Worst To First

When Sheila Lambert looks at her 2003 WNBA Championship ring, all the pain, stress and disappointment from her first two years in professional basketball completely disappear. 
"I can't even put it into words," the former Lady Bear basketball standout said of the Detroit Shock's "worst-to-first" season, which was capped off with a WNBA title.
It has been a long 24 months for one of the most talented and decorated players ever in Baylor women's basketball history.
After Lambert's senior season was completed in March 2002, the Kodak All-American suffered a broken leg while playing in the WBCA All-Star game at the Women's Final Four in San Antonio. Coming back from the injury, she rehabbed her way through a disappointing rookie season as the top draft choice of the Charlotte Sting. A year later, her head coach left for Seattle, and Lambert was the last player cut from the new coach's roster.
"She said we want to go with players who are ready and I don't think you're ready," Lambert said. "It was kind of like a stab in the heart. I thought I was back to my normal self. If that wasn't enough for her, I guess that wasn't the place for me to be."
She immediately became a free agent, and by the time she had made the 20-minute drive from the Charlotte arena to her apartment that day, the phone was ringing. "It was Coach Kim [Mulkey-Robertson]," Lambert said. "She said, 'Stop crying, wipe your eyes,' and I said, 'Coach Kim, I'm not crying.' Not one tear came out of my eye. She said, 'Don't worry about it. There are coaches calling me already.'"
One of those calls to Mulkey-Robertson was from Detroit's Bill Laimbeer, the former Detroit Piston "Bad Boy" in his second season as the Shock's head coach. 
"Coach Laimbeer understood I was a top first-round draft pick and then I got cut, but he didn't understand that theory at all," Lambert said. "So he was trying to find out whether I was a bad person or if I had a bad attitude or if something out of the ordinary happened. Coach Kim told me that of all the places that you have, I think this will be the best place for you."
Lambert joined a team anchored by young, talented players such as Connecticut's Swin Cash, Louisiana Tech's Cheryl Ford and Notre Dame's Ruth Riley. "I knew when I got there, I was one of the best, but I was there late so I was going to have to prove myself," she said.
During the season, she played in 27 games for the Shock and broke into the starting lineup once. Although it was difficult to watch from the sidelines, she worked hard to improve her mental toughness, a Laimbeer trademark.
"He kept telling me I was better physically than all our guards, but mentally they had it because they had the experience," Lambert said. "I sat, I learned a lot about his coaching style and what he's looking for in a point guard. I think there's going to be more room for me next summer to display a lot more of what I can do."
The day after Detroit won its championship, Lambert returned to the Baylor campus, intent on becoming the first person in her family to graduate from both high school and college. A general studies major with a concentration in elementary education, she is on track to graduate in fall 2004.
"I believe that will be Sheila Lambert's greatest accomplishment," Mulkey-Robertson said. "It's a long way from Seattle, where she was an academic nonqualifier, to graduate from junior college and then to earn a degree from a respected academic institution like Baylor. When Sheila walks off that stage, it ought to be the greatest feeling in the world for her."
 

This story originally ran in the Dec. 8, 2003, edition of Dave Campbell's Baylor Bear Insider Report, Vol. 11, No. 14.