Nykesha Sales
Encyclopedia
Nykesha Simone Sales is a former professional basketball
player in the WNBA
, most recently for the Connecticut Sun
. Her primary position is the small forward
. Her second position is shooting guard
. In 1999 Sales was added to the roster of the USA FIBA Senior National Team team. Her brother Brooks Sales played forward for Villanova
from 1998–2002, and currently plays overseas in Spain
for the Club Baloncesto Breogán
of Lugo
.
High School National Player of the Year as a senior. Sales was named a High School All-American by the WBCA
. She participated in the WBCA High School All-America Game in 1994, scoring twenty-one points.
(UConn) as a business major from 1994-98. She was a member of the powerhouse UConn women's basketball team, "The Huskies".
In 1995 she helped lead UConn to a NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship
as well as a Final Four
appearance in the 1996 NCAA
Tournament. She was named Rookie of the Year in 1995. In 1997 she was a member of the Gold medal USA Women's World University Games. In 1997-98 she helped the team make two Elite Eight
appearances. In the 1997-98 season, she was named to the All-America
n first team, Defensive Player of the Year, and also the BIG EAST Player of the Year. She was also named to the 1996-97 and 1997-98 Kodak All-America teams. Sales was a member of the inaugural class (2006) of inductees to the University of Connecticut women's basketball "Huskies of Honor" recognition program. She competed with USA Basketball
as a member of the 1995 Jones Cup Team that won the Bronze in Taipei
, as well as the 1994 squad that won the Gold.
Sales left college as UConn’s all-time leading scorer with 2,178 career points. She scored the record-breaking points as part of a staged controversial layup. Sales had suffered an injury that had essentially ended her collegiate career. UConn's next game (against Villanova University
) began with Villanova permitting Sales to complete an uncontested layup. (UConn then returned the favor, allowing Villanova to score. The game essentially began with a 2-2 score before serious play commenced.) Auriemma felt bad that Sales did not already have the record, as he had made her sit on many occasions to avoid running up the score. The staged basket, while questioned in retrospect, was his attempt to make it up to her. He contacted the previous record holder, Kerry Bascom
, as well as the Big East Commissioner to ensure that the incident would not be a problem, although the media was and to a degree continues to be critical of the move.
The record Sales broke was previously held by Kerry Bascom
. Sales wore #24 in high school, the same number worn by Kerry Bascom at Connecticut. When Sales was considering going to Connecticut, she was respectful enough of Bascom's position, that she asked if she could wear #42, reversing the digits, rather than asking to wear #24.
Sales' record-breaking controversy was later parodied in an episode of the TV series King of the Hill, where an injured Arlen High School football player is allowed to score a touchdown to break the school's all time record that was previously held by Bill Dauterive
despite protests from Bill's teammates (most notably Hank Hill
); later in the episode Bill, exploiting a loophole that says he still has eligibility left because he failed to complete his senior year before joining the Army, returns to Arlen High and scores a touchdown to tie that record despite the protests of the injured player whose record Bill tied.
as part of the expansion draft
. She remained with the franchise even when the Miracle relocated to Uncasville, Connecticut
and was renamed the Connecticut Sun
prior to the 2003 season. She helped lead the team to the WNBA Finals
in 2004 and 2005. Sales has been named to the WNBA All-Star team six times. Until she missed 12 games in the 2006 season, Sales had started 248 consecutive regular season games, the second longest such streak in WNBA history.
Despite repeatedly making the annual all-star team since the beginning of her career, Sales was left off the announced All-Decade Team on June 13, 2006 as part of a celebration of the league's 10th Anniversary. On March 11, 2008, Sales noted that she would not participate in the 2008 WNBA campaign due to nagging injuries. Sales also noted that her sitting out was not an early retirement, but just a break.http://www.wnba.com/sun/news/salestakeshiatus.html
Sales is currently listed as a free agent on WNBA.com.
