WNBA Tricked Her, Comets’ Coach Says

MANHATTAN (CN) - The former head coach and general manager of the Houston Comets says the WNBA lied to her about its plans for the team, which folded in December. Karleen Thompson says the WNBA bought the team in May 2008 but kept it a secret, and did not even tell her that it had bought her team until August.

Thompson says she relied on WNBA officials' promises about the team's future and so did not pursue dozens of other jobs that came up, only to see the WNBA fold the Comets franchise in December. She says she passed up the chance to coach another WNBA team last year, and that 44 collegiate jobs came open in 2008 and she didn't apply for them either.

Thompson says that after the WNBA took over the Comets in May 2008, "the former owners of the Comets were specifically instructed by executives of the WNBA not to inform anyone of the change in ownership. In fact, the WNBA executives instructed the former owners of the Comets to continue to maintain the Comets corporate operating account so that the Comets' employees could be paid through this account, and thus, no one, not even the employees, would learn of the change in ownership."

Thompson spent seven years with the L.A. Sparks before she moved to the Comets in 2007. She demands lost wages and punitive damages for fraudulent misrepresentation and detrimental reliance. She is represented by Anne Vladeck with Vladeck, Waldman & Elias.

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