Marion Jones signs with WNBA’s Shock
Sporting New staff reports
Wednesday, Mar. 10, 2010 - 11:23 a.m. ET
Marion Jones has signed a free-agent contract with the Tulsa Shock of the WNBA, the Tulsa World reports.
“We’re thrilled to have her,” Shock head coach Nolan Richardson said of Jones, who was stripped of five medals from the 2000 Olympics after admitting steroid use. “In the workouts last week I saw how hard she works. She has things you can’t teach, like speed and great hand and eye coordination. She looks chiseled. Her age (34) might be saying one thing but everything about her is saying she’s young.”
Jones played college basketball at North Carolina, where she was the starting point guard on the Tar Heels’ national championship team in 1994.
Jones was released in September 2008 from a Texas federal prison after completing most of her six-month sentence for lying about doping and her role in a check-fraud scam.
After long denying she had ever used performance-enhancing drugs, Jones admitted in federal court that she used a designer steroid from September 2000 to July 2001. She was stripped of three gold medals and two bronzes she won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.