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Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
player in the WNBA
Women's National Basketball Association
The Women's National Basketball Association is a women's professional basketball league in the United States. It currently is composed of twelve teams. The league was founded on April 24, 1996 as the women's counterpart to the National Basketball Association...
, most recently for the Connecticut Sun
Connecticut Sun
The Connecticut Sun is a professional basketball team based in Uncasville, Connecticut, playing in the Eastern Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association . The team was founded in Orlando, Florida before the 1999 season began; the team moved to Connecticut before the 2003 season...
. Her primary position is the small forward
Small forward
The small forward, or colloquially known as three, is one of the five positions in a regulation basketball game. Small forwards are typically somewhat shorter, quicker, and leaner than power forwards and centers, but on occasion are just as tall...
. Her second position is shooting guard
Shooting guard
The shooting guard , also known as the two or off guard, is one of five traditional positions on a basketball team. Players of the position are often shorter, leaner, and quicker than forwards. A shooting guard's main objective is to score points for his team...
. In 1999 Sales was added to the roster of the USA FIBA Senior National Team team. Her brother Brooks Sales played forward for Villanova
Villanova Wildcats
The Villanova Wildcats is the name of the athletic teams of Villanova University. They compete in the Big East for every sport except football, where they compete in the Colonial Athletic Association .-Men's basketball:The Villanova Wildcats compete in the Big EAST and are currently coached by Jay...
from 1998–2002, and currently plays overseas in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
for the Club Baloncesto Breogán
CB Breogan
Club Baloncesto Breogán, S.A.D. is a professional Basketball team based in Lugo, Galicia. The team currently plays in league LEB.-Roster:-Trophies:*2nd division championships: ** 2ª División: 1975** 1ª División B: 1984, 1988...
of Lugo
Lugo
Lugo is a city in northwestern Spain, in the autonomous community of Galicia. It is the capital of the province of Lugo. The municipality had a population of 97,635 in 2010, which makes is the fourth most populated city in Galicia.-Population:...
.
High school
Sales attended Bloomfield High School in Bloomfield, Connecticut, and was a letterman in basketball. In basketball, she was named the USA TodayUSA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
High School National Player of the Year as a senior. Sales was named a High School All-American by the WBCA
Women's Basketball Coaches Association
The Women's Basketball Coaches Association is an association of coaches of women's basketball teams at all levels.The organization was formed in 1981, with the goal of addressing the needs of women's basketball coaches.The mission of the WBCA is:...
. She participated in the WBCA High School All-America Game in 1994, scoring twenty-one points.
College
Sales attended the University of ConnecticutUniversity of Connecticut
The admission rate to the University of Connecticut is about 50% and has been steadily decreasing, with about 28,000 prospective students applying for admission to the freshman class in recent years. Approximately 40,000 prospective students tour the main campus in Storrs annually...
(UConn) as a business major from 1994-98. She was a member of the powerhouse UConn women's basketball team, "The Huskies".
In 1995 she helped lead UConn to a NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship
NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Women's Division I Championship is an annual college basketball tournament for women. Held each April, the Women's Championship was inaugurated in the 1981–82 season...
as well as a Final Four
Final four
Final Four isa sports term that is commonly applied to the last four teams remaining in a playoff tournament, most notably NCAA Division I college basketball tournaments. The term usually refers to the four teams who compete in the two games of a single-elimination tournament's semi-final round...
appearance in the 1996 NCAA
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
Tournament. She was named Rookie of the Year in 1995. In 1997 she was a member of the Gold medal USA Women's World University Games. In 1997-98 she helped the team make two Elite Eight
Elite Eight
The term Elite Eight, or less commonly called "Great Eight", refers to the final eight teams in the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship or the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship; and, thus, represents the national quarterfinals. In Division I, the Elite Eight consists of the...
