DREAM: Team secures rights to Holdsclaw

Chamique Holdsclaw has walked away from the WNBA twice, but the Atlanta Dream have convinced one of the all-time great players in women’s basketball to come back.

With Holdsclaw’s approval, the Dream laid the groundwork for her return by trading a first-round draft pick, 13th overall, to the Los Angeles Sparks for Holdsclaw’s rights.

The Dream can start negotiating with Holdsclaw on Jan. 5 to bring her to the fledging franchise entering its second season.

The former No. 1 overall pick of the Washington Mystics will likely command the league maximum of $97,000. The Dream would love a multi-year commitment.

“She’s one of the best players in the world, if not the best,” Dream coach and general manager Marynell Meadors said. “She’s probably the best basketball player that I will ever coach.”

The Dream have geography, not to mention Meadors’ persistence, to thank.

Holdsclaw has made her home in Smyrna for the past two years. She works out at the Suwanee Sports Academy with the same trainer who works with the Dream.

Holdsclaw went to 10 games at Philips Arena during the Dream’s inaugural season last summer. There she had an exchange with Meadors, which planted a seed.

“I threw a comment out there. ‘We need to get you back on the court,’ ” Meadors said. “And she said, ‘Yeah, I’d like to do that.’ And I took off on that.”

Holdsclaw, 31, still plays in Europe for eight months out of the year. She is home from her team in Poland following arthroscopic knee surgery. Meadors called her several days ago to gauge her feelings.

“I told her it’d be a great thing for me to play in Atlanta,” Holdsclaw said Wednesday. “The main thing now is me getting healthy. But if I’m in good health and in good spirit, I’m definitely going to step on the court with the Dream.”

She heads back to Poland in mid-January.

Her health is what Holdsclaw said led to her retirement from the Sparks in June 2007. She was suffering from severe tendinitis in her knees.

In 2004, she left the Mystics in midseason, suffering from clinical depression after her grandmother’s death.

“The first time was out of my control,” Holdsclaw said of 2004. “It was something that can happen to anyone. The second time I knew exactly what I was doing. I wasn’t depressed. I was doing what was best for me because I knew my body couldn’t handle it.”

Meadors said she isn’t concerned Holdsclaw won’t keep her commitment to the Dream.

“She told me that she would like to get back on the court, and that’s what I’m going on,” Meadors said. “I don’t think Chamique would make a commitment unless she was ready to do that.”

Meadors told Holdsclaw she won’t play more minutes than she’s comfortable with. And she’s vowed to play Holdsclaw at small forward, unlike L.A., which tried to move her to point guard.

Holdsclaw is excited about the prospect of playing where her mother can drive from Statesville, N.C., and in front of friends and fans from Tennessee, where she was a four-time All-American and the school’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder.

“This is probably like being in New York and going to play in the Garden,” said Holdsclaw, who grew up in Queens. “It’ll be great.”