NBA to Direct Women’s League

The Lady Lakers? The Lady Celtics? The Lady Knicks?

Women’s professional basketball is coming to an NBA arena near you.

The NBA announced Wednesday that it will sponsor a women’s league for a 1997 summer season, though no details were given.

Beginning in June of 1997, the NBA expects to run an eight-team women’s league, in NBA arenas yet to be identified, sources said. The teams will play a 28-game, June-August schedule.

The NBA plans to hold a draft next April. Training camps would open in mid-May and the season would begin in mid-June.

No decisions have been made on which NBA cities will have women’s teams, Commissioner David Stern told owners Wednesday.

“TV is a big factor in all this, and he wants TV people to have some input into what teams will have women’s teams,” one NBA owner said.

According to the owner, Stern and other NBA staffers made a presentation pointing out a steady growth of TV ratings in recent years for women’s college games, rising attendance and interest generated by the 39-0 U.S. National Team, on its way to the Atlanta Olympics.

“Stern told us corporate sponsors love the fan base for the women’s game, that’s it’s basically women, kids and families,” the owner said.

Originally, 12 to 16 first-year teams were considered, then 10, then eight.

“It was decided to keep it small, to insure that the first season would be high-quality basketball,” the owner said.

The owners were told some players with strong geographic identities would be assigned to hometown areas before the draft--Sheryl Swoopes (Texas Tech) to a Texas team, Lisa Leslie (USC) to a Los Angeles team, Rebecca Lobo (Connecticut) to Boston, if women’s teams are placed in those areas.

After coaches are hired, Stern told the owners, the teams will use existing NBA marketing, public relations and promotions staffs.

Owners were also told the women’s league in its first season would be operated as a single entity, and that player contracts would be negotiated by the league office.

Women’s basketball coaches across the country applauded the NBA’s move, but many also expressed concern over the possibility of competing leagues.

As it now stands, the women’s game in the United States will in one year go from no pro leagues to two.

The American Basketball League was founded last year by a Palo Alto public relations firm, Cavalli and Cribbs; an Atlanta investor, Bobby Johnson, and former Silicon Valley computer executive Steve Hams.

They announced plans last year to form a league for the next basketball season, then signed most members of the U.S. national team.

Of the NBA announcement, Pat Summitt, coach of NCAA champion Tennessee said:

“It’s certainly an indication of how far we’ve come in the last 10 years. The women’s game now has solid support at every level, from high school to AAU to the college game, and now we’re going to the next level. It’s a great day.

“The one thing that concerns me, though, is two or more leagues working against each other. No one wants to see that, not after we’ve waited so long.”

The ABL sounded undaunted this week, saying it wasn’t surprised at the NBA’s move.

“We knew when we started there was a 900-pound gorilla [the NBA] down the street,” said Gary Cavalli, a former Stanford associate athletic director.

“We’re going ahead with our league. We’ll see what happens.”

The ABL said Feb. 21 it had awarded eight franchises: Atlanta, Columbus, Hartford/Springfield, Richmond, Denver, Portland, San Jose and Seattle.

Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women’s Sports Foundation, said the NBA took the pulse of the women’s game by promoting the U.S. national team.

“It was no accident that NBA Properties took on the national team--it was a pilot project and obviously the NBA considers it a positive experience,” she said.

“It’s symbolic. It shows great confidence in the women’s sports market.”

Trouble could loom if the ABL proceeds. It’s asking players to sign contracts now with exclusivity clauses, barring them from playing in another U.S. pro league.

The ABL plans a 40-game season, October to February.

A summer NBA league could bring some of the game’s former stars back into uniform, such as Nancy Lieberman-Cline and Cheryl Miller.

Lieberman-Cline, 37, said recently she’d consider playing again in a summer league, which would not conflict with her broadcasting career.

Said Miller, 32, also a broadcaster: “I don’t have plans to make a comeback, but then, stranger things have happened.”