BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRICAN AMERICAN PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYER SHERYL SWOOPES OF WNBA : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK GENIUS "

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                                                                                                                                                              Sheryl Swoopes is an American professional basketball player. She played ball for Texas Tech before becoming the first player signed in the WNBA. She has won three Olympic Gold Medals and is a multiple WNBA MVP. Referred to as the "female Michael Jordan," Swoopes is famous for both her offensive and defensive skills. She was the first woman to have a basketball shoe named after her.

Profile

Professional basketball player. A native of Lubbock, Texas, Swoopes transferred to Texas Tech University from South Plains Junior College after being named the Junior College Player of the Year in 1991. At Texas Tech, she quickly gained more national recognition, scoring 1,000 points in forty-six games--a shorter period than anyone else in school history-- while going on to set more than ten school records, including most points per game and best free throw percentage. In 1993, she was named Most Valuable Player of the NCAA Final Four Championships and scored forty-seven points in the final game to lead her team to the national championship.
After graduating from Texas Tech in 1994, Swoopes continued to play for the USA national women's basketball team, helping the team to a bronze medal in the 1994 World Championships and contributing to the team's undefeated record (52-0) in 1995-96. In 1996, she won a gold medal as a member of the USA Olympic team. The next year, she was signed by the WNBA and assigned to play for the Houston Comets, where she helped lead the team to back-to-back WNBA championships. In 1998, she was named to the All-WNBA first team.
Swoopes was the first woman to have a basketball shoe named after her (the Nike Air SwoopesSHe has one son, Jordan Eric, who was born on June 25, 1997.