Taj McWilliams-Franklin: All-Star, Mother, Military Wife

By Erin Semagin Damio, Boston Staff Writer
Posted Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Taj McWilliams-Franklin says that she loves her job.

That shouldn’t come as a surprise to followers of the Connecticut Sun or the 6-2 veteran power-forward. McWilliams-Franklin has been playing basketball, college and professional, for 15 years. Currently playing some of her best basketball at 36, McWilliams-Franklin is a veteran voice of experience on the relatively young Sun team. She is a captain and a vocal leader on the floor for Connecticut, often the one pushing her teammates to excel.

“This is a great job,” McWilliams-Franklin, who has recently been named to her fifth all-star team, said. “I mean, the losing isn’t good, but I’m losing in basketball. I’m not losing in multi-million dollar contracts, and people have to take that every day.”

McWilliams-Franklin does have some perspective on where her priorities lie. On the court, she is an aggressive competitor who gives 110% effort. Off the court, she is a mother, a wife, and sometimes a source of comic relief for her teammates.

“I try to keep Maia away from bad influences,” McWilliams-Franklin said dryly of her three-year-old daughter. “But (teammate) Margo just keeps coming around.”

Another teammate, Erin Phillips, has experienced McWilliams-Franklin’s maternal instincts firsthand. Phillips is a rookie player from Australia and, at 21, one of the youngest players in the WNBA. When she moved to the United States to go straight into a whirlwind practice schedule, McWilliams Franklin was there to help her adjust.

“She’s a mother,” Phillips said. “And she has a natural maternal personality. Her older daughter is just three years younger than me, and she’s been sort of temporarily adopting me. Taj helping me to make the adjustment here has been really lovely.”

Coming back to her perspective on priorities, McWilliams-Franklin is able to focus on a lot besides basketball in her life. She has been married for seven years, and her husband, Reggie, is a sergeant in the United States Army, currently stationed in Iraq.

McWilliams-Franklin spends a lot of time thinking about the soldiers who are dying in Iraq. “I have a program on the computer,” she said. “They have a list of all the casualties. Sometimes I just go through it because in the region he’s in there have been a lot of casualties and sometimes he doesn’t tell me. Nobody I know, yet. I’ve been through about 2,000 names. I just read a name and say a prayer.”

McWilliams-Franklin has not seen her husband for about six months, and won’t until the Sun play in New York on July 24th, when he’ll be able to fly into New York for the weekend.

“I think six months is my limit; then I start acting like a normal military wife,” McWilliams-Franklin said. “I’m lonely, but I’m also happy about where he’s at, because it could have been worse…I know Reggie’s safe, because his city’s not directly under attack. At least not yet. I don’t have to worry about him walking out onto the doorstep to a bomb.”

Though her family considers Italy home, and she plays there during the WNBA off-season, McWilliams-Franklin’s daughters, Maia and Michelle, are currently staying with her in Connecticut. McWilliams-Franklin is thrilled to have them with her.

Since she would clearly like to spend more time with her family, and since she’s been playing basketball for 15 years, the question of retirement is not uncommon. “As soon as my legs finish giving up, I’m gonna stop,” McWilliams-Franklin said. “Until then, I’m just gonna be here.” Hopefully for the Sun and its fans, there are a few years and a championship or two left in those legs.