By Sharon Robb
South Florida Sun-Sentinel September 15, 2000

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Pictures of Yolanda Griffith hang on the walls of Allen's Recovery Agency, a car-repossession firm where the basketball star learned how to hot-wire cars and drive a tow truck in the middle of the night.

"It was something to do to put food on the table, trying to make ends meet while I was going to school," said Griffith, then a single mother at 19, raising a daughter and working her way through college in Florida.

A friend, Charlene Littles, introduced Griffith to Caeser Allen, who coached city league girls basketball. She worked part time from midnight to 5 a.m., enabling her to go to school and basketball practice during the day.

Griffith and Allen would hot wire cars and seize them for banks and auto companies. Once, in a rough Fort Lauderdale neighborhood, a man pulled a gun on her. The police were called, and she went on with her job.

"She is a tough girl, she held her ground," Allen said. "She was never scared, not with her kind of tenacity."

It was a matter of survival for Griffith, the youngest of five children from the south side of Chicago. She has come to appreciate every accomplishment in her life, including her first appearance as an Olympian as a member of the U.S. women's basketball team.

"Each and every day I send a prayer out for me, my family and everybody who helped me through the hard times," said Griffith, who now lives in Berkeley, Calif. "A lot of people out there did a lot for me to help me get where I am today, and I owe them everything. Basketball is easy. Life is what's difficult."

Griffith, 30, the versatile Sacramento Monarchs' 6-foot-4 All-Star forward, has accomplished what no other player has in WNBA history. She has won Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year, finishing ahead of Cynthia Cooper, Teresa Weatherspoon and Chamique Holdsclaw for the honors, and was named to the All-WNBA first team in her first season in the league in 1999. She did all that by averaging 18.8 points, 11.3 rebounds, 2.52 steals and 1.86 block shots. After playing professionally four years overseas in Germany where "the food was terrible," Griffith started playing pro basketball in the United States in the now-defunct American Basketball League. In her two seasons with the Long Beach Sting Rays, she was an MVP runner-up and Defensive Player of the Year. She was the second overall pick in the 1999 WNBA Draft after Holdsclaw and has led the Monarchs to two consecutive playoff berths.

Griffith is excited about her Olympic debut.

"I think every basketball player wants to play in the Olympics; it's such an honor to represent your country against the best teams in the world," said Griffith, who will play in front of her 11-year-old daughter, Candace. "We will be a great team at the Olympics."

The U.S. team trained and competed together for seven months starting in September 1999 and posted a 29-2 record, including a 17-1 mark against international opponents during a 31-game tour. The U.S. team averaged 82.3 points and 39.6 rebounds while holding opponents to 58.9 points and 26.5 rebounds per game.

The team broke camp for the WNBA season and reconvened in Hawaii in mid-August for training camp and a short series of exhibition games before leaving for Sydney, where women's basketball is scheduled Sept. 15-30.

The U.S. women have won three of the past four gold medals but can expect stiff competition from Australia and Brazil, the 1996 silver medalists who upset the U.S. team by nine points in March. Teresa Edwards, the only non-WNBA player on the roster, will make her fifth consecutive Olympic appearance at age 36.

"The most important thing is that your effort is great and that you're going out to play to win the game," U.S. coach Nell Fortner said. "And then everything else will take care of itself. We are focused. We're prepared. The winning will take care of itself."