Marion Jones, signed as a free agent on March 10th, was the only rookie to stay with the squad for the entire 2010 season. Jones averaged 3.4 points and 1.6 rebounds in 9.4 minutes per game in 2010. [career and season statistics]
What I learned in 2010:
About myself -
I've learned that it's important to be humble. It has certainly been a humbling experience for me and this just kind of reinforces the fact that there's a need for that in all of our character, all of our personalities. That's probably one of the things that I've really come to grips with this season.
About my game -
That I can certainly see myself reaching my potential with the opportunity to play and kind of work on things and not just be so limited in my time on the court. It is what it is, but I know that I'll be able to grow as a player having the ability to just play more.
About my teammates -
I've learned that you can really make a challenging experience more enjoyable if you have a good group around you. I don't know if everybody would really share it, but that's one of the really saving graces for a lot of us is we like each other and we get along. We can get beat by 50, but we still like each other. Not a lot of teams can say that that are winning, so that has made this experience for me a really, really good one; the relationships that I have formed, have gotten with these other girls.
About the coaches -
I've learned that everybody struggles with certain things and with a new organization and knowing that these three in particular never coached a WNBA team. You can see on their faces the challenges that they face. I don't know that I should use the word sympathetic, but you really feel the pressure to kind of mold us and guide us and coach us to work together and win games.
About Tulsa -
I've learned that it is a community that is just very, very proud of who it is. They have embraced us unlike anybody could have imagined on this team. We've won what now five (previous to final) games? But our fans love the Shock no matter if we get beat by 10 or if we get beat by 50. I don't think a lot of cities could say that, that they are just die-hards. That means a lot because at some point it's going to start to turn around and hopefully the group that's still assembled here in terms of players and coaches realize from the beginning we had their support and they're not just fairweather fans.
My fondest memory -
Yeah, it was nice to beat Seattle here on a special day for Coach and the best team in the league. It just kind of proved to us because we've known all along, we practice with each other every day, that we can play. If we put things together that the potential is there for this organization to be really good.
My toughest memory -
Yeah, it's the tough, tough wide-margin losses. Like I said, we like each other and we think we're talented and we think we can play basketball and when we don't see it designated on the scoreboard we're all kind of pulling straws, trying to figure it out. That's the toughest part of it. Also to know, like I said, that our fans love us and we want to win basketball games, we want them to be proud that we're here and when you get beat so bad it's just kind of hard to come home. When you go out there knowing that we're still going to have however many thousands of fans that are going to come regardless, that we didn't kind of do what we were supposed to do, that's the toughest. After a game and to have to wave to them and they stay until the buzzer. To have to wave and say thank you but we haven't given them as many victories as they deserve.
My offseason plans -
They're still in the works. I want to play, wherever that might be, but there are a bunch of opportunities for me that I'm kind of looking at, so stay tuned.