Daily Archives: March 12, 2010

July 17, 2004 - Photo by Lisa Blumenfeld

Former Olympian Marion Jones is now an official member of the WNBA team Tulsa Shock.  Jones was officially introduced as a member of the team on Wednesday, March 10.  Jones spent six months in prison for lying to federal prosecutors about drug used and fraudulent checks.

This is  what Jones had to say during her press conference:

“The word redemption is not in my vocabulary,” Jones said at a news conference, flanked by team president Steve Swetoha and coach Nolan Richardson. “I’m a competitor, I want to play against the best in the world, and I know that I will be doing that.”

“I think when I even started to think about this 10 months ago, I know how much the game has grown from the time that I played,” Jones said. “And that became even more of a challenge for me, because I know that although I know certain things and played a certain way, that it’s 10 times faster, that the athletes are 10 times more skilled.”

WNBA president Donna Orender had this to say about Jones and her past:

“This is a tremendous, real-life story of a person who made a choice that was not a wise choice, but is saying listen, ‘I’m going to be a role model, I’m going to showcase what I’m going to do with the rest of my life,”’ Orender told The Associated Press. “I join the rest of America in wanting to watch this story unfold.”

I’m sure people will watch Jones play in her first game, but I doubt she’ll create a frenzy.