Will We Lose Simone?

Over at rebkel, pilight points to an article in a Jamaican paper that hints that backup center, and local fan favorite, Simone Edwards might be done with the WNBA and the Seattle Storm. In the article she talks about retiring to focus on the higher pay of International Basketball and helping her country to win a championship.

"I was able to stick with it until I won a championship and I'm ready to retire from the WNBA now. I need to think about being able to play longer professionally overseas," she said.

Recently, Edwards shocked the local media with the announcement that, despite what is bound to be disapproval from the Seattle Storm franchise, she will take part in this year's Caribbean Basketball Championships in Jamaica. In fact, the player went as far as to state that she would be willing to walk away from the league to take part in the event."

Simone says that winning the WNBA championship in 2004 was a career height and she feels that dedicating herself to helping Jamaica win the Caribbean Basketball Championships this year will help inspire local children. Simone's Seattle fans are well aware of her commitment to helping the children of Jamaica and how lucky she feels she was to be noticed and offered a scholarship in America because of basketball. Whatever she chooses, she will always be a Storm Original and hold a special place in the heart of Storm fans, for the way she plays on the court and even more for the way she shares so her heart so openly off the court.

On a side note, now that everyone on the media has raved about first round draft pick Barbara Turner, it was time to load accolades on another newcomer. David Locke has been keeping a daily blog, including podcasts of his notes during practice. Yesterday he raved about the veteran leadership and practice value of Wendy Palmer. On other fronts...the local news has gone silent on the Storm.