WNBA REVIEW | Washington’s Soon-To-Be All-Star....Harding: Healthy and Leading Mystics to Greater Heights

Lindsey Harding - Mystics point guard

Harding in action

Josephine Achieng Owino

When the starters for the East All-Stars were announced back in early July, the fact that Lindsey Harding didn’t get voted in by the fans wasn’t a shock. As well as the Washington point guard had played in the first half of the 2009 season, her career has been a bit star-crossed. Knee injuries in each of her first two WNBA seasons prevented Harding from reaching the star potential everyone thought she possessed when she was made the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 WNBA Draft.
But when Harding was not selected as a reserve by the coaches, it was a mild surprise considering the breakout season she was and still is having in 2009, and what a big part she has played in the Mystics’ revival.

“Not to take anything away from the All-Stars that are here, because everyone that’s here definitely deserves to be here,” said Washington’s Alana Beard during All-Star weekend, “but it was very disappointing to not see Lindsey Harding on the team because I believe simply she’s the best point guard in this league right now.”
After her pair of injury-plagued seasons in Minnesota to begin her WNBA career, Harding played in all 15 games for Washington prior to the break this year, was among the top 5 in the entire league in assists per game and helped bring stability to a Mystics team that had been sorely lacking in that area the last couple seasons.
But as much as Harding would have appreciated being selected by the coaches, she’s made it clear that she’s just concerned with focusing on the positive and making progress.

It may be a bit of a cliché to say this in evaluating a player’s ability, but Harding has an incredible motor. When she’s on the court, she always appears to be the fastest one out there (this after suffering two knee injuries). That quickness allows her to penetrate the defense with ease and create for her teammates or finish at the rim. When D-ing up she refuses to let the opposing player breathe. And Harding does this all without seeming to tire. In fact, Harding leads all players this year in minutes per game (35.5), and she is second in total minutes played (780), behind only Chicago’s Candice Dupree (794), who has played one more game than Harding. “She’s just a tough player and there’s no one more competitive than she is,” said Mystics head coach Julie Plank. Harding’s first season with Washington has been quite the contrast from her first two in the WNBA. The Duke star was actually selected by the Phoenix Mercury with the first pick in the 2007 draft, but the Mercury subsequently traded her rights on draft day to the Minnesota Lynx for veteran big Tangela Smith. The move proved to be a shrewd one for the Mercury, who went on to win the WNBA title that year.

While Harding got off to a strong start in her rookie season, the Lynx did not. The team dropped its first seven games that year and nine of its first 10. To make matters worse, Harding, who seemed to be on her way to winning Rookie of the Year honors, suffered a season-ending injury on July 10 against the Mystics of all teams, tearing the ACL in her left knee. Harding averaged 11.7 points, 3.9 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 1.0 steals in 20 games before going down with the injury, and still managed to finish second in the ROY voting behind Armintie Price despite missing the team’s final 14 games. The following year, Harding incurred another setback, this time prior to the start of the season. While training with the U.S. Olympic team, Harding suffered a second injury to her left knee in two years, this time a stress fracture to her patella. The injury forced her miss all of Lynx training camp and Minnesota’s first 10 regular season games.

By the time Harding returned to the court on June 20, the Lynx were 6-4 and in the mix for a postseason berth. But Harding was clearly not her explosive self. She averaged 6.4 points, 3.2 assists, 2.3 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 2.3 turnovers and actually started less games in the backcourt than Anna DeForge and Noelle Quinn. Suffice it to say, Minnesota came up short on its bid for a playoff spot. “It wasn’t fun,” said Harding about her injury-plagued seasons with Minnesota, “but you can also learn a lot from watching. And it just made me more motivated to prove a lot of people wrong that say you can’t come back strong from an injury. And I still have way more to prove every single day.” The turning point for Harding can be traced back to the off-season when Angela Taylor was named vice president and general manager of the Mystics. Taylor, who came over to Washington after serving as vice president of business development for Minnesota since 2006, first hired Plank as the team’s head coach – a position held by three people in the previous two seasons. Plank had been an assistant for Minnesota during the 2008 season after serving in the same role in Indiana for the Fever’s first eight seasons (2000-2007).

Nearly three months after Plank was hired, the Mystics swung a deal for Harding, acquiring the point guard from Minnesota along with a 2009 second-round draft pick (Camille LeNoir) and a 2010 second-round selection in exchange for Washington’s 2009 first-round pick (Quanitra Hollingsworth) and a second-round pick (Rashanda McCants). “We knew that we needed a point guard that could lead us,” said Plank. “She’s a tremendous leader and a floor general. I’ve coached her before. I have a lot of confidence in her. And she played the way that we want to play, up-tempo and defensive.” After posting just a 10-24 mark in 2008 and missing out on the playoffs for the second straight season, Washington is 11-11 this season and in prime position to fill one of the East’s four postseason slots. A lot of the credit for the turnaround has to go to Harding, who is enjoying her best WNBA season to date, as she leads the Mystics in assists (5.0 apg), is second in scoring (13.4 ppg) and steals (1.3 spg) and is hitting on 47 percent of her shots from the field. Virtually all of her numbers are on pace to be career bests.

“The biggest difference between this season and past seasons is I feel extremely healthy,” said Harding. “And I love the system that Julie has implemented.”
As the player that makes everything go in Plank’s system, Harding has helped Washington score at a 77.0-points-per-game clip this season, which is over seven points more than last year (69.6), when it was the worst scoring team in the league. There’s no doubt to onlookers that a change of scenery for Harding has helped both her and the Mystics, and the third-year point guard admitted that it’s had a big effect on her success this season. “Minnesota is doing awesome,” said Harding. “It’s a great place with great fans. I’ve just found that for me since I’ve been here it’s a new start. Let’s stay healthy, let’s get some good wins and let’s play like you know how to play.” The more Harding plays, the clearer it’s becoming that she is on her way to being a perennial All-Star, and that we’ll look back on her first three seasons and wonder how such a talented player failed to garner such acclaim for so long. “Maybe one day in the future I will (be an All-Star),” said Harding. “But good things come to those who wait.”

Earlier in the year, Kenyan international… Josephine Achieng Owino joined the Washington Mystics as the 28th player selected overall in the 2009 WNBA draft alongside #2 overall draft pick, Marissa Coleman.

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Info: By Mark Bodenrader/ wnba.com
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