1997 WNBA Championship - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

style="font-size: medium;" | **1997 WNBA Championship**
Team	Coach	Wins

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Houston Comets Houston Comets The Houston Comets were a Women's National Basketball Association team based in Houston, Texas, United States. Formed in 1997, the team was one of the best original eight WNBA teams and won the first four championships of the league's existence. The Comets were the first dynasty of the WNBA and...	Van Chancellor Van Chancellor Van Chancellor is the former Louisiana State University women's basketball coach. He was named head coach on April 11, 2007, replacing Pokey Chatman. In 2001, Van Chancellor was elected to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Knoxville, Tennessee...	1
New York Liberty New York Liberty The New York Liberty is a professional basketball team based in New York City, playing in the Eastern Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association . The team was one of the eight original franchises of the league...	Nancy Darsch Nancy Darsch Nancy Darsch is an assistant coach for the Seattle Storm in the Women's National Basketball Association. She started her professional coaching career in the WNBA's inaugural season with the New York Liberty. As the head coach, Darsch led the Liberty to a 17–11 season and the team advanced to the...	0

Date: August 30 MVP: Cynthia Cooper

Cynthia Cooper

Cynthia Lynne Cooper is a former American basketball player who has won championships in college, the Olympics, and in the Women's National Basketball Association . She is considered by many as one of the greatest women's basketball players ever. In 2011, she was voted in by fans as one of the...

(Houston Comets) Television
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...

: NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

Referees
Official (basketball)
In basketball, an official is a person who has the responsibility to enforce the rules and maintain the order of the game. The title of official also applies to the scorers and timekeepers, as well as other personnel that have an active task in maintaining the game...

: Bell, Corteau, Palmer Semifinal 1 vs 4: Houston

Houston Comets

The Houston Comets were a Women's National Basketball Association team based in Houston, Texas, United States. Formed in 1997, the team was one of the best original eight WNBA teams and won the first four championships of the league's existence. The Comets were the first dynasty of the WNBA and...

defeated Charlotte

Charlotte Sting

The Charlotte Sting was a Women's National Basketball Association franchise based in Charlotte, North Carolina and it was one of the league's eight original teams. The team folded on January 3, 2007....

70-54 Semifinal 2 vs 3: New York

New York Liberty

The New York Liberty is a professional basketball team based in New York City, playing in the Eastern Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association . The team was one of the eight original franchises of the league...

defeated Phoenix

Phoenix Mercury

The Phoenix Mercury is a professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association . The team was founded before the league's inaugural 1997 season began; it is one of the eight original franchises...

59-41 tyle="width:100%; border:1px; border-collapse:collapse; background:#eee;"> lign="center" colspan="2"|WNBA Finals
WNBA Finals
The WNBA Finals is the championship series of the Women's National Basketball Association and the conclusion of the sport's postseason each fall. The series was named the WNBA Championship until 2002....

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The 1997 WNBA Championship was the championship game of the 1997 WNBA season

1997 WNBA Season

-External links:*...

, and the conclusion of the season's playoffs

WNBA Playoffs

The WNBA Playoffs is a best-of-three elimination tournament between eight teams in the Eastern Conference and Western Conference of the Women's National Basketball Association , ultimately deciding the final two teams who will play in the WNBA Finals....

. The Houston Comets

Houston Comets

, top-seeded team of the league, defeated the New York Liberty

New York Liberty

, second-seeded team, 65-51 to win the league's inaugural championship.

The Comets' 18-10 record gave them home court advantage over New York (17–11).

For the playoffs, the top four teams overall in the league were seeded one to four. Top seed Houston played the four seed Charlotte and the two seed New York played number three Phoenix.

