Following the success of the 1996 US Olympic women's basketball gold medal, NBA Commissioner David Stern announced the creation of a new Women’s National Basketball Association—the WNBA.
Thirty years later, the WNBA is doing better than ever. But a lot has happened over the decades. We hear from three different perspectives on the WNBA and how the league has evolved over the years.
Click the play button above to listen!
Story Transcript:
JOANIE LOHMAN: I loved shooting hoops with my brother from probably before age five. We always had a basketball hoop on the driveway. So like in junior high, when I was trying to memorize Shakespeare sonnets, I would be shooting free shots. You know, to be or not to be, that is the que- anyway.
REPORTER: This is Joanie Lohman.
LOHMAN: I'm 82. I grew up in Bakersfield, California, in the 1950s and '60s. I was sports editor of the paper of East Bakersfield High. Um, and I covered mostly boys' sports because that's what there was to cover in terms of what was happening at that time.
Sound of 1950’s girl’s basketball instructions
LOHMAN: The thing that I feel most resentful about in terms of what was happening in my era around sports, we could only play half court. Two dribbles on your side of the court, throw the ball to the forwards, and they got to shoot. So you were either a guard or a forward, and you didn't get to do it all.
In my early adulthood, if I wanted to see college women's ball on TV, it was one opportunity. It was the championship game. And all my lesbian friends would gather in somebody's living room and watch that game, and it was thrilling, but that was it. That's all there was. Enter the WNBA.
Sound of David Stern announcing the concept of the NBA establishing the Women's National Basketball Association starting in the summer of 1997.
Sound of Inaugural WNBA game announcer
LOHMAN: We went to a number of Monarchs games. I mean, people schlepped over 100 miles, you know, to Ar- what was then ARCO Arena. It was packed, and, uh, just to see that the support for women playing basketball at that level to me was joyful.
LOHMAN: What I loved, one of the many things, was that Valley people and Bay Area people met in the stands, and there was no politics.
LOHMAN: This is what I love about sports. People meet across all kinds of differences, and they root for teams for different reasons. But in the stands were tons of Bay Area queer people, and lots of Valley farmers and their kids, and it was a very beautiful thing.
LOHMAN: I was a tremendous Yolanda Griffith fan and, and have a jersey and a tiny little teddy bear with her jersey on it.
Sound of Sacramento Monarchs’ announcer
LOHMAN: I remember every time she got the ball under the basket, you knew it was gonna go in. And there'd be this great cheer, "Go Yo, go Yo."
Sound of Monarchs’ announcer
LOHMAN: I love the passing game, and I love the three-point shot game, and I love the incredible, uh, assists that happen—and just, I mean, T-Spoon is just, like, an incredible hero of the game.
Sound of announcing Teresa Weatherspoon
LOHMAN: So we were visiting family, and we happened to get tickets.
LOHMAN: First of all, it was thrilling to be there.
LOHMAN: And there was this moment of, um, angst, just everyone holding their breath collectively, like, "What's gonna happen? Is it possible?"
LOHMAN: "If we don't win, what?"
LOHMAN: And then that shot.
Sound of WNBA announcer: Teresa Weatherspoon at the buzzer, a three. Oh, she put it in! She put it in! And the Liberty win game two! What a finish!
LOHMAN: I don't know that I've ever heard that much collective sound. She just rolled around on the floor, just—“aah!”
LOHMAN: I can only say that it was thrilling.
LOHMAN: And, there would always be an undertone of grief that my life experience didn't bring me to that place.
LOHMAN: And, you know, when I see what's happening now, it's incredible, and it's so right, and it's so exciting, but I have a lot of jealousy. Jealousy and joy, or maybe gratitude and grief.
ALEXIS GRAY-LAWSON: So my name is Alexis Gray Lawson, uh, born and raised here in Oakland, California.
GRAY-LAWSON: So when I first heard about the WNBA, I think I was in the fifth grade. Um, and I think that I had like heard it, like there's this new league that's coming out.
Sound of announcer at first ever game of the WNBA
GRAY-LAWSON: And then I think my seventh grade year, you know, me and a lot of my teammates at that time were some of the best seventh graders in the country. Cynthia Cooper ends up actually sending us our first pair of shoes.
Sound of Cynthia Cooper Nike Commercial
GRAY-LAWSON: And I was like, "This is cool. Like, a lady got her shoes.” Like, this is dope, right?
GRAY-LAWSON: I fall in love with the Comets.
GRAY-LAWSON: Cynthia Cooper reminded me of Allen Iverson.
Sound of Comets’ announcer: “I'll tell you what, it is tough to guard Cynthia Cooper. Breaking down the defense and slicing through the middle and finishing.”
GRAY-LAWSON: But yeah, that was my first like introduction to what the W was.
GRAY-LAWSON: End up being here at Oakland Tech.
GRAY-LAWSON: And I still don't think I really kinda understood what it was to be in the league or what that looked like probably honestly until college.
Sound of Cal announcer: “Gray Lawson high left. Corner three on the way. Yes!”
GRAY-LAWSON: Got a scholarship to UC Berkeley.
Sound of Cal Announcer: “Hands up play. Gray Lawson for three, and that's the record, the all-time leading three-point shooter in California history. 160 for her great career.”
