Becky took time out at practice before Game 1 of the WNBA Championship Series and answered some of your questions.

Last year, it seems a lot of people thought your club didn't belong in the finals. This year it seems you have shown as much talent as you have heart in taking the conference title. Has the change in public acceptance this year given you more of a confidence boost, both as a team and as an individual?
Brian, Lafayette, CO

Well, I don't think so. The public had the same prediction this year as last year -- that we weren't going to make the championship or the playoffs, then we won the Eastern Conference title two years in a row. Pretty soon they'll start believing in us and we continue to keep proving people wrong. Hopefully we can do it one more series.

Hello, Becky. Like every other New York Liberty fan, I absolutely love your game; you're fearless on the court. What will the Liberty's have to do to beat the Houston Comets?
D. Carroll, New York, NY

We'll have to play great. We're going to have to play good on offense and great defense. We need to just have the confidence that we can beat them. We have a lot of respect for Houston, but we definitely believe we can win the series, too. We have to get this first game at home. If we don't win this first game at home, then I think it's almost an impossible task to beat Houston back-to-back at Compaq Center. It's imperative that we get this first game.

When can we look forward to seeing you in some national commercials? You would be a great spokesperson that sells, oh, how about sports utility vehicles. "Hi, I'm Becky Hammon of the New York Liberty. When I'm not driving to the basket, I like to drive over the river and through the woods on my SUV. It's like me, small but tough and able to go anywhere it needs to get." I like it.
Tony, AR

(Laughs.) Well, we've gotta have some national sponsors take interest first, so we'll see. Those things are probably down the road a little bit for me. There are a couple local things I've done, and we actually did have a national commercial with Ballgirl Athletic, so if you didn't get a chance to see that -- it was on during the past year. We'll see what else is in the making.

Quick question: So in your opinion how do you stop Sheryl Swoopes on offense and how do you keep the ball away from her on defense?
Jen, Corry, PA

She's a great player, there's no way around that. Sheryl is just like Michael Jordan -- you don't always stop them, you just hope to contain them. You hope that their shot is off -- sometimes that's the best way to stop them, if they stop themselves. But we have some great defenders in Spoon and Vickie Johnson. In my opinion, those are the two best perimeter players and all three will be on the court Thursday. Spoon, VJ and Sheryl Swoopes are the best defenders in the league on the perimeter, so it should be interesting. Our defense will be trying to stop them and then Sheryl is going to be all over us -- we know that, too.

My daughter is 11 yrs. old and says she wants to be a WNBA player someday. Is there something I can do as a parent to help her get every opportunity she can now to learn and develop her game? Camps, drills, league participation, etc. I know a lot about the game myself, but not at your level. What things did your parents do towards supporting your goals?
Nick, York, PA

Well, I think camps are definitely a good thing. I'd say be careful on pushing your daughter too much. She has to want to do it, it has to be her decision, she has to have the love for it more than you do. If it's her heart and it's her desire, then I'd say help her out anyway you can along the way. My parents never pushed me and in turn that probably helped me practice more because they didn't really give me any specifics on what they wanted me to do, so I just went out there and played and developed my love for the game. I just think those camps and other things are very helpful, but just be supportive of her in her dreams, whatever they are.

Hey Becky! First I'd like to say congratulations on making the Championships! My question is do you think the fact that people who don't really know you who think of you as "The Babysitter Next Door" makes you a tougher player? Do you try to prove them wrong? Keep playing great!
Allie, St. James, NY

I'm the babysitter next door ... (laughs). I definitely think I'm tougher than what people think. I do have a little bit of a temper and if you push me far enough, you'll get to see a little bit. People try to beat me up -- that's a lot of people's game plan. I get knocked around in a lot of games and that doesn't really bother me. I just come after them with more because if they're so concerned with trying to bully me around, they're missing some other parts of the game. In that aspect, it kind of plays to my advantage a little bit, but in the championship everything is more physical than it is in the regular season. We'll be ready for it, and I take it, but I dish it out a little bit too. (laughs)

Hey Becky! How has your family supported you throughout your basketball career? I know that your father went to a lot of your CSU home games, but in what other ways?
Anna, Fort Collins, CO

They've supported me in anything I've done, whether it was softball, school, basketball, whatever it was. They literally came to every one of my Colorado State games -- there are two in four years that I can think of that they didn't come to. They even came to away games, tournaments away -- they've always been there every step of the way. They wouldn't miss it. They watch every game on TV and they ordered the WNBA package (on satellite), so there's no getting away from them. They'll be watching the championship from home. They came to four or five games here in New York, they drove to Minnesota to watch me play there earlier in the season.

I've followed your game here at CSU and the two years in the WNBA. That was the sweetest WWF move under the basket that resulted in a technical foul (against Cleveland in Game 3). Just wondering, isn't that the first time you have ever been given the big "T"?
Gregg, Fort Collins, CO

(Laughs) In the pros, yes. I got one other technical in college, although I was probably close to getting a lot more. The other day was just ... (Mery Andrade) pushed me to my limit a little bit and it was either me going over her backend or her going over my backend, so I decided it wasn't going to be me.