By Michael Wilbon
Washington Post Columnist
Wednesday, May 4, 1999; Page D1

NEW YORK—True story: At 2 o'clock Tuesday afternoon, on East 53rd Street between 6th and 7th avenues, a man stopped three total strangers walking out of a midtown Manhattan hotel and said, "Didn't I see Chamique in this hotel? The draft was today, right? Tell me my hometown team did the right thing. Tell me they drafted Chamique. They drafted her, right?"

When Mickey Crawford, who grew up in Northwest Washington and only recently moved to New York, had been assured the Washington Mystics of the WNBA had indeed selected Chamique Holdsclaw, he went rather happily on his way. I'm not sure whether Crawford, with a million dollars at stake, could have told you the name of the Washington team, or the team's record last season, or even which months WNBA games are played. He may never have attended a women's basketball game. But he knew Chamique. And he knew Chamique Holdsclaw is a very, very big deal. And the excitement on his face and in his voice was palpable.

He's got a lot of company. Goodness mercy, the nation's capital has just gotten itself a star player. Emphasis on star, emphasis on player. If 15,000 folks a game came to watch a 3-27 team, will there be enough seats in MCI Center to hold all the people who will want to watch a team that just added the woman some think is the most talented ever to play basketball?

Chances are slim there will ever be another women's basketball draft with this much talent. Because the players from the defunct ABL had to be absorbed and the WNBA decided to hold one talent clearinghouse, there were Olympic gold medalists, future Olympians, recent all-stars and college all-Americans available. And Holdsclaw, appropriately, was the first player selected. "The fact that she was the first player chosen out of an incredible group of players speaks volumes about her," WNBA President Val Ackerman said. "She's the player of the present and the player of the future. She has an appeal that players in our league haven't quite seen yet. She's already reaching an entire new group of fans."

My friend Larry Irving, an assistant secretary at the Department of Commerce by day and a lunatic basketball fan by night, bought floor seats at MCI for Mystics games. A few weeks ago he called, hysterical over the persistent rumors that the WNBA would arrange for Holdsclaw to play in her native New York, for the Liberty, leaving Mystics fans unrewarded for last season's blind loyalty. "If Chamique plays in D.C.," he said, "her first game will be the biggest event in Washington all summer. If you consider how sorry the Redskins, Wizards and Capitals are, she may cause more excitement than any single athlete in Washington this year."

Immediately, I pronounced Irving a nut case. Every day since, however, I've backed off. There's more anticipation surrounding Holdsclaw's debut than that of any female basketball player since Cheryl Miller. There's no downside. I wouldn't have traded her for any two players in the league. Holdsclaw may not yet be the best player; there are ABL veterans such as Natalie Williams, Yolanda Griffith and Delisha Milton who are probably better players right now. Even Holdsclaw said Tuesday, "There are a lot of better shooters and a lot of better defenders." But she added, with no trace of conceit, "The way I play is unique. I know there aren't many females who play the game the way I do."

There may not be any. Tennessee listed her as guard/forward/center, which tells you everything. She's got the game, the personality, the stylish good looks, the whole package to be a star in a city that craves stars but is short on them right now. The people who advanced the notion -- including another columnist back home -- that Holdsclaw would have to play in New York for the good of the new league were way off base.

Holdsclaw's grandmother wanted her in Washington. Her college coach, Pat Summitt, wanted her in Washington. The league wanted the worst team in the league to have its choice. Anything other than that would have branded the WNBA as a joke, and given legitimacy to every single "conspiracy theory" thrown at the NBA.

I asked Val Ackerman whether the league ever planned to put Holdsclaw in New York and she said, "We never discussed it. It was never an option. Never."

One of the many appealing things about Holdsclaw is her maturity. "I don't know if I could have handled all the pressure," she said. Holdsclaw wasn't talking about basketball pressure. She was talking about the kinds of tug-o-war that often sink the careers of young male basketball players before they begin. "Look, I'm from here [Queens]," she said, "and I would love to at some point play here. But Washington is the best situation for me. I learned from [college] games here. People want those tickets, they want to be with you and they're going to bug you."

Here's something else she said that you'll rarely if ever hear from a male counterpart: "I want to be coached. Some coaches can be intimidated by talented players and will just let them do what they want. [Summitt] told me she wanted me to play for Nancy [Darsch]. Nancy's going to coach me."

You want more? The woman is taking two final exams Thursday so that she can graduate from the University of Tennessee with a degree in political science and a minor in public administration. Somewhere in there, she has found time to lift weights and work out four days a week. These are some of the reasons why, to quote Natalie Williams, "There is no element of resentment of Chamique among veteran players that I've seen. She belongs." (Williams, by the way, is one of the smartest, most telegenic, dynamic, impressive people you'll ever see. Utah ought to throw a parade for having Williams, a Utah native, return home, happily.)

Every team in the WNBA, because of the talent pool, improved itself Tuesday. The ABL veterans, like Williams, finally climbed off the roller coaster that began during Christmas season when the ABL folded. The WNBA got off to a wonderful start because it was masterfully marketed, because women (and a lot of men) were more than ready to embrace women as athletic role models, and because big-time arenas such as Madison Square Garden became the place to be on hot summer afternoons. "People have been cheering our league for a lot of different reasons," Ackerman said. "But the novelty is gone. We'll stand or fall, ultimately, on the quality of basketball we play. Starting our third season, the beginning of that process is very much under way."

And at the center of that process is Holdsclaw, a woman whose talents, demeanor and basketball pedigree could make her uniquely qualified to lead the way.