In 1997 the Women's National Basketball Association was created. To give new teams experienced talent, the league decided to have two drafts. An elite draft was held on February 27, 1997, to allow teams to pick players that had already graduated from college and have gone on to play professionally in the United States or overseas.
The standard collegiate draft that most professional sports leagues hold occurred on April 28, 1997, prior to the start of the 1997 WNBA season.
Key Pos.GFCPositionGuardForwardCenter
Draft The following is the list of how players were picked in the 1997 WNBA elite draft: Round 1 PickPlayerPositionNationalityWNBA teamFormer school/club team 1 Dena Head G Utah Starzz Tennessee 2 Isabelle Fijalkowski C/F Cleveland Rockers Colorado 3 Rhonda Mapp C/F Charlotte Sting North Carolina State 4 Kym Hampton + C/F New York Liberty Arizona State 5 Wanda Guyton F Houston Comets South Florida 6 Judy Mosley-McAfee F Sacramento Monarchs Hawaii 7 Bridget Pettis F Phoenix Mercury Florida 8 Daedra Charles ^ C Los Angeles Sparks Tennessee
Round 2 PickPlayerPositionNationalityWNBA teamFormer school/club team 9 Wendy Palmer * F Utah Starzz Virginia 10 Lynette Woodard ^ ! G Cleveland Rockers Kansas 11 Michi Atkins # F Charlotte Sting Texas Tech 12 Vickie Johnson + F New York Liberty Louisiana Tech 13 Janeth Arcain * ^ F Houston Comets Polti 14 Mikiko Hagiwara G Sacramento Monarchs Japan Energy Griffins 15Nancy Lieberman-Cline G Phoenix Mercury Old Dominion 16 Haixia Zheng C Los Angeles Sparks China
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