An agent of Orange is happy to be in Connecticut

Mohegan

All together now, with feeling:

Rocky Top, you'll always be

Home, sweet home to me

Good, ol' Rocky Top

Rocky Top Tennessee.

Sorry. Could be a little too much too soon.

Oh, well. Drastic measures are required, sometimes, for the onset of history. And there was history made high atop Mohegan Sun Arena on Tuesday.

Kara Lawson. You know. Her. One of them … an agent of Orange … is now one of you. Formerly of Knoxville, now of Uncasville. Who knew there was an alternate universe in women's basketball, too?

"Well," Lawson told new teammate Renee Montgomery during an amusing (and must-see) video for theday.com, "there is a little orange."

Montgomery had just mentioned how much "Husky blue" was in the Sun's uniform, especially on the road. Lawson pointed to the orange in the Sun logo.

"I think we've just found a happy medium," Montgomery said, having a mock epiphany.

Indeed, it was a happy day in Neon Uncasville. Not just because the Sun did a cannonball-level splash into free agency. But because one of the faces of women's basketball - ESPN personality, Olympic team member - wants to be here.

This hasn't always been the case.

And the irony that it took a former Tennessean to see Connecticut's true appeal is just too delicious to ignore.

Maybe it surprises Connecticut fans, who view the state as the game's epicenter, that not every women's player yearns to be here. The Sun, who have been a largely successful franchise in their seven seasons, have dabbled with free agents who haven't seen our corner of the world as a destination. Some cited family obligations. Others see Connecticut's relatively isolated perch and don't see a metropolis.

Think about it: Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Uncasville. Which doesn't belong and why?

Connecticut, which has beaches, two notable casinos and Mystic, really doesn't do much for many twentysomething professional athletes whose tastes might be, you know, more eclectic.

"Kara is a basketball connoisseur," her husband, Damien Barling, said Tuesday. "We both know what big cities have to offer. But from a basketball standpoint, they don't match Connecticut. There is no more passionate fan base - sorry, forgive me, save the good folks in Knoxville - than here. We don't do the club stuff. Kara's focused on basketball."

What a concept: a basketball player interested in basketball first.

Still, a considerable number of Sun players have bemoaned the lack of things to do in the region, already having mastered the term "rotten Groton," where many of the players live during the season.

Yet next season's starting backcourt, Lawson and Montgomery, couldn't be happier than to be playing here.

"First and foremost, we came here because of Coach T," Barling said, alluding to Sun coach Mike Thibault. "We had a chance to spend a lot of time with him and his family at the Olympics and we liked them and learned a lot about them and a lot about the Sun. Coming here is something Kara and I have talked about for a long time."

Plus, Lawson is practically one of us (well, almost).

"I have cousins in Manhattan, and when I was little, we'd visit by aunt and uncle who were just north of Trumbull," Lawson said. "I went to Mystic when I was a kid. I still have a trinket from there that I got when I was 8."

And then Lawson made a bid to defend her new homeland.

"New England is beautiful in the summer and that's when we're here," she said. "Phoenix is a great city, but it's 120 in the summer. San Antonio is a great city, but it's humid. You walk outside and you're soaking wet."

Lawson, who won the Kim Perrot Award from the league last year for sportsmanship, donated the $5,000 from the award to the Special Olympics of Connecticut. Sun fans will learn, if they haven't already, that the same player they've booed royally in years past is of impeccably high character.

And she's all yours for the next three years.

How long till "Orange Night?"

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.