She Still Gets to Play Her Game--at a Trot

Should a woman bother playing basketball?

For exercise, yes. For fun, yes. For a college scholarship, yes. For the sheer pleasure of competition, sure.

For a living?

Good luck.

Career opportunities are limited for basketball-playing women. They can coach. They can become broadcasters, as Cheryl Miller and Ann Meyers have. They can attempt to make men’s professional teams, as Meyers and Nancy Lieberman did. They can play professionally in Europe, for meager wages, or hope that another U.S. pro circuit will come along, so they can continue playing the game they love.

Sandra Hodge knew the feeling.

“Because I’m a woman, I never thought I could have any kind of a career in professional basketball,” she said.

It presented quite a problem for someone who, like a lot of girls, discovered at an early age that she had an aptitude and attitude for basketball and a skill level that could carry her a long way.

Hodge was 11 when she joined an AAU junior Olympic team. She shot out the lights in Clinton, Miss., averaging 25 points, nine rebounds and seven steals a game for her high school team. For the University of New Orleans, Hodge was the most valuable player of the women’s National Invitation Tournament, which her team won, and soon thereafter, the school retired her jersey number.

But then came the question:

What next?

What does a 5-foot-8 woman do with her basketball skills once she is no longer in school? Any male who made collegiate All-American teams three years running would stand to make millions of dollars in the NBA. Sandra Hodge needed a job.

She spent some time with women’s pro teams in Sweden and Spain.

“Very educational,” she said.

Just not very lucrative.

She went back to Mississippi to coach in the AAU youth program to which she once belonged.

“I love working with kids,” she said.

But it’s not the same as playing.

Pickup games were not the same. They were OK, but after a lifetime of learning and training and excelling, Hodge had no outlet for her talent, no way to make a decent buck doing what she did best.

Then, in 1985, a breakthrough of sorts took place. It wasn’t exactly history-making, but at least it was significant. Lynette Woodard, a standout player from Kansas, signed a contract with the Harlem Globetrotters. She broke one of basketball’s sex barriers.

“When the Globetrotters chose Lynette, I knew I had a chance to fulfill my dream,” Hodge said.

She tried out. Eighteen women were invited to a camp. Hodge was selected, and has now been touring with the Globetrotters for four years.

Tex Harrison taught her the slide-dribble. The skill is familiar to Trotter watchers. While some poor stooge on defense attempts to steal the basketball, the dribbler bobs and weaves and does baseball slides, deftly keeping the ball bouncing.

Sandra’s knees paid the price.

No, it wasn’t “real” basketball. Yes, it was more like the circus.

But at least she was playing ball and being paid for it.

With the Globetrotters, she trotted the world. Over the last quarter of 1990, Hodge traveled to Portugal, Spain, Germany, France, Austria and Israel. In December, Israelis already were in need of a diversion from world tension.

“We played in Jerusalem on a Saturday night, in front of a great crowd,” Hodge recalled. “Later that same evening, we heard shooting coming from a mall. We weren’t sure what was happening. But people came up to us the next day and thanked us for providing a little entertainment. I liked Israel a lot. I hope everybody there is safe.”

Hodge is encouraged at the proposed formation of a new U.S. women’s pro league, one expected to have franchises in at least six major cities, including Los Angeles. The pay scale won’t have male groupies coming around hoping to marry a millionairess; the proposed ceiling is $20,000 yearly per player. But the competition would be genuine, and could give younger women more encouragement to take up the sport.

In the meantime, when anybody asks Sandra Hodge her occupation, she can still say with pride that she is a basketball player. Not many women today can say that.

“I wasn’t ready to give it up yet,” she said. “Someday, I suppose. But not yet.”

Girls in their teens who devote hours a day to running, shooting and practicing might need a reason to keep at it. They might not want to stop playing basketball the minute they leave college. They might not ever need to learn how to slide-dribble.

“My advice to girls is to keep playing ball because you never know,” Hodge said. “Another generation from now, there could be a women’s NBA. Things change.”