Proud Mama. Why is Marie Beard (still) smiling? Well, you'd be smiling too if your daughter had just been named a reserve* on the Eastern Conference All-Star team. The BasketCases extend a big congratulations to Alana!!

*Re-serve: n. 1. a WNBA player who would have been chosen as a starter on the All-Star team if more of the fans actually knew something about basketball and had voted based on merit.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Tot on TV. Set your DVRs now: on Sunday morning at 9:30am, Latasha Byears will be featured on ESPN's Outside the Lines. And an article posted today on ESPN.com recounts Tot's rocky time in the WNBA, her release by the Sparks after a sexual assault accusation -- the same team owners who lavished millions on Kobe Bryant despite the rape charges -- and her return to the league, thanks to Mystics GM Linda Hargrove. Statements by DeLisha Milton-Jones and Linda Hargrove in this article show the kind of people they are:

"Help me understand your logic as to why you're just bending over backwards for Kobe, spending I don't know how many thousands of dollars to fly him to Colorado and then to playing a game," Milton-Jones said. "And you have Latasha here who's just being accused of something and you just throw her to the wayside for the dogs to have. It's not right."

-------

"She's a controversial player," Mystics General manager Linda Hargrove said. "There are going to be some people in the league that question the decision to bring Latasha back. It ended up coming down to … we believed in giving her a second opportunity."