Holdsclaw's Rewards Are Personal, Professional

It was a year ago, just days before the 2002 WNBA season, when Chamique Holdsclaw found out her grandmother, June Holdsclaw, the woman who raised her, had died unexpectedly at 65. There wasn't much time to grieve. Her team needed her, her family needed her.

She pushed aside her grief and led the Washington Mystics to their best season in franchise history. Her success came with pain, both emotional and physical (she missed playing time to attend the funeral and, later, with a high ankle sprain).

"I had a hard time last season with the death of my grandmother," Holdsclaw said. "My family was kind of leaning on me. We needed each other for support. That's what family is for, but I don't think I ever got time myself to deal with it."

When the Mystics' season ended with a loss to New York in the Eastern Conference finals, Holdsclaw knew she needed to get away, to cope with her loss. She accepted an offer in early December to play for the KB Savers of the Women's Korean Basketball League.

"I thought it was time for me to go away just to find a deeper sense of myself and who I am, to get that solitude," Holdsclaw said.

If her performance in last week's season opener is any indication, Holdsclaw's overseas experience seems to have had a positive effect. Holdsclaw scored 22 points and grabbed a league-record 24 rebounds to lead Washington to a 74-70 win at Charlotte. In her fifth season, she is nine points shy of 2,000 for her career and two rebounds shy of 1,000.

If she reaches those milestones at Indiana on Saturday night, Holdsclaw will become the first WNBA player to reach them in the same game. She also would become the third fastest to reach the 2,000-point plateau and the fourth fastest to reach the 1,000-rebound mark.

For Holdsclaw, the accolades will come with a renewed spirit. In South Korea, she mingled with natives and visited Buddhist temples. She also dropped in on a U.S. military base in Seoul. She learned about the Korean culture and came away with a new appreciation for the international players in the WNBA.

Team officials "try to make it as easy as they could, but it's hard dealing with the language barrier," Holdsclaw said. "My hat goes off to all the [international] players who come over here and play in the U.S. I know what they have to deal with as far as food and their different traditions, the customs. Things that were okay or seem like a joke in the U.S. are considered rude" in South Korea.

Holdsclaw also learned that Korean women do not enjoy the same freedoms as American women.

"That kind of at times rubbed me the wrong way," Holdsclaw said. "Gosh, it's still like this? That's their culture, but it was cool."

The WKBL attracted several top U.S. players, including Indiana's Tamika Catchings (the 2002 WNBA rookie of the year), Houston Comets forward Tina Thompson, New York Liberty forward Tamika Whitmore and Sacramento Monarchs forward Tangela Smith. Although the team competition was not as intense as it is in the WNBA, the individual matchups challenged Holdsclaw.

Off the court, Holdsclaw developed better eating habits. She had been gradually changing her diet the past couple of years. In South Korea, she ate primarily fish, vegetables and fruit. She returned to the United States weighing the same, but with less body fat.

"Our [Korean] team had our own cook, which most of the teams do," Holdsclaw said. "I just thought it was great how they would go out of their way. They'd cook fried chicken, shrimp and salmon. They used to make me the best salmon because they found out I liked it."

Although she generally had a positive experience, she did suffer an injury to her right ring finger -- an injury she is still dealing with -- and missed the final six games.

"You know they say you can't run away from your problems," Holdsclaw said. "I got there and I was really homesick. I got hurt. I was ready to come back home then."

Mystics Coach Marianne Stanley went to South Korea to see Holdsclaw. Unfortunately, Stanley arrived not long after Holdsclaw hurt her finger.

"She was playing well until she got hurt," Stanley said. "She was the emotional center of the team, the leader in every way you could think about. That was good for her because I think it helped her assume even more responsibility."

Holdsclaw returned to the United States in mid-March, in plenty of time to attend the NCAA women's title game in which her alma mater, Tennessee, lost to Connecticut.

It also gave her two full months to rest and prepare for the WNBA season.

"You hear some horror stories of people playing overseas," said Holdsclaw, who is not sure if she would play overseas again. "Mine was more getting homesick. It wasn't the way I was treated. That's a blessing in itself."