appearances. In the 1997-98 season, she was named to the All-America
All-America
An All-America team is an honorary sports team composed of outstanding amateur players—those considered the best players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes", or simply...
n first team, Defensive Player of the Year, and also the BIG EAST Player of the Year. She was also named to the 1996-97 and 1997-98 Kodak All-America teams. Sales was a member of the inaugural class (2006) of inductees to the University of Connecticut women's basketball "Huskies of Honor" recognition program. She competed with USA Basketball
USA Basketball
USA Basketball is a non-profit organization and the governing body for basketball in the United States. The organization represents the United States in FIBA and the men's and women's national basketball teams in the United States Olympic Committee...
as a member of the 1995 Jones Cup Team that won the Bronze in Taipei
Taipei
Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...
, as well as the 1994 squad that won the Gold.
Sales left college as UConn’s all-time leading scorer with 2,178 career points. She scored the record-breaking points as part of a staged controversial layup. Sales had suffered an injury that had essentially ended her collegiate career. UConn's next game (against Villanova University
Villanova University
Villanova University is a private university located in Radnor Township, a suburb northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States...
) began with Villanova permitting Sales to complete an uncontested layup. (UConn then returned the favor, allowing Villanova to score. The game essentially began with a 2-2 score before serious play commenced.) Auriemma felt bad that Sales did not already have the record, as he had made her sit on many occasions to avoid running up the score. The staged basket, while questioned in retrospect, was his attempt to make it up to her. He contacted the previous record holder, Kerry Bascom
Kerry Bascom
Kerry Bascom is a retired basketball player. She played forward and center for the Connecticut Huskies from 1987–1991, scoring 2,177 points, a school record until broken in 1998 by Nykesha Sales...
, as well as the Big East Commissioner to ensure that the incident would not be a problem, although the media was and to a degree continues to be critical of the move.
The record Sales broke was previously held by Kerry Bascom
Kerry Bascom
Kerry Bascom is a retired basketball player. She played forward and center for the Connecticut Huskies from 1987–1991, scoring 2,177 points, a school record until broken in 1998 by Nykesha Sales...
. Sales wore #24 in high school, the same number worn by Kerry Bascom at Connecticut. When Sales was considering going to Connecticut, she was respectful enough of Bascom's position, that she asked if she could wear #42, reversing the digits, rather than asking to wear #24.
Sales' record-breaking controversy was later parodied in an episode of the TV series King of the Hill, where an injured Arlen High School football player is allowed to score a touchdown to break the school's all time record that was previously held by Bill Dauterive
Bill Dauterive
Bill Dauterive, born Gillaume Fontaine de la Tour D'Haute Rive is a fictional character on the Fox animated series King of the Hill...
despite protests from Bill's teammates (most notably Hank Hill
Hank Hill
Henry Rutherford "Hank" Hill Age 50 animated series King of the Hill. Hank lives in Arlen, Texas and works at the fictional Strickland Propane selling propane and propane accessories. Hank's voice is provided by series creator Mike Judge. The Economist named Hank Hill as one of the wisest people...
); later in the episode Bill, exploiting a loophole that says he still has eligibility left because he failed to complete his senior year before joining the Army, returns to Arlen High and scores a touchdown to tie that record despite the protests of the injured player whose record Bill tied.
WNBA
In 1998, Sales was assigned to the Orlando MiracleOrlando Miracle
The Orlando Miracle was a Women's National Basketball Association team based in Orlando, Florida. They began play in the 1999 WNBA season. The Miracle relocated, in 2003,to Uncasville, Connecticut where the team became the Connecticut Sun...
as part of the expansion draft
Expansion draft
An expansion draft, in professional sports, occurs when a sports league decides to create one or more new expansion teams or franchises. This occurs mainly in North American sports. One of the ways of stocking the new team or teams is an expansion draft...
