MARION JONES PIVOTS TOWARD WNBA:
Dec 2nd, 2009 by Bilal Ali
Booted from track-and-field for lying about performance enhancing drugs, former Olympic sprint champion Marion Jones is seeking to earn a living in another sport – professional women’s basketball.
Coach Dan Hughes of the WNBA’s San Antonio Silver Stars confirmed Monday night that Jones has been training with his assistants to possibly play in the league, more than a year after the 34-year-old was released from federal prison for lying about doping.
The New York Times first reported that Jones has been working on her skills and conditioning in San Antonio since October. Jones told the newspaper she received a call in May from someone in the NBA asking if she might play in the WNBA.
“I thought it would be an interesting journey if I decided to do this,” Jones said. “It would give me an opportunity to share my message to young people on a bigger platform; it would give me an opportunity to get a second chance.”
Jones played college basketball at North Carolina, where she was the starting point guard on the Tar Heels’ national championship team in 1994. She told the Times that she hopes to play in Europe this winter and in the WNBA next season.
“It’s important for people to know that it’s possible to make a mistake in your life, but it’s what you do after the mistake that people are going to remember you by,” she said. “Are you going to make whatever negatives that happened in your life a positive? Are you going to disappear? That has certainly never been in my horizon. How can I use my experience, my story, to help people and in the process hop on this journey of trying to make a team?