Less than 24 hours earlier, the Spurs had captured another Western Conference title at the AT T Center, sending a sellout crowd of 19,000 fans into a rapturous frenzy. But those cheers had long since died away as Sophia Young sat on a chair before her locker in the bowels of the same arena.
Still in her Silver Stars uniform, ham-sized bags of ice strapped to both knees, the 6-foot-1 power forward looked as if she'd bled more than sweat on the court during 32 minutes of hard toil against Phoenix.
Her 39th WNBA game had played out as a miserable 97-85 Silver Stars loss punctuated by 13-straight missed shots, including five blown layups, to start the second quarter, head coach Dan Hughes' first technical of the season and Mercury star Diana Taurasi's celebratory taunts in the closing moments.
That Young had collected 22 points, one off her career best, to go with a team-high seven rebounds and three assists didn't soothe her exasperation.
We go out there, the former Baylor standout said wearily, and play with heart as much as the Spurs do.
And they do.
Which makes what is happening all the more maddening for the women playing the games.
The Spurs' continued success, which will spill again into most of the opening two months of the Silver Stars' schedule, has further dwarfed the franchise's impact on a community that has yet to embrace it with even a semblance of the zeal accorded the men.
For Young and her teammates, last week provided a particularly stark reminder.
Hours after the Spurs routed the Utah Jazz in Game 5 of their series, positioning the NBA club for its fourth league title, the city's WNBA entry took the court to find that the fever gripping fans Wednesday night apparently had left them recovering on their couches Thursday.
Only days after Robert Horry hip-checked Steve Nash into the scorer's table at the AT T Center, inflaming the San Antonio-Phoenix series into a must-see conflagration of emotion in the NBA playoffs, the cities faced off again in another important Western Conference match.
This time, with WNBA supremacy at stake, the Silver Stars' Becky Hammon found herself hip-to-hip against the Mercury's Cappie Pondexter, but in a showdown so lightly regarded that the squeaking of their sneakers was drowned out only by the obligatory arena rock and announcer exhortations.
The Silver Stars, who had come in 3-1 and optimistic because of Hughes' aggressive roster makeover, missed 18 shots in the first quarter and 31 through the first 16 minutes en route to trailing badly at the half.
Yet, in an explosive third quarter, the teams combined for 69 points on 24-of-37 shooting, with Taurasi and Pondexter teaming for 20 points and Hammon and Jones for 17.
It was a 10-minute stretch that showcased what the league can be when the product works as assembled.
It's a lot to get excited about, Hammon, the guard who has become the marketable face of the Silver Stars, said later. We're just looking to make a push.
San Antonio isn't alone. The 13-team WNBA, still subsidized by $12 million from the NBA annually, made a dubious claim of an average attendance of 7,500 last year, but the team in Charlotte folded, and the league's championship game had to be shifted to another Detroit arena because of a Mariah Carey concert.
On Thursday night, even with San Antonio impassioned for pro basketball by another Spurs conference crown, the Silver Stars announced an attendance of 5,247 likely twice the number actually on hand.
A wag sitting at courtside chuckled.
The good thing is, when they do those Sure Shot promotions at these games, he said, everyone gets a shirt.
Shortly after, Young couldn't find the humor in it.
The player, her heart for the sport beating every bit as strong as any Spurs star, shrugged.
For the general population, the NBA is more popular, she said. You're just going to get that.
It's not anything I can fix. But we're all athletes, we're all positive and we all love this game.
For another night, at least, that would have to be enough.
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