade?

Dunn is known to covet Long Beach point guard Andrea Nagy; center Venus Lacy, who is unsigned for next season; and wing Beverly Williams. She wouldn’t be averse to Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil as well.

All four? Right. And maybe more.

THE DRAFTING BOARD

The WNBA will conduct its second player draft April 29. The Sparks have the fifth pick.

Pro leagues traditionally award their first picks to expansion teams, but the WNBA bounced newcomers Washington and Detroit down to the Nos. 3 and 4 spots.

Official explanation: “It was felt the competitive needs of both existing and expansion teams had to be addressed.”

Utah picks first, followed by Sacramento.

The pre-draft WNBA combine for college seniors will be held April 16-18 at Moody Bible College in Chicago.

The ABL draft is May 4, preceded by its April 23-26 combine at the University of San Francisco.

The StingRays, if they have to gut their team in a trade for Williams, can’t look to the draft for help. At mid-season, they traded their first round pick to Atlanta in the Nicky McCrimmon-for-Niesa Johnson deal.