Three LSU women’s basketball players were chosen Friday in the 2003 WNBA Draft, just after the league signed a collective bargaining agreement to keep it in existence for another four years.
Center Aiysha Smith was taken seventh overall by the Washington Mystics, where she joins a team that finished 17-15 and lost in the first round of the playoffs last season. Smith will play alongside former Tennessee All-American Chamique Holdsclaw.
Smith averaged 13.2 points and 5.6 rebounds for the Tigers last season, when LSU finished 30-4, won the SEC Tournament and went to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. She is only the second LSU player taken in the first round and the highest Lady Tiger ever picked.
Marie Ferdinand was taken by the Utah Starzz with the eighth overall pick in 2001.
Forwards DeTrina White and Ke-Ke Tardy were drafted in the second round. White landed with the Indiana Fever as the 20th overall selection and averaged 8.1 points and 6.4 rebounds last year. Tardy, who averaged 7.7 points, went to the San Antonio Silver Stars as the 25th pick.
LSU has had seven players drafted since 1999, including April Brown (Indiana, 2001), Katrina Hibbert (Seattle Strom, 2000), Elaine Powell (Orlando Miracle, 1999) and Ferdinand.
White, a 5-foot-11 player from Lafayette, joins a team that finished 16-16 and finished fourth in its division. Tardy will suit up for San Antonio, which moved from Utah and finished 20-12 last year, and reunite with her former teammate Ferdinand, who played at LSU from 1998-2001.
The WNBA settled its labor troubles late Friday morning, ending a long standoff that nearly ended with NBA Commissioner David Stern canceling the league’s seventh season. The players union signed an agreement that lasts for four years, with an option for a fifth season.
Among the features in the agreement is free agency — the first ever in women’s professional sports — and a salary cap. Minimum salaries for veterans were raised five percent, although rookie salaries were cut.
The deal paved the way for the draft to begin, and the Cleveland Rockers selected Mississippi State’s Latoya Thomas with the first pick. Vanderbilt’s Chantelle Anderson went second to the Sacramento Monarchs. Louisiana Tech’s Cheryl Ford, whose father is Utah Jazz forward Karl Malone, went third to the Detroit Shock.
Tennessee teammates Kara Lawson and Gwen Jackson were drafted back-to-back. Lawson went to Detroit with the fifth pick, and Jackson landed with Indiana at No. 6.
Overall, 11 of the 42 picks were from the Southeastern Conference. South Carolina’s Jocelyn Penn was the last SEC player in the top 10, drafted in the ninth spot to the Charlotte Sting.