{"id":1484,"date":"2011-09-15T16:00:26","date_gmt":"2011-09-15T20:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/?p=1484"},"modified":"2011-10-05T01:00:53","modified_gmt":"2011-10-05T05:00:53","slug":"tamika-catchings-ruth-riley-among-stars-featured-in-wnba-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/09\/tamika-catchings-ruth-riley-among-stars-featured-in-wnba-playoffs.html","title":{"rendered":"Tamika Catchings, Ruth Riley among stars featured in WNBA playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click “Like” to share with your friends!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ruth Riley, San Antonio Silver Stars (Courtesy WNBA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There’s the regular season and then there’s the playoffs. San Antonio Silver Stars forward Ruth Riley knows a little about that. As a member of the Detroit Shock, she was a key member of two WNBA Championship teams (2003 and 2006). According to Riley (MVP of the 2003 Finals), everything changes and anything is possible.<\/p>\n

“Playoff basketball is a whole different game,” she said following San Antonio’s final regular season game in Tulsa. “It becomes more physical. It becomes more about execution. You see a little less scoring because the defense picks up. Every possession is important. You\u2019re going to find a lot of that coming into the playoffs.”<\/p>\n

Riley is one of several athletes of faith participating in this year’s playoffs that kickoff tonight with two games and continue throughout the weekend. Another player to watch is Indiana Fever forward Tamika Catchings who is considered to be a strong contender for this year’s WNBA MVP Award. She’s won two Olympic medals and an NCAA Championship, but is still working hard towards achieving one final goal.<\/p>\n

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Tamika Catchings, Indiana Fever (Courtesy WNBA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Every year we\u2019re focused on winning a championship,” Catchings said in an interview earlier this year. “It hasn\u2019t happened yet, but our 2009 season is a great example of a time that we were very focused on a goal. We made it all the way to game five of the WNBA finals. I don’t care about any individual awards or accolades. As a team, we have to find out what each person brings to the table. My job as a leader it to pull that out of everybody and make sure we\u2019re all on the same page.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other players to keep your eyes on include several of Riley’s teammates such as Becky Hammon, Sophia Young and Danielle Robinson. The Connecticut Sun are led by Kara Lawson while the Atlanta Dream rely on the spiritual leadership of Shalee Lehning and Courtney Paris.<\/p>\n

Follow the action and check out the playoff brackets by visiting the WNBA’s official website HERE<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

You can also check out previous Inspiring Athletes interviews by clicking on the names below:<\/em><\/p>\n

Tamika Catchings<\/a><\/p>\n

Delisha Milton-Jones<\/a><\/p>\n

Ruth Riley<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click “Like” to share with your friends! There’s the regular season and then there’s the playoffs. San Antonio Silver Stars forward Ruth Riley knows a little about that. As a member of the Detroit Shock, she was a key member of two WNBA Championship teams (2003 and 2006). According to Riley (MVP of the 2003…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[387,3,4],"tags":[665,670,664,667,668,345,663,585,589,666,669,344,662],"class_list":["post-1484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-basketball","category-christian-athletes","category-sports-news","tag-atlanta-dream","tag-becky-hammon","tag-connecticut-sun","tag-courtney-paris","tag-danielle-robinson","tag-indiana-fever","tag-kara-lawson","tag-ruth-riley","tag-san-antonio-silver-stars","tag-shalee-lehning","tag-sophia-young","tag-tamika-catchings","tag-wnba-playoffs"],"yoast_head":"\nTamika Catchings, Ruth Riley among stars featured in WNBA playoffs - Inspiring Athletes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tamika Catchings, Ruth Riley among stars featured in WNBA playoffs - Inspiring Athletes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Click “Like” to share with your friends! There’s the regular season and then there’s the playoffs. San Antonio Silver Stars forward Ruth Riley knows a little about that. As a member of the Detroit Shock, she was a key member of two WNBA Championship teams (2003 and 2006). 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There’s the regular season and then there’s the playoffs. San Antonio Silver Stars forward Ruth Riley knows a little about that. As a member of the Detroit Shock, she was a key member of two WNBA Championship teams (2003 and 2006). 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Chad\u2019s professional journey began at the University of Tulsa where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (1993) while working extensively in athletic media relations and serving as a sports editor for The Collegian. Since then, he has written extensively for such publications as Relevant, CCM, Christian Retailing, New Man, Charisma, Today\u2019s Christian, Ministries Today, Breakaway, Brio, Sports Spectrum, Christian Single, Faith & Friends, Sharing the Victory and Gospel Today. He has authored, co-authored or ghost written and edited 13 books including Life in the Fairway (New Leaf Press), Glory of the Games (Cross Training), Wrestling with God (River Oak), Spiritual Journeys (Relevant) and the four-part Fellowship of Christian Athletes Core Value Series; Excellence, Teamwork, Serving and Integrity (Regal Books). Chad is currently working on five new books including Sooner Legacy, Husker Legacy and Lessons From Sooner Football (Cross Training) as well as The Faith of Stock Car Racing (Judson Press). When he's not writing, Chad lends his efforts to various independent television and film projects. He was the coordinating producer for Choosing Life (2010) and Life Happens (2011). Chad is currently serving as producer on a forthcoming documentary about Super Bowl champion Brian Kinchen. Chad and his wife Amy live in Broken Arrow, Okla., with sons Lance (September 2003), Cole (February 2008) and Quinn (February 2011).","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/author\/cbonham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1484"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1761,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484\/revisions\/1761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}