1998 Los Angeles Sparks season

The 1998 WNBA season was the second for the Los Angeles Sparks. The Sparks missed out of the playoffs for the second consecutive season. It would be the last season they missed the playoffs until the 2007 season.

1998 Los Angeles Sparks season
Coach	Julie Rousseau (fired Jul. 16, 7–13 record) Orlando Woolridge (5–5 record)
Arena	Great Western Forum
Attendance	7,653 per game
Results
Record	12–18 (.400)
Place	3rd (Western)
Playoff finish	Did not qualify
← 1997 season 1999 season →

Transactions

Washington Mystics expansion draft

The following player was selected in the Washington Mystics expansion draft from the Los Angeles Sparks:

Player	Nationality	School/Team/Country
Heidi Burge	United States	Virginia

WNBA draft

See also: 1998 WNBA draft

Round	Pick	Player	Nationality	School/Team/Country
1	5	Allison Feaster	United States	Harvard
2	15	Octavia Blue	United States	Miami
3	25	Rehema Stephens	United States	UCLA
4	35	Erica Kienast	United States	UC Santa Barbara

Transactions

Date	Transaction
February 18, 1998	Lost Heidi Burge to the Washington Mystics in the WNBA expansion draft
April 9, 1998	Traded Linda Burgess to the Sacramento Monarchs in exchange for Pamela McGee
April 29, 1998	Drafted Allison Feaster, Octavia Blue, Rehema Stephens and Erica Kienast in the 1998 WNBA Draft
May 11, 1998	Waived Daedra Charles and Kim Gessig
	Signed Erin Alexander, Eugenia Rycraw and Sandra Van Embricqs
July 10, 1998	Waived Erin Alexander
	Signed Michelle Reed
July 16, 1997	Fired Julie Rousseau as Head Coach
	Hired Orlando Woolridge as Head Coach

Roster

1998 Los Angeles Sparks roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Nat. Name Height Weight DOB From Yrs G 15 Alexander, Erin 5' 7" (1.7m) 140 lb (64kg) 1975-04-25 UC Santa Barbara R F 20 Blue, Octavia 6' 1" (1.85m) 163 lb (74kg) 1976-04-18 Miami (FL) R F 12 Colleton, Katrina 5' 0" (1.52m) 145 lb (66kg) 1968-10-14 Maryland R G 21 Dixon, Tamecka 5' 9" (1.75m) 148 lb (67kg) 1975-12-14 Kansas 1 F 5 Feaster, Allison 5' 11" (1.8m) 168 lb (76kg) 1976-02-11 Harvard R C 9 Leslie, Lisa 6' 5" (1.96m) 170 lb (77kg) 1972-07-07 USC 1 G 4 Mabika, Mwadi 5' 11" (1.8m) 165 lb (75kg) 1976-07-27 1 F/C 30 McGee, Pamela 6' 3" (1.91m) 180 lb (82kg) 1962-12-01 USC 1 G/F 7 Reed, Michelle 5' 10" (1.78m) 165 lb (75kg) 1973-05-24 Western Kentucky R C 40 Rycraw, Eugenia 6' 3" (1.91m) 175 lb (79kg) 1968-12-06 Cal State Fullerton R G 11 Toler, Penny 5' 8" (1.73m) 132 lb (60kg) 1966-03-24 Long Beach State 1 F/C 14 Van Embricqs, Sandra 6' 3" (1.91m) 175 lb (79kg) 1968-04-18 UCLA R F 10 Wideman, Jamila 5' 6" (1.68m) 135 lb (61kg) 1975-11-16 Stanford 1 C 28 Zheng, Haixia 6' 8" (2.03m) 254 lb (115kg) 1967-03-07 1	Head coach Orlando Woolridge (Notre Dame) Assistant coaches - Legend (C) Team captain (FA) Free agent (IN) Inactive (S) Suspended Injured

