2007 WNBA draft

The 2007 WNBA draft was the league's annual process for determining which teams receive the rights to negotiate with players entering the league.

2007 WNBA draft
General information
Sport	Basketball
Date(s)	January 8 – April 4, 2007
Location	Cleveland, Ohio (main draft)
Network(s)	ESPN2, NBATV, ESPNU
Overview
League	WNBA
Merging teams	Charlotte Sting (folded in 2006)
First selection	Lindsey Harding Minnesota Lynx
← 2006 2008 →

The first phase, held January 8, 2007 via conference call, was a dispersal draft from the roster of the Charlotte Sting, which folded on January 3.^[1] This was the first dispersal draft since before the 2004 season, after the Cleveland Rockers folded.^[2] The teams selected in inverse order of their 2006 won-loss record, without regard to the results of the WNBA draft lottery. All Sting players were available except for unrestricted free agents Allison Feaster and Tammy Sutton-Brown.^[2]

The main draft was held on April 4, 2007, inside the Renaissance Hotel on Cleveland's Public Square, the day after the 2007 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament ended.^[3]

The previous year's draft was held in Boston the night before the championship game of the 2006 NCAA women's basketball tournament, which was also in Boston. This marked the first WNBA draft ever held outside of New Jersey.

A lottery was held on October 26, 2006, among the teams with the worst records in the previous season to determine the order of the top six picks in the first round of the draft. As in the NBA draft, the teams' chances were weighted so that the team with the worst record, in this case the Chicago Sky, had the best chance of receiving the top pick. The lottery was used to determine only the top two picks, with picks 3 through 6 going to the other lottery teams in inverse order of record. The Phoenix Mercury, despite having the best record of the six teams involved and thus the worst mathematical chance of winning, drew the top pick. It was the first time since the institution of the lottery for the 2002 Draft that the top pick was earned by the team with the worst mathematical chance of winning. Also for the first time, the team with the second-worst odds of earning the top pick, in this case the San Antonio Silver Stars, received the second pick.^[4] The remaining first-round picks, plus all picks in the second and third rounds, are allocated in inverse order of regular-season record, without regard to playoff results (as in the NBA Draft).

Key

+	Denotes player who has been selected for at least one All-Star Game
Bold	Denotes player who won Rookie of the Year

Dispersal Draft

Pick	Player	Nationality	New Team	Former Team
1	Monique Currie	United States	Chicago Sky	Charlotte Sting
2	Tangela Smith	United States	Minnesota Lynx	Charlotte Sting
3	Janel McCarville	United States	New York Liberty	Charlotte Sting
4	Helen Darling	United States	San Antonio Silver Stars	Charlotte Sting
5	Kelly Mazzante	United States	Phoenix Mercury	Charlotte Sting
6	Teana Miller	United States	Washington Mystics	Charlotte Sting
7	Tye'sha Fluker	United States	Seattle Storm	Charlotte Sting
8	Yelena Leuchanka	Belarus	Houston Comets	Charlotte Sting
9	Sheri Sam	United States	Indiana Fever	Charlotte Sting
10	LaToya Bond	United States	Sacramento Monarchs	Charlotte Sting
11	Passed		Detroit Shock	Charlotte Sting
12	Ayana Walker	United States	Los Angeles Sparks	Charlotte Sting
13	Passed		Connecticut Sun	Charlotte Sting
Note: Two former Sting players, Tasha Butts and Summer Erb, were not selected in this draft.

College draft

Round 1

Pick	Player	Nationality	Team	School / club team
1	Lindsey Harding	United States	Phoenix Mercury (traded to Minn.)	Duke
2	Jessica Davenport	United States	San Antonio Silver Stars (traded to N.Y.)	Ohio State
3	Armintie Price	United States	Chicago Sky	Ole Miss
4	Noelle Quinn	United States	Minnesota Lynx	UCLA
5	Tiffany Jackson	United States	New York Liberty	Texas
6	Bernice Mosby	United States	Washington Mystics	Baylor
7	Katie Gearlds	United States	Seattle Storm	Purdue
8	Ashley Shields	United States	Houston Comets	Southwest Tennessee CC
9	Alison Bales	United States	Indiana Fever	Duke
10	Carla Thomas	United States	Chicago Sky (from Sac.)	Vanderbilt
11	Ivory Latta +	United States	Detroit Shock	North Carolina
12	Kamesha Hairston	United States	Connecticut Sun (from L.A.)	Temple
13	Sandrine Gruda	France	Connecticut Sun	Valenciennes (France)

Round 2

Pick	Player	Nationality	Team	School / club team
14	Dee Davis	United States	Houston Comets (from Chicago)	Vanderbilt
15	Shay Murphy	United States	Minnesota Lynx	USC
16	Shay Doron	Israel	New York Liberty	Maryland
17	Camille Little	United States	San Antonio Silver Stars	North Carolina
18	Tyresa Smith	United States	Phoenix Mercury	Delaware
19	Megan Vogel	United States	Washington Mystics	South Dakota State
20	Stephanie Raymond	United States	Chicago Sky (from Sea.)	Northern Illinois
21	Jessica Dickson	United States	Chicago Sky (from Hou.)	South Florida
22	Lyndsey Medders	United States	Indiana Fever	Iowa State
23	Brooke Smith	United States	Sacramento Monarchs	Stanford
24	Kathrin Ress	Italy	Minnesota Lynx (from Det.)	Boston College
25	Sidney Spencer	United States	Los Angeles Sparks	Tennessee
26	Cori Chambers	United States	Connecticut Sun	Georgia

Round 3

Pick	Player	Nationality	Team	School / club team
27	Jenna Rubino	United States	Chicago Sky	DePaul
28	Leah Rush	United States	Phoenix Mercury (from Minn.)	Oklahoma
29	Martina Weber	Germany	New York Liberty	Iona
30	Nare Diawara	Mali	San Antonio Silver Stars	Virginia Tech
31	Chrissy Givens	United States	Phoenix Mercury	Middle Tennessee
32	Gillian Goring	Trinidad and Tobago	Washington Mystics	North Carolina State
33	Brandie Hoskins	United States	Seattle Storm	Ohio State
34	Kristen Newlin	United States	Houston Comets	Stanford
35	Ashley Key	United States	Indiana Fever	North Carolina State
36	Meg Bulger	United States	Sacramento Monarchs	West Virginia
37	Emily Westerberg	United States	Phoenix Mercury (from Det.)	Arizona State
38	Amanda Brown	Canada	Los Angeles Sparks	Penn State
39	Kiera Hardy	United States	Connecticut Sun	Nebraska

See also

• List of first overall WNBA draft picks

References

General

• "All-Time WNBA draft history". WNBA. Archived from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved June 4, 2008.

Specific

1. "Chicago Sky Selects Monique Currie in Dispersal Draft". WNBA. January 8, 2007. Archived from the original on January 27, 2007. Retrieved January 8, 2007.
2. "Charlotte Sting Dispersal Draft To Be Held on January 8". WNBA. January 4, 2007. Archived from the original on January 10, 2007. Retrieved January 6, 2007.
3. "2007 WNBA Draft to Cap Weeklong Celebration of Women's Basketball in Cleveland". WNBA. February 7, 2007. Archived from the original on March 14, 2007. Retrieved March 9, 2007.
4. "Phoenix Mercury Win Top Pick in 2007 WNBA Draft". WNBA. October 26, 2006. Archived from the original on January 28, 2007. Retrieved January 6, 2007.