THE WHITE HOUSE

                        Office of the Press Secretary 
                      (Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts) 

                          REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT 
                       TO THE SECOND PLACE WNBA TEAM, 
                             THE NEW YORK LIBERTY 

6:53 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Hello?

MS. COYLE: We have a couple of people here who want to say hi to you.

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, great. Congratulations on your season.

THE TEAM: Thank you!!!!

THE PRESIDENT: I can't believe you're all there.

MS. COYLE: Our head coach, Nancy Darsh, wanted to say hey to you.

THE PRESIDENT: Great.

COACH DARSH: Hey, Mr. President, how are you?

THE PRESIDENT: I'm fine, Coach. Congratulations on your season.

COACH DARSH: Well, thank you. We met this past fall at Ohio State, and I'm glad to say that I've moved on, taken this team to the WNBA championships, and I'm jealous of you being on Martha's Vineyard, my home state.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, it's beautiful up here and I tell you, I was really pleased with the way your first season worked out. I saw a lot of the games on television and tried to keep up with you, and I hope that there's a bright future ahead for it. I'm really enthusiastic about it, and I'm very pleased about all that you and all your players have done to keep it going.

COACH DARSH: Well, thank you very much. We're very happy that you've followed us and very pleased that you have been able to reach us here tonight.

THE PRESIDENT: What are you doing? Are you having a party somewhere?

THE TEAM: Yesss!!

COACH DARSH: We are having a celebration of our season, are very proud of the way that we've played this season and of the WNBA inaugural season and also the fact that we all kind of separate here in the near future, so we're having a little get-together, and probably someone here that you are very well familiar with, Teresa Weatherspoon, as well as Rebecca Lobo would like to say hello to you.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I know them both. (Laughter.)

MS. WEATHERSPOON: What's happening, Mr. President? (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I wish --

MS. WEATHERSPOON: This is Teresa Weatherspoon talking to you.

THE PRESIDENT: I wish I were there with you. How are you doing?

MS. WEATHERSPOON: I'm doing fine. We're doing much better. We're enjoying ourselves and just happy to be able to say hello to you.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'm proud of your season. I know that you're feeling good, and I think that you've really got the interest of the country going.

MS. WEATHERSPOON: We're trying. We're trying to be positive role models for young ladies, even for the younger guys. Hopefully, we've done some positive things to somehow, some way have younger girls who want to be like one of us.

THE PRESIDENT: I think you have. And you've taught a lot of people a lot about defense. (Laughter.) I'll tell you, the next time --

MS. HAMPTON: Mr. President, I'm Kym Hampton, the other president, and you've been doing your homework, haven't you? (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: I watch you all on television. I watch you on television.

MS. HAMPTON: Okay. Well, you know, I can teach them a little bit about defense; you just continue to defend our little country here there, you know?

THE PRESIDENT: I'll do it. You've got a deal.

MS. HAMPTON: Well, I appreciate talking to you. Here's Rebecca Lobo.

THE PRESIDENT: Thanks, Kym.

MS. LOBO: Hello, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Hey, Rebecca. How are you?

MS. LOBO: Great. How are you doing?

THE PRESIDENT: I'm okay.

MS. LOBO: Thank you very much for taking time out to speak with us.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'm really pleased. I hope you're pleased with your first season and I hope it continues, because I thought it was great. I watched several of the games on television from the White House, and I thought they were exciting and good, and I think you've got a real future.

MS. LOBO: Thank you very much. We appreciate it.

MS. WEATHERSPOON: Can I say one more thing?

THE PRESIDENT: Sure.

MS. WEATHERSPOON: Even though we didn't win it all and, you know, normally the winners get the visitation there at your place, can we still come? (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. You bet. You bet. If you want --

MS. WEATHERSPOON: Because in our own right we're still champions?

THE PRESIDENT: That -- if you cant to come down here and have a tour, I'd be glad to have you down here.

MS. WEATHERSPOON: We're coming! (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: All right.

Q You are one of a kind, aren't you honey?

MS. COYLE: Mr. President, this is Maureen Coyle again. I'm actually going to hold your scheduling people to that.

THE PRESIDENT: All right. We'll do it. We'll set up a tour.

MS. COYLE: Thank you very much.

THE TEAM: Thank you. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Good-bye. Thanks.

END