I’m literally shaking right now, unable to encapsulate what I truly feel. One of my heroes and yours has decided that the limelight was no longer a desire. The world will mourn the loss of one of the premier athletes of this generation to a premature retirement…ladies and gentlemen, let’s fondly look back at the career of Chamique Holdsclaw. The WNBA player. It’s a basketball league. No, no male players…it’s played by women. Wait, no seriously, she’s really good. Well she’s like really good for a woman. I mean she can’t dunk, but she had great layups and…uh…dribbling? Look, she was great.

Holdsclaw did not give a reason for ending her pro basketball career.

“This was not an easy decision,” she said in a statement released by the team. “I put a lot of thought into it.”

The news was a jolt to the Sparks (3-2), who had already lost star center Lisa Leslie to pregnancy this season. Point guard Temeka Johnson has yet to play while recovering from offseason knee surgery. [Sparks coach Michael] Cooper rejoined the team this season after coaching stints in the NBA and its Development League.

There was a lot of hype behind Holdsclaw. Here’s a quote from her official bio:

She has been called the “female Michael Jordan” repeatedly and is even being pursued by Hollywood directors who hope her natural charisma will carry over into acting. And all this before she has even taken one professional shot. Sound overwhelming? Well, in typical Chamique fashion, this hoopster has taken it all in stride. She spent her summer back home in New York, returning to the courts where she first watched the guys play. Only this time around, it’s the guys watching her.

Riiight.

Apparently though, Holdsclaw has a history of erratic behavior. Though I remember hearing some brief things about it in the Non Bull Dyke media, some research shows me that Holdsclaw has a history of erratic behavior. She didn’t show up to a couple games in the 2004 season and, to the team’s shock, it wasn’t because she was asked to be on the cover of Playboy. No, the Lovely Chamique Holdsclaw was suffering from clinical depression.

The unexplained departure of a key player earning a six-figure salary was difficult for some Mystics fans to accept. One day while walking to a nearby restaurant, a passing motorist rolled down his window and began berating her, telling her, “You need to get it together! You need to get back on the court!” Holdsclaw wheeled on him, livid. “Do you know me?” she shouted. “You don’t know me!”

“I just didn’t want to be Chamique,” she said, “People look at me, even my family and friends, in an almost supernatural way. I just wanted to be a regular person.”

Oh Chamique, you delicate flower. You delicate flower with no interest in having a bee pollinate you. You just bloomed too soon. I will no longer wear my Los Angeles Sparks #1 jersey in respect to this candle in the wind (even though I really appreciate the way it prevents my bosoms from showing like the male equivalents, tee hee). Perhaps Mechelle Voepel of ESPN.com puts it the best.

So what do we make of the strange case of Chamique Holdsclaw’s professional career? In women’s hoops, there has never been more of a “sure thing” who turned into such an enigma.

And while she has been very productive in points and rebounds, her on-court demeanor for some time now has suggested an amazingly gifted athlete who has been going through the motions. She has been playing basketball as if it’s simply a chore she excels at, but not a passion she embraces. In fact, it has even seemed a burden.

We all can hope that Holdsclaw comes back to the court and finds some joy in the game. But if she doesn’t, then we wish for her success in other endeavors — and some peace of mind in her life.

Amen to that sister. Mechelle’s radiant beauty and femininity (see below) shows the kind of classically beautiful woman who will be affected most by this. WNBA fans…so like us.

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