Sound of 2010 WNBA DRAFT: “The WNBA held this year's draft as college stars learn their destinations…”
GRAY-LAWSON: And so I got drafted to Washington in the third round. Played there for a summer.
GRAY-LAWSON: Really wasn't sure if I was gonna ever play again after that, being cut for the first time ever in my entire life. I felt like my world was completely over. Um, went overseas. In Turkey, I really just had a hard time adjusting to the game.
GRAY-LAWSON: I rode the bench.
GRAY-LAWSON: I'm like, "If this is what it is to be a pro, like I don't want any parts." And then I had a incredible conversation, um, actually with Diana Taurasi.
Sound of WNBA announcer: “Diana Taurasi has her bench jumping up and down because she does what she always has, coming through in a clutch in an acrobatic way!”
GRAY-LAWSON: She was playing in Turkey at that time.
GRAY-LAWSON: And we were getting our butts smacked, and my coach decided to put me in the game at halftime. And so I just went on a wreck. Like, I think I scored, like, 15 points in, in like 10 minutes. Diana literally was like, "Yo, you gotta come to Phoenix."
Sound of Mercury announcer: “We welcome you into Phoenix Mercury Basketball…”
GRAY-LAWSON: And I played with them for two years.
Sound of Mercury announcer: “So it's Alexis Gray-Lawson, the second-year player out of Cal, who grew up in Oakland, handling the point guard responsibilities, now guarded by Whalen.”
GRAY-LAWSON: I think that there's a definitely a defining point in sports where we can say that there are certain people that become generational people that completely change the landscape.
GRAY-LAWSON: And to me, like, Diana Taurasi was the epitome of the best, right? Whether that’s as a teammate, as a, um, mentor of mine, as an athlete.
GRAY-LAWSON: My rookie season, we were in Minnesota, and I think everybody had said that we were gonna lose.
GRAY-LAWSON: I was guarding Seimone Augustus my first play, and I think she ended up pulling up, she scored. And then all of a sudden she just started talking mess to me. I'm from Oakland, I got pride. I'm like, "All right, bet." Come down, I score my first bucket on Seimone.
GRAY-LAWSON: And now Diana is chirping. She like, "My rookie done dogged you out!" And she, like, talking cash money to them. And my favorite moment is Diana comes down, she grabs the ball, I pass it to her, she shoots, like, she shoots a dang near from half court…
Sound of WNBA announcer: Taurasi from half court, cashing it in!
GRAY-LAWSON: After that, she did not miss the rest of the game. We ended up winning the game. It was such a beautiful moment for me because it really taught me, like, who has your back in your toughest moments, and how do you react to that?
GRAY-LAWSON: And now I'm back here at Oakland Tech. I'm what they call a community schools manager.
:GRAY-LAWSON: I'm also the athletic director, just giving my love and appreciation to this place.
ADELA OROZCO: When I started playing basketball, I was nine years old, and I played for the Buena Vista League. My team is called the Golden Waves.
OROZCO: Hey, I'm Adela Orozco. I'm going into seventh grade, and I'm a point guard.
OROZCO: So one of my earliest memories for me of the WNBA was actually going to, like, the Valkyries game, in September.
OROZCO: It was, like, truly amazing. There was full-on lasers just everywhere, like shining on everyone. And they had the story of Ballhalla.
Sound of Valkyries announcer
OROZCO: Like, some girls behind me, they were like, probably teenagers, like 14, 15. They were just talking and they were like, "Oh my gosh, I'm so excited to see this. Like, this is my dream.” And I remember that because I remember thinking the same thing.
OROZCO: Being point guard is super fun for me because I feel like I really get to make the plays happen. Like, I see, like, these paths, I see the person right there. Split second, you have to make sure that you pass it.
Sounds of playing basketball in a gym, squeaking sneakers on floor, crowd cheers
COACH: Pass it out! Pass it out! Shoot it!
OROZCO: What can be hard is getting in the right mindset. If I, like, miss a basket or I make a pass but the other, the other team gets it and starts, you know, heading towards our basket, that can be hard to shake off sometimes.
Sounds of playing basketball in a gym, squeaking sneakers on floor, crowd cheers, ref blows whistle.
COACH: Screen, screen, screen, screen!
OROZCO: In the league who I look up to is Kaitlyn Chen.
OROZCO: I had the honor of being able to meet her through my, um, after school Girls Inc., and when I asked her, I asked her a question, "How do you prepare yourself for the game?" She said that she had to do, like, a lot of, like, workout and be able to get into, like, the right mental state of being able to brush it off and be ready for the game.
OROZCO: Even if something bad happens, you just gotta keep going.
OROZCO: So I admire her because I bet it takes a lot of willpower to do that every day.
Sound of Valkyries’ crowd chanting GSV! GSV! GSV!
OROZCO: For me, seeing how many people cared about women's, like, sports, I think it was kind of normal for me because, like, as I said, like, I kinda grew up with women's sports, so I saw people in the stands, you know, cheering.
OROZCO: So why wouldn't people support women's sports? Like, it's women's sports, you know? Um, and it's really just sports, too.
