'Sole' searching ahead for Catchings

Oprah likes to say she has the best-dressed audience in television, that fans of her show dress to the nines when they come to Chicago to sit in on a taping.

Tamika Catchings will be no different when she makes her first highly anticipated trip to Harpo Studios later this month. Well, except for one thing.

Her fashion statement will be made solely from the ankles up.

Catchings won't have to scour her closet for the perfect Oprah show shoes. In fact, the WNBA star who led Stevenson High School to a Class AA state basketball championship in 1995 won't even be wearing shoes when she makes her way into the studio.

She'll be wearing a protective boot on one foot, and a splint-like cast on the other.

This poor woman has been the WNBA's poster child for injuries this summer.

"I only do things one way," Catchings sighed. "The hard way."

In July, Catchings, an all-star forward for the Indiana Fever, hurt her left foot and wound up missing the final 13 games of the regular season with plantar fasciitis.

She was relegated to crutches but diligently completed her rehab so she could give herself a chance to return to the court for the playoffs.

Just in the nick of time, doctors gave her the green light but told her that unless she was out on the court playing, she should keep her foot in a boot to minimize the stress on it.

"I would get a little swelling here and there," Catchings said. "But other than that, my foot felt pretty good."

Meanwhile, Catchings was playing great. She led the Fever all the way to the Eastern Conference finals against the Detroit Shock.

Then, in Game 3 in Detroit earlier this week, Catchings heard a pop. Suddenly, she could put no pressure on her right foot.

Catching had severed her Achilles' tendon.

"I knew right away that something was really wrong, and it was so frustrating," Catchings said. "I had just come back. I was literally crying from the moment I went down to the time I stepped on the plane to go home that night.

"You wonder, 'What did I do wrong? Did I not say enough prayers? How can this be happening again?' "

Catchings underwent surgery Wednesday. She's no stranger to it. She tore up her knee in her final collegiate game at Tennessee and needed surgery to repair her ACL.

So since 2001 she has rehabbed a knee, a foot and now she's set to start working on the other foot.

"I'm with Nike and my Nike rep was like, 'Well, let me know if you need anything. But you probably won't be needing any shoes,' " Catchings said with a slight chuckle. "I think that was supposed to be funny."

What isn't a joke is the seriousness of this injury. Doctors estimate that Catchings won't be ready to hit the court again for 6-9 months.

That means she'll miss her usual stint of off-season basketball overseas. She had been scheduled to play in a league in Poland beginning in January.

Her future with the U.S. women's Olympic team also is in question. USA Basketball would love to have Catchings on the national team. She's one of the best players in the world.

But the organization will be using the next few months to finalize its roster for the 2008 Summer Games -- and Catchings is in a holding pattern.

"USA Basketball stuff is actually starting today," Catchings said in our phone conversation Friday. "The team is going to be playing in a pre-Olympics qualifier in Chile. Right now they've got a pool of about 21 or 22 players they're going to pick the team from.

"I should be ready by spring, but I don't know what (USA Basketball officials) are going to do. I'd like to play."

Catchings also will be concentrating on her charitable foundation, the Catch the Stars Foundation (www.catchin24.com).

The foundation is in the process of building a house for Habitat for Humanity and is gearing up to host multiple fitness and basketball clinics for kids.

"I've also got a lot of speaking engagements coming up," Catchings said. "I think I'll have plenty to talk about."

She can start by telling her audience what Oprah thought of her footwear.

WNBA stuff: As predicted in this column last month, Chicago Sky guard Armintie Price will be named WNBA rookie of the year today. The third pick in the draft, Price lived up to her billing. She was a starter for the Sky and played about 27 minutes per game. She averaged 8.2 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists. … Game 2 of the WNBA Finals between the defending champion Detroit Shock and Phoenix Mercury is today (2:30 p.m., ESPN) in Detroit. The Shock leads the best-of-five series 1-0.