Schedule

Regular season

1998 game log Total: 12–18 (Home: 8–8; Road: 4–10)
June: 2–6 (Home: 1–2; Road: 1–4) Game Date Team Score High points High rebounds High assists Location Attendance Record 1 June 11 @ Utah W 89–83 Lisa Leslie (24) Lisa Leslie (12) Penny Toler (6) Delta Center 1–0 2 June 14 @ Phoenix L 70–60 Lisa Leslie (18) Lisa Leslie (10) Katrina Colleton (4) America West Arena 1–1 3 June 16 @ Sacramento L 69–73 Tamecka Dixon (21) Lisa Leslie (11) Colleton Dixon (3) ARCO Arena 1–2 4 June 19 New York W 78–75 Haixia Leslie (19) Lisa Leslie (21) Penny Toler (5) Great Western Forum 2–2 5 June 21 Houston L 63–79 Tamecka Dixon (18) Lisa Leslie (11) Dixon Toler (3) Great Western Forum 2–3 6 June 24 Charlotte L 73–77 Lisa Leslie (30) Pamela McGee (7) Jamila Wideman (4) Great Western Forum 2–4 7 June 27 @ Houston L 64–75 Tamecka Dixon (17) Lisa Leslie (11) Penny Toler (3) Compaq Center 2–5 8 June 30 @ Sacramento L 56–58 Lisa Leslie (21) Lisa Leslie (8) Jamila Wideman (4) ARCO Arena 2–6
July: 6–7 (Home: 5–5; Road: 1–2) Game Date Team Score High points High rebounds High assists Location Attendance Record 9 July 2 Utah L 57–58 Lisa Leslie (15) Lisa Leslie (10) Dixon Leslie Mabika (4) Great Western Forum 2–7 10 July 7 Charlotte W 86–79 Lisa Leslie (24) Lisa Leslie (7) Mabika Toler (5) Great Western Forum 3–7 11 July 8 Sacramento L 71–76 Tamecka Dixon (20) Lisa Leslie (11) Tamecka Dixon (4) Great Western Forum 3–8 12 July 12 Cleveland W 87–66 Penny Toler (22) Lisa Leslie (11) Penny Toler (9) Great Western Forum 4–8 13 July 13 @ Phoenix L 62–72 Lisa Leslie (13) Lisa Leslie (13) Dixon Toler Wideman (2) America West Arena 4–9 14 July 15 Sacramento W 81–76 (OT) Tamecka Dixon (22) Lisa Leslie (7) Leslie Toler (6) Great Western Forum 5–9 15 July 17 Houston L 68–74 Lisa Leslie (18) Pamela McGee (9) Penny Toler (7) Great Western Forum 5–10 16 July 21 New York L 77–92 Lisa Leslie (24) Lisa Leslie (9) Dixon Leslie Toler (5) Great Western Forum 5–11 17 July 23 Phoenix W 70–68 Tamecka Dixon (23) Mwadi Mabika (8) Mwadi Mabika (4) Great Western Forum 6–11 18 July 25 @ Detroit L 67–69 Tamecka Dixon (26) Octavia Blue (7) Dixon Toler Wideman (2) The Palace of Auburn Hills 6–12 19 July 27 @ Cleveland L 67–83 Mwadi Mabika (16) Mwadi Mabika (8) Penny Toler (6) Gund Arena 6–13 20 July 29 @ Washington W 77–68 Tamecka Dixon (20) Lisa Leslie (13) Lisa Leslie (5) MCI Center 7–13 21 July 31 Phoenix W 71–56 Leslie Mabika (15) Leslie Mabika (8) Penny Toler (8) Great Western Forum 8–13
August: 4–5 (Home: 2–1; Road: 2–4) Game Date Team Score High points High rebounds High assists Location Attendance Record 22 August 1 @ Utah W 73–65 Lisa Leslie (24) Lisa Leslie (9) Penny Toler (5) Delta Center 9–13 23 August 3 Washington W 86–72 Lisa Leslie (21) Mwadi Mabika (10) Penny Toler (6) Great Western Forum 10–13 24 August 5 @ Detroit L 61–73 Lisa Leslie (30) Pamela McGee (12) Penny Toler (4) The Palace of Auburn Hills 10–14 25 August 8 @ New York L 62–80 Penny Toler (14) Katrina Colleton (6) Mwadi Mabika (3) Madison Square Garden 10–15 26 August 9 @ Washington L 74–76 Lisa Leslie (23) Lisa Leslie (16) Penny Toler (7) MCI Center 10–16 27 August 12 @ Charlotte W 65–52 Lisa Leslie (21) Lisa Leslie (14) Penny Toler (6) Charlotte Coliseum 11–16 28 August 14 Utah W 87–67 Lisa Leslie (18) Lisa Leslie (14) Penny Toler (14) Great Western Forum 12–16 29 August 16 Detroit L 76–77 Lisa Leslie (30) Lisa Leslie (14) Penny Toler (9) Great Western Forum 12–17 30 August 19 @ Houston L 71–80 Lisa Leslie (24) Lisa Leslie (9) Penny Toler (6) Compaq Center 12–18
1998 season schedule

Season standings

Western Conference	W	L	PCT	Conf.	GB
Houston Comets x	27	3	.900	15–1	–
Phoenix Mercury x	19	11	.633	10–6	8.0
Los Angeles Sparks o	12	18	.400	6–10	15.0
Sacramento Monarchs o	8	22	.267	5–11	19.0
Utah Starzz o	8	22	.267	4–12	19.0

Statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game	RPG	Rebounds per game
APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game	BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game
FG%	Field-goal percentage	3P%	3-point field-goal percentage	FT%	Free-throw percentage	TO	Turnovers per game
PF	Fouls per game		Team leader		League leader

Regular Season

Player	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Tamecka Dixon	22	22	32.3	.438	.356	.779	2.5	2.5	1.1	0.4	16.2
Lisa Leslie	28	28	32.1	.478	.391	.768	10.2	2.5	1.5	2.1	19.6
Penny Toler	30	30	31.5	.415	.417	.743	3.5	4.8	1.1	0.1	12.3
Mwadi Mabika	29	23	24.5	.339	.308	.698	4.4	1.5	1.0	0.3	8.2
Katrina Colleton	30	14	19.2	.303	.263	.833	1.7	1.6	0.6	0.4	2.7
Pamela McGee	30	22	19.0	.437	.000	.614	4.8	0.4	0.8	0.8	6.8
Sandra Van Embricqs	28	2	16.8	.483	N/A	.500	2.7	0.6	0.9	0.3	3.4
Zheng Haixia	6	2	16.3	.625	N/A	.714	4.3	0.5	0.0	0.2	7.5
Allison Feaster	3	0	13.7	.214	.200	1.000	0.7	1.0	0.7	0.0	3.3
Jamila Wideman	25	0	13.2	.279	.250	.724	0.9	2.3	0.4	0.0	1.9
Eugenia Rycraw	20	4	11.3	.469	N/A	.727	2.5	0.2	0.4	0.9	2.3
Octavia Blue	30	3	11.0	.338	.286	.625	1.6	0.3	0.4	0.1	2.4
Erin Alexander	8	0	9.1	.318	.375	1.000	1.9	0.8	0.3	0.0	2.8
Michelle Reed	9	0	5.4	.273	.250	.583	1.2	0.2	0.2	0.1	1.6

^‡Waived/Released during the season
^†Traded during the season
^≠Acquired during the season

External links

• Sparks on Basketball Reference