The future of the WNBA
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Jordan Loera to play on national team at NBA All Star game
MOSES LAKE — Imagine this, you are at the Colorado Convention Center, the lights go off and a spotlight shines down on center court. A voice comes over the loud speaker, "Ladies and Gentlemen, your starters for the Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA national basketball team. A 5-foot-2 guard out of Moses Lake, Wash., Jor-dann-Loerrrr-aaa.
Now, imagine this, it's a reality. A standout basketball player for the Moses Lake Thunderettes and Chief Moses Middle School, Jordan Loera, has been selected out of more than 600,000 applicants from around the nation to play at the 2004-05 NBA All-Star game — a place the selection committee and her parents believe she belongs.
"It is a great opportunity and she deserves to go," said Jordan's mother Lori Loera, who played college basketball at the University of Oregon. "She has worked hard."
According to Lori, Jordan has been on a basketball court since her car seat days and hasn't left since.
Even for an interview, she got artsy to put a basketball in her hands, take a dribble and wait for the next opportunity to take a shot. That's her style, her father Javier Loera said.
Jordan's parents have been careful not to "burn her out of the game" of basketball, mixing her life with other sports and nonathletic activities.
From softball to soccer, schoolwork, family life and the piano, Javier and Lori feel a wellrounded lifestyle keeps the thirst for basketball available to Jordan.
"I tell ya, if you go full board with one sport, you are going to burn the kid out," Javier said. "You can, unless the kid has such a drive and that is all they want to do. That is all she wants to do is play basketball."
Its where her skills are too. She plays on two different basketball teams, the sixth-grade Moses Lake Thunderettes and the eighth-grade Moses Lake Thunderettes.
It was the eighth-grade team that Jordan led to a runner-up finish at nationals last year.
"I didn't see another point guard that was close to her," Javier said about the talent at the national tournament. "They were 13-, 14-year-olds and she was 11."
Jordan was selected to play with four other girls her own age from around the nation to represent Moses Lake Parks and Rec and the Seattle Storm of the WNBA.
While Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson recently brought the Storm fame with the 2004 WNBA championship, Jordan follows another team and player.
Jordan said she has tried to match her style of play to that of Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury. Taurasi, while at the University of Connecticut, won three national championships and was the No. 1 pick in the 2004 WNBA draft.
"She is a leader and incorporates basketball into her everyday life," Jordan said of Taurasi.
Something Jordan has already done, Lori said.
"You have to have a point guard to execute any offense and if you don't have that playmaker, then it is hard to have a team be successful," Lori said. "She is a team leader on and off the court and that is important."
Since Jordan started playing basketball, Javier said, she has only lost about five games and won more than 200. She has become unbeatable around the Basin.
Her appearance as a member of the Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA national basketball team will be her biggest challenge so far, but one she already expects to excel at.
"I will get the most steals, I am hoping," Jordan said.