Love at first sight

Women's Basketball, May/Jun 2003 by Elfman, Lois

COVER STORY

She has a lot in common with one of her idols in the game of basketball - they both excell offensively and defensively. Beyond the simlarities, the place Michael Jordan holds in her life on and off the court says things both serious and humorous about 5'9" San Antonio Silver Stars guard Marie Ferdinand.

"In high school I owned every pair of Michael Jordan shoes," she says. "I had to have every new pair that came out. I wore Jordans and sweat pants. I dressed like a basketball player. As I grew older, I started to be more feminine. Now, I love to dress up. Once I started doing it, I figured, I'm going to show myself off.

"Yes, I'm a basketball player," she adds. "On the court I'm very aggressive. That's my game. But when I step off the court, I'm a lady. Both of those things are me."

She finally got to see Jordan play in person when she was a guest at this year's NBA All-Star Game. It was a thrill. To mark the occasion, did she wear a pair of Air Jordans?

"Are you kidding? I was definitely in high heels," says Ferdinand.

How Marie Ferdinand, woman and WNBA player, came to be an invited guest at the NBA All-Star Game is a tale of talent, destiny, determination and tireless hard work.

"She is probably one of the best athletes I've ever seen," says Sue Gunter, Ferdinand's coach at Louisiana State University (LSU). "Her elevator just goes to another level."

Before the eighth grade, Ferdinand, 24, had barely ever heard of the game of basketball. She says her life consisted of going to school and then coming home to help her mother with household chores. Then one of her best friends, Norma Noel, said she'd seen a sign up in school announcing tryouts for the girls' basketball team.

"Norma said,'We should go try out for basketball! I said,'No way.' I had no interest in it," recalls Ferdinand, who was persuaded to go. "It just took that one time for me to step in that gym and have one practice. From then on, I fell in love with it. After practice I'd go to the courts and play with the guys. I could not put the ball down. I would play basketball all the time.

"I just blossomed. I played all day, every day, and it showed."

She caught the eye of Denise Novak, the coach at Miami (Fla.) Edison Senior High School. Throughout Ferdinand's high school years, she and assistant coach John Burke watched a remarkable talent unfold.

"Before I got to Edison, nobody knew the school even had a girls' basketball team,' Ferdinand says. "The guys were the talk of the school. Several girls and I built the program there, They're still winning championships. Now they're known as a girls` basketball school."

That change came due to their unrelenting work.

"John Burke had us in the gym 24-7," Ferdinand says. "We worked hard. We played. We won. We made progress."

"My assistant coach was a great teacher of the game," says Novak. "Marie decided to absorb the game and work religiously at improving.

"She also had basketball instinct - something you can't teach people."

Success on the basketball court led to changes in all areas of her life. She started hanging out with friends. Summer leagues gave her the opportunity to travel. And as a college scholarship became a realistic goal, her efforts picked up in the classroom as well.

"As I got better in high school and was thinking about college, I decided I needed to not be content with making a C when I knew I could make a B or an A," she says. "I started to put more work into school."

She says Novak never had to worry about her skipping practice. With that tenacity came both individual and team honors - three-time Florida Player of the Year, a state championship in her sophomore year and a trip to the final in junior year.

Several colleges came calling. It seemed a natural that she would attend the University of Florida. Then an assistant coach from LSU came to Miami on a recruiting trip. He watched a girl he had come to scout and was on the way out the door when Novak cornered him.

"I said, 'Why don't you stick around and watch my team? You might like this kid I have,' " Novak recalls. "As soon as he saw her, he was on the telephone."

"When we saw her, her athleticism was staggering," notes Gunter.

A visit to LSU in Baton Rouge sealed the deal.

Unfortunately, at the end of her senior year in high school, she tore the ACL in her left knee. That injury was perhaps the worst and best thing that happened to her.

"Since that injury I've felt I've always been a step behind," says Ferdinand, who spent most of her freshman year at LSU on the bench.

"Marie and I spent most of her freshman year with me trying to explain why she wasn't getting more playing time," says Gunter. "Her knee was heavily braced. She stayed here the summer after her freshman year and started total rehab of the knee, working in the weight room and doing all those kinds of things.

"When we started practice in the fall, she walked in the gym and she didn't have the knee brace on," she continues. "From that point on, she worked on some part of her game every single summer. After her sophomore year, she spent the whole summer improving her range.