Late Wednesday links: Seattle's defense in Chicago, Becky Hammon to make 2013 debut soon, Kevin Durant dodging questions about Monica Wright

I normally try to get these up in the morning, but ... better late than never? Especially when we've got Kevin Durant-Monica Wright gossip to discuss?

Anyway, to the links.

• Mechelle Voepel of espnW writes that one key to the Seattle Storm's 69-60 road victory over the Chicago Sky was Camille Little, who coach Brian Agler considers one of the most versatile defenders in the league. Little had responsibility for guarding Delle Donne for most of the game yet - not to take away from Little, who I've long thought is one of the league's most underrated players - the star rookie's 3-for-13 shooting performance included a number of five misses in the paint that she would normally make and her second half included a combination of contested and off-balance long jumpers and threes, almost a microcosm of her team's shot selection. Read more >>>


Elena Delle Donne's second half shot selection.

• Terese Karmel of SportsPageMagazine writes that Connecticut Sun rookie Sydney Carter's eight assists were not only a personal season-high, but a team season-high. With Carter developing into a productive contributor at point guard, Allison Hightower can move back to the shooting guard position where she's more comfortable, as evidenced by a team-high 18 points last night as the Sun snapped a four game losing streak. Read more >>>
• Mike DiMauro of The Day reports, "Sun vice president and general manager Chris Sienko said the team has reached out to representatives of European players Alba Torrens and Sandrine Gruda about playing here at some point this season." Read more >>>
• Odeen Domingo of the Arizona Republic reports that the Phoenix Mercury are starting to get contributions from the entire roster - beyond Brittney Griner and Diana Taurasi - with DeWanna Bonner and Candice Dupree stepping up last night as well as Penny Taylor making her first appearance at US Airways Center since September 2011. Already sporting one of the league's top offenses, they could get even better. Read more >>>
• The San Antonio Express-News reports that San Antonio Silver Stars guard Becky Hammon practiced on Tuesday for the first time in nearly six weeks and quotes her as saying that she is planning to play in on Saturday in Los Angeles. Read more >>>
• Mirin Fader's article about Ivory Latta was mentioned in yesterday's statistics piece about the league's top point guards, but it's a nice piece documenting the winding path she's taken to becoming one of the top point guards in the league. Read more >>>
• Bob Corwin of Full Court laid out an interesting set of recommendations to help improve the early commitment process during the course of college recruiting that would protect both the students and the schools. He looks at why high school athletes commit early, what has gone wrong and what's at stake. Among the recommendations is a non-binding early letter of intent between the verbal commitment and signing stage that builds in a reflection process for the player and gives schools a concrete signal of how serious a player is. Read more >>>
• Ty Reynolds of Sauk Valley Media reported on a book talk given by Pat McKinzie-Lachault, a graduate of Sterling High School in Illinois who played and coached basketball overseas and had a lifetime full of firsts in the world of Illinois girls & women's basketball. The inspiration for the book, Home Sweet Hardwood, was McKinzie-Lachault's realization that, "...that not much about the time period that would forever change (and finally allow) women's sports has been written." Read more >>>
• ESPN aired "Venus Vs" last night, the first of their Nine for IX series that will be airing throughout the summer. It was as well done as any of ESPN's 30 for 30 documentaries, highlighting tennis star Venus Williams' role in fighting for equal pay for women's tennis players at Wimbledon. Todd Johnson of The Grio summarized the film nicely, including a mention of an Op-Ed she wrote in the Times of London that helped apply the pressure required to achieve equal prize money, a cause inspired in part by Billie Jean King's work years before. If you get a chance to catch it it's worth your time. Next week's documentary will be the documentary about Pat Summitt that Maria M. Cornelius has already previewed for us. Read more >>>
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman wrote about Kevin Durant's appearance at the Minnesota Lynx's game against the Los Angeles Sparks last night, presumptively to watch Monica Wright despite his statements about how much he loves women's basketball. Mayberry described Wright's Instragram posts that suggest some sort of affection for one another and transcribed the entire exchange on NBA TV in which Durant managed to avoid saying anything about Wright. Now, I'm not one to gossip, but it seems to me that there's more going on there than KD suggests. Read more >>>

As usual, feel free to share your thoughts on the news of the day in the comments or post a fan post/shot if you have a lengthier thought that you'd like to write. We'll be back with links on Friday. Enjoy the holiday.