. She remained with the franchise even when the Miracle relocated to Uncasville, Connecticut
Uncasville, Connecticut
Uncasville is an area in the town of Montville, Connecticut. The area traditionally known as Uncasville is a village in southeastern Montville, at the mouth of the Oxoboxo River...
and was renamed the Connecticut Sun
Connecticut Sun
The Connecticut Sun is a professional basketball team based in Uncasville, Connecticut, playing in the Eastern Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association . The team was founded in Orlando, Florida before the 1999 season began; the team moved to Connecticut before the 2003 season...
prior to the 2003 season. She helped lead the team to the WNBA Finals
WNBA Finals
The WNBA Finals is the championship series of the Women's National Basketball Association and the conclusion of the sport's postseason each fall. The series was named the WNBA Championship until 2002....
in 2004 and 2005. Sales has been named to the WNBA All-Star team six times. Until she missed 12 games in the 2006 season, Sales had started 248 consecutive regular season games, the second longest such streak in WNBA history.
Despite repeatedly making the annual all-star team since the beginning of her career, Sales was left off the announced All-Decade Team on June 13, 2006 as part of a celebration of the league's 10th Anniversary. On March 11, 2008, Sales noted that she would not participate in the 2008 WNBA campaign due to nagging injuries. Sales also noted that her sitting out was not an early retirement, but just a break.http://www.wnba.com/sun/news/salestakeshiatus.html
Sales is currently listed as a free agent on WNBA.com.
International
- 2005-2006:
Gambrinus Brno - 2007:
Lotos GdyniaLotos VBW Clima GdyniaLotos Gdynia is a Polish women basketball team, based in Gdynia, playing in PLKK.-Best achievements:* Polish Championship : 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010* Polish Cup : 2005, 2007* EuroLeague Women:... - 2007-2008:
TEO Vilnius and 
SK CēsisSK CesisSK Cēsis is a professional women's basketball club based in Cēsis, Latvia. In 2008 the team attained second place in Baltic Women's Basketball League championships. In 2009 the team won Latvian championships and participated in FIBA women Eurocup competition where reached sixteenth-final.... - 2008-2009: SK CēsisSK CesisSK Cēsis is a professional women's basketball club based in Cēsis, Latvia. In 2008 the team attained second place in Baltic Women's Basketball League championships. In 2009 the team won Latvian championships and participated in FIBA women Eurocup competition where reached sixteenth-final....
and ZVVZ USK Praha - 2010-
Besiktas JK and Beşiktaş JK
University of Connecticut statistics
| Nykesha Sales Statistics at University of Connecticut | |||||||||||||||||||
| Year | G | FG | FGA | PCT | 3FG | 3FGA | PCT | FT | FTA | PCT | REB | AVG | A | TO | B | S | MIN | PTS | AVG |
|||||||||||||||||||
| 1994-95 | 35 | 159 | 294 | 0.541 | 35 | 81 | 0.432 | 45 | 77 | 0.584 | 162 | 4.6 | 73 | 61 | 11 | 102 | 753 | 398 | 11.4 |
| 1995-96 | 38 | 237 | 459 | 0.516 | 30 | 89 | 0.337 | 92 | 131 | 0.702 | 168 | 4.4 | 101 | 92 | 11 | 104 | 1028 | 596 | 15.7 |
| 1996-97 | 34 | 215 | 430 | 0.5 | 29 | 81 | 0.358 | 97 | 128 | 0.758 | 192 | 5.6 | 111 | 102 | 7 | 143 | 917 | 556 | 16.4 |
| 1997-98 | 30 | 241 | 426 | 0.566 | 40 | 105 | 0.381 | 106 | 135 | 0.785 | 166 | 5.7 | 86 | 95 | 11 | 98 | 813 | 628 | 20.9 |
| Totals | 137 | 852 | 1609 | 0.53 | 134 | 356 | 0.376 | 340 | 471 | 0.722 | 688 | 5.0 | 371 | 350 | 40 | 447 | 3511 | 2178 | 15.9 |