FanPost

A Collection of Washington Mystics Links During Olympic Break

Rewritten Intro because for some reason "The Jump" disappeared in posts this morning..

Right now it is Olympic time and by this time next week, the games are all but over. Most WNBA teams have someone on their active rosters on an Olympic team for one of the 12 teams that played country. Meanwhile, players who are stateside take some vacation time and start individual work.

I know the WNBA news scene has been pretty light as of late and we really didn't have links up on teams since the break began. But late is better than never. First off, the Washington Mystics.

Practice Links

Because no one is on an Olympic roster, the Mystics are practicing at full strength. Same goes for the coaches, though Jennifer Gillom is an assistant on Team USA, presumably because of her pre-Mystics work. Here are some Mystics links in regards to practice that actually started as early as July 24 according to their facebook page.

An additional article came out today from the Washington Times (link below). More talk about rebuilding and fundamentals.

Photos from July 24 | Lacey interview | Jasmine Thomas interview | Washington Times article

Team Events together and with the DMV Community

If there is one thing that Coach Lacey will be known for by me in a positive light, it is that she tries to find non-conventional ways to build teammate cohesion. We saw that before this season with the Navy SEAL training, and even during the season, Lacey brought in yoga instructors. Certainly there is a side of me that is saying, "why?" but at the same time it can build some off the court chemistry.

We have seen more of this in the summer break, as the Mystics headed to the Wharf in the SW Waterfront, had a practice in an outdoor pool (I know pool work is not uncommon, but not so much with outdoor pools), and as mentioned in the previous Washington Times article, they ended practice early to have ice cream.

Lastly, this month long break allows for more community service time. Natasha Lacy and some other players took part in a Christmas in July event and a link is below:

Mo Currie on pool exercise day | Lacey on the Wharf day | Natasha Lacy interview

More Mystics Articles and Links

Michelle Snow gave an interview with Pensacola News Journal about how she feels on the WNBA's progress. Click here.

Jennifer Gillom gave some token interviews with Monumental Sports about how she is doing with Team USA. (Part I of interview | Part II of interview)

This is real old, but here is Coach Gillom giving out instructions at a practice to Team USA minus Sue Bird back on July 16, in the House that Abe built. (video link from Monumental Sports of course)

And here is Coach Gillom on her thoughts after the Team USA vs. Brazil game. (Video link).

Of course, we can't forget about the face of the Mystics, Crystal Langhorne! The Courier Post Online has a recent article on two players from Southern New Jersey, one being Crystal of course, and the second being New York forward DeMya Walker, who also wore Monumental Red last year. (Read here)

Another Lang Link! This one is from the Washington Times, where Crystal says that she hopes to wear another Monumental Red White and Blue jersey, if you know what I mean (Read here)

If you didn't see it already, Ted Leonsis gave a Q&A to Bullets Forever and Japers' Rink, the Wizards and Capitals SB Nation hubs. On Japers', he gave more insight on the Mystics (Read here)

Not exactly Mystics related, but Monumental Sports worthy. Katie Ledecky, the Bethesda, MD swimmer who won gold in the 800m freestyle. Her uncle was one of Ted Leonsis' business partners. Back when she was a very little girl, she sat next to the then Wizards and Mystics minority owner and was in front of my favorite basketball player ever who would go on to become the Bobcats owner. Safe to say, Katie was ballin' since she was in her diapers. I would expect to see her attend some Monumental Sports team's game real soon. (From the DC Sports Bog)

Mystics 15th All Time Team

One last note. As most of you know, this is the Mystics 15th year in business. The team recently released four of the five members on their all time team. They are Crystal Langhorne, Vicky Bullett, Murriel Page, and Nikki McCray. One more player left. The shocking thing about it is that either Alana Beard or Chamique Holdsclaw will likely be left out of the All Time Team. I am leaning toward Chamique being selected by the fans, who could not vote anonymously.... It would have been strange to see a player on another team get this award but Alana was the face of this team until now.

Lang Interview | Vicky Bullett Interview | Murriel Page Interview | Nikki McCray Interview

So that's it.

Any additional noteworthy links on the Washington Mystics are most certainly welcome. What things are your local teams doing?