WNBA Has Promise, but No Guarantees
It began in 1997 as a summer league alternative for women’s professional basketball. As the WNBA opens its 10th season today, much has changed.
Still solidly backed by the NBA, the WNBA has seen its talent base grow tenfold, leading to a higher level of play and the longest-running league in U.S. women’s pro basketball.
“I remember when I first accepted the job, there wasn’t a collective bargaining agreement,” Minnesota Coach Suzie McConnell Serio said. “At that time there were questions whether the league would survive if the two sides couldn’t agree. But the players have an understanding what it takes for the league to survive, and we’re going to be here for a long time.”
Change defines the 2006 season. There is a 24-second clock instead of 30 seconds, and the games are sectioned into four 10-minute quarters instead of two 20-minute halves.
“We thought it was important to differentiate [the WNBA] from the college game,” league President Donna Orender said.
In addition, the WNBA expands to 14 teams, welcoming Chicago to the Eastern Conference. Chicago will be the second team (along with Connecticut) that is not owned by an NBA team.
Challenges remain. Even though the league will welcome its 20-millionth fan this season, regular-season attendance has slipped from a peak of 2.3 million in 2002 to 1.8 million last year.
Former president Val Ackerman predicted teams would be breaking even by 2007. Orender is not ready to make the same claim. “We’re very close,” is all she would say.
The WNBA may not totally control its league schedule (initially sandwiched around the NBA playoffs) or television dates. But it does control its game, which is evolving from a half-court, defense-oriented style to more of a wide-open running game that depends on athleticism and individual skills.
“On the court I equate the women’s game to where the NBA was in the early 1980s when you had this transition to higher-paced basketball,” Detroit Coach Bill Laimbeer said. “The depth in the league is at its peak. It’s very difficult to get a roster spot in this league.”
There are only seven players left (out of 97) from the WNBA’s inaugural season -- Tamecka Dixon, Vickie Johnson, Lisa Leslie, Mwadi Mabika, Wendy Palmer, Sheryl Swoopes and Tina Thompson. They have appeared in a combined 22 WNBA finals series and, collectively, Dixon, Leslie, Mabika, Swoopes and Thompson have 14 championship rings.
The next generation -- Alana Beard, Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Tamika Catchings, Cheryl Ford, Diana Taurasi and Lindsey Whalen -- have raised the stakes with their athleticism and basketball skills. (Cash and Ford also have won a WNBA championship.) The 2006 rookie class, from Seimone Augustus to Cappie Pondexter to Monique Currie to Sophia Young to Lisa Willis, is poised to take the game further.
According to Sheila Johnson, owner of the Washington Mystics, the WNBA has “gotten in a rut focusing on [the same] three to four players. We have more young women playing basketball than ever before. And I’m high on the next generation.”
Sacramento, the 2005 WNBA champion, gained its title by concentrating primarily on defense. Connecticut, however, has gone to two consecutive league finals with a free-flowing, open-court system, and may be ready to win it all. There are other contenders in Detroit, Seattle, Houston, Los Angeles and Washington that could threaten the league-record 77.3 points that Houston averaged in 2000.
Phoenix is the latest to turn to an offense-driven style. New Mercury Coach Paul Westhead has brought the racehorse approach he championed in college with Loyola Marymount and in the NBA with the Lakers. He wants his teams firing away as soon the bus parks. In two exhibition games, the Mercury attempted 75 shots against Detroit and won, 85-84, and 83 shots against Connecticut and lost, 96-85.
“I was intrigued by the possibility of how my different style would work in the women’s game,” Westhead said. “There’s only one way to find out -- take a team and put the system in. It’s a high-risk system, but a perfect chance to try it.”
Fans (and potential WNBA investors) will be watching closely to see whether the league is taking off or running in place.
Joe Maloof, co-owner of the Monarchs, cautions against expecting too much too soon.
“The league has a tremendous potential that it hasn’t quite reached yet,” Maloof said. “But it’s still a young league. As long as you have the interest in women’s basketball in college and high school, you have a fighting chance to make it succeed in the pro level.”