My take: Mendiola's WNBA draft snub shameful

Giuliana Mendiola's snubbing in last Saturday's WNBA draft is further proof that this young athlete is the victim of character assassination, resulting in bigoted responses by the WNBA, by the Seattle Storm and by the general public.

We should all be ashamed of ourselves for allowing this to play out.

If this had been a mediocre college player, I probably would not react so severely. Because Giuliana, who arguably should have been a first-round selection in the draft, is now an undrafted player. Should she make the final cut on a WNBA roster, she will be the equivalent of an office worker without that college degree.

Remember, this previous Pac-10 player of the year, current Pac-10 scoring champion and all-time assist leader at the University of Washington was not even invited to participate in the college seniors game, which showcased the best seniors in the country. She wasn't given the opportunity to show that she could outshine the rest, and now she has been denied again.

I can't help but entertain the thought that the Storm giving her an invitation to training camp is simply a way to save face for this ridiculous snubbing. I can't help but believe that she will only be set up for failure, that her fate has been predetermined. They snubbed her in the draft after she broke every school record imaginable, winning countless awards in the process. They offered the invitation to camp without giving her time to catch her breath after being hit, with what I consider a hard slap in the face. Then she was paraded in front of the media to catch her response. To me, that's a setup. You know she's not going to have a response. She has just received a devastating blow to her dreams and has had the wind taken out of her, then you hold a microphone to her and say, give us a response?

Many have told me that Giuliana Mendiola was blacklisted because of her family. Three of the Mendiola brothers accepted a plea bargain. Giovanni Mendiola chose to plead guilty to second-degree murder so that his brothers Piero and Eddie would have to serve only 4-6 months in boot camp. The point here is not to shift the subject but to add light to what this young lady is also enduring, on top of the latest list of blows. When did she kill someone? When did she hurt someone?

Everyone in the minority community — the gay community, senior citizens, the poor, all of those who have been discriminated against — knows it and should make some noise. We know why she wasn't drafted. It was more of: "See how those kind of people are? If we let them into our league, they will disgrace our league — there's no place for the likes of them in our private club." That's the mentality that dictates her fate.

This world is filled with bigots — look at the difference in treatment toward Giuliana Mendiola and Jamila Wideman.

Wideman, a point guard for Stanford from the 1993-94 season to the 1996-97 season, was drafted in the first round of the 1997 WNBA draft, at No. 3, by the Los Angeles Sparks. Wideman has a similar family situation — she has two family members in prison for life, for committing murder and as an accessory to murder, but she receives a much "kinder and gentler" treatment.

In so many ways, including the trademark ponytail and loyalty to family, Jamila and Giuliana are a lot alike.

"Sports leagues are built on great players," WNBA president Val Ackerman said at the 1997 draft. "I'm sitting next to a great player and in the future an even greater player. In addition to having great basketball ability, Jamila represents so many other things that women's sports and women's basketball are all about. She's a leader and tremendous role model."

Why wasn't Jamila held to the same standard as the media, WNBA and general public are holding Giuliana to? You need to look in the mirror and honestly ask yourself that question, Val Ackerman, and everyone else guilty of this double-standard accountability.

The Storm's only other need in the draft selection was a tall shooting guard. We have a local product to fill that order. Giuliana consistently outperformed the No. 1 draft pick, Diana Taurasi, while they both played in Orange County, Calif., as high-schoolers. Giuliana also had better numbers than Taurasi while consistently being double- and triple-teamed this year, breaking the assist mark and a host of other records, to boot. She played consistently more minutes than Taurasi, so conditioning is not a problem.

Then the Storm selects someone who this population is not even aware of, who is injured on top of that. This equates to a blatant smack in the face. Giuliana was knocked out.

Giuliana should go to the Storm camp and prove them wrong. If I were her, I'd accept Anne Donovan's invitation to the Seattle camp. Everyone wants to make the cut, so it's up to her to outshine the rest.

You have to see her and play with her or against her to appreciate her abilities. She's Giuliana Mendiola, no one else, so don't mistake her character for the character of someone else. She doesn't go out and party like countless other college students. She and her sister, Gioconda, play basketball as it is their life. They study as it is their life. They love their family as they are their life, and society should not make them divorce their family in order to achieve success.

That's a true role model. One that is true to her family, friends and teammates through thick and thin. One I'd be proud to have on my team.