Road to the finals

Houston Comets		New York Liberty
18–10 (.643) 1st East, 1st overall	Regular season 1997 WNBA Season -External links:*...	17–11 (.607) 2nd East, 2nd overall
Defeated the (4) Charlotte Sting Charlotte Sting The Charlotte Sting was a Women's National Basketball Association franchise based in Charlotte, North Carolina and it was one of the league's eight original teams. The team folded on January 3, 2007.... , 70-54	WNBA Semifinals	Defeated the (3) Phoenix Mercury Phoenix Mercury The Phoenix Mercury is a professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association . The team was founded before the league's inaugural 1997 season began; it is one of the eight original franchises... , 59-41

Regular season series

The Liberty

New York Liberty

won 3 of the 4 games in the regular season series:

Game summary

Time listed below is Eastern Daylight Time

Eastern Time Zone

The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...

.
The Houston Comets

Houston Comets

became the first WNBA champions, riding the unstoppable Cynthia Cooper

Cynthia Cooper

and a suffocating defense to a 65-51 victory over the New York Liberty

New York Liberty

.

Cooper, the fledgling league's leading scorer who was named Most Valuable Player earlier this week, scored 14 of her 25 points in the pivotal second half, when the Comets had a 10-0 burst and held the Liberty scoreless for nearly 6½ minutes. Tina Thompson

Tina Thompson

Tina Marie Thompson is a professional basketball player in the WNBA for the Los Angeles Sparks. The first draft pick in WNBA history, Thompson was selected first by the Houston Comets. She helped lead the Comets to four WNBA Championships...

added 18 points for the Comets, who turned Houston into "Clutch City" again. The city adopted that nickname during the two-year championship reign of the NBA's Houston Rockets

Houston Rockets

The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston, Texas. The team plays in the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was established in 1967, and played in San Diego, California for four years, before being...

.

Cooper also was named Finals MVP as the sellout crowd of 16,285 saw the Comets come up with their best defensive effort of the season.

Kym Hampton had 13 points and 13 rebounds and Vickie Johnson

Vickie Johnson

Vickie Johnson , is a WNBA player who played for the San Antonio Silver Stars until her retirement in 2009. She grew up in Coushatta, Louisiana.-High School Years:Johnson was a letterman in basketball and track and field...

added 12 points for the Liberty, who picked a bad time for one of their worst offensive displays. A meaningless basket with three seconds remaining by Rebecca Lobo

Rebecca Lobo

Rebecca Rose Lobo-Rushin is an American television basketball analyst and a former player in the professional Women's National Basketball Association from 1997 to 2003...

-- who was limited to nine points—allowed New York to avoid its lowest point total of the season.

Houston, which edged New York for the Eastern Conference

Eastern Conference (WNBA)

The Eastern Conference of the Women's National Basketball Association is made up of six teams.The Eastern Conference playoffs is divided into two playoff rounds, The Conference Semi-Finals and The Conference Finals with the winner of the Conference Championship facing the Western Conference...

title and knocked off Charlotte

Charlotte Sting

in the semifinals, finished the regular season 18-10. The Liberty, who advanced with a semifinal win at Phoenix

Phoenix Mercury

, were 17-11.

Awards

1997 WNBA Champion: Houston Comets
Houston Comets
The Houston Comets were a Women's National Basketball Association team based in Houston, Texas, United States. Formed in 1997, the team was one of the best original eight WNBA teams and won the first four championships of the league's existence. The Comets were the first dynasty of the WNBA and...
Finals MVP: Cynthia Cooper
Cynthia Cooper
Cynthia Lynne Cooper is a former American basketball player who has won championships in college, the Olympics, and in the Women's National Basketball Association . She is considered by many as one of the greatest women's basketball players ever. In 2011, she was voted in by fans as one of the...

Rosters

{| class="toccolours" style="font-size: 95%; width: 100%;"
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! colspan="2" style="background-color: #B22222; color: #D3D3D3; text-align: center;" | 1997 Houston Comets Finals roster
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! Players !! Coaches
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! colspan="2" style="background-color: #0047AB; color: #FFFFFF; text-align: center;" | 1997 New York Liberty Finals roster
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! Players !! Coaches
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