Chamique (sha-meek-wah) Holdsclaw the Michael Jordan of women's basketball? She wears his number, 23, and he once challenged her to a game of one-on-one. But she's yet to play in a pro game. The 6-foot 2-inch forward from the University of Tennessee just won the Sullivan Award, given each year to the best amateur athlete in any sport. Holdsclaw has led Tennessee to three national titles, and a fourth may come later in March. She's set records for scoring and rebounding. "I knew I wasn't going to be average," she says.
Her grandmother knew it too. "She could throw the ball all the way from one end of the court to another in 8th grade," says grandmother June, who raised Chamique from age 11. "And she was so skinny!" Holdsclaw hopes to play pro ball in her hometown, New York City. No matter where "Mique" plays, the WNBA record books will never be the same.