Teresa Weatherspoon couldn’t watch “The Shot” for years. It’s still not the easiest topic for her to discuss.
Weatherspoon is the head coach of the Chicago Sky, but 25 years ago she was a guard for the New York Liberty and facing the Houston Comets in the 1999 WNBA Finals. Houston led 67-65 with 2.4 seconds left in Game 2 of the best-of-three series on a basket from Tina Thompson. The Comets had a 1-0 series lead and were looking to close the deal and win their third consecutive league championship.
A minor miracle was needed for the Liberty to win — and Weatherspoon delivered in front of 16,285 fans at the Compaq Center in Houston. She caught an inbounds pass from Kym Hampton and launched a desperation, 50-foot shot, banking it in to give the Liberty an improbable 68-67 victory on Sept. 4, 1999.
It was one of the first iconic moments in the WNBA’s history.
The downside for the Liberty, however, was losing Game 3 the next day.
“I wouldn’t watch it for many, many years because we didn’t win the championship,” Weatherspoon said.
Her difficulty in speaking about that period goes beyond the playoffs. Weatherspoon played the entire season with a heavy heart. Her 19-year-old nephew, Anthony, had died in a car crash weeks before the start of the regular season….
![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://womenssportsnow.com/teresa-weatherspoon-hit-the-shot-25-years-ago-but-the-iconic-wnba-moment-is-hard-for-her-to-revisit/&media=https://womenssportsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/GettyImages-55941194-e1725405248851.jpg&description="It was bigger than what most people think, something I never really talk about," Weatherspoon said of one of the WNBA's greatest plays.){kind=link}