This year marks a special anniversary for me. What anniversary you ask? It's the tenth anniversary season for the WNBA.
The league was born in the afterglow of the 1996 US women's Olympic basketball team's unbeaten march to the gold medal in Atlanta. I was overjoyed to learn that my hometown would get one of the inaugural eight franchises along with the New York Liberty, Los Angeles Sparks, Cleveland Rockers, Charlotte Sting, Utah Starzz, Phoenix Mercury and Sacramento Monarchs. The Original Eight were later joined by the Detroit Shock and Washington Mystics in 1998, the Minnesota Lynx and Orlando Miracle in 1999, and the Indiana Fever, Portland Fire, Seattle Storm, and Miami Sol in 2000. The Cleveland, Portland and Miami teams folded. The Utah and Orlando teams eventually moved to San Antonio and Uncasville, CT and became the San Antonio Silver Stars and Connecticut Sun.
I didn't realize that I would get to witness sports history beyond the fact that another women's pro league was cranking up in the summer of 1997. The Comets endured a rough start. Sheryl Swoopes, our franchise player was pregnant and would miss most of the 1997 season. The Comets lemon quickly turned to lemonade. To compensate for it the league assigned us international star Cynthia Cooper. They ended up with the number one pick via lottery and selected Tina Thompson from USC with it. They selected Janeth Arcain in the international draft. Van Chancellor from the University of Mississippi was hired as head coach. Little did we know at the time a dynasty was about to be born. The Comets not only won the inaugural championship game at home against the Liberty but ended up winning four straight championships before the streak came to an end with a first round loss against the hated LA Sparks in the 2001 WNBA playoffs.
So why am I talking about the WNBA on a transgender blog?
Well, one of the worst kept secrets in the league before Sheryl came out this winter was that some of the players were lesbian. In addition it was estimated that 10% of the WNBA fan base was GLBT. I remember one Comets season ticket drive starting in Montrose outside a lesbian bar called Chances.
The start of the WNBA is also special to me because it happened about two years into my transition. I was still working through a hangup about my 6'2" height. I couldn't whine about it after seeing Tina Thompson on the court along with some of the women in the league who are even taller than me. I also couldn't complain about my size 12 pumps after reading that Chamique Holdsclaw wears a size 14 and some of the other fashion plates in the league also wear double digit shoe sizes.
WNBA games were some of the first events I went to post transition. I loved them so much I bought Comets season tickets before the 1999 season and held on to them until I moved. Even though I'm 1000 miles from home, my love for the Comets hasn't diminshed. I make a one hour drive to Indianapolis every summer to watch my girls play at Conseco Fieldhouse.
I was also part of the most fearsome home court advantage in the early years of the WNBA, the Sea of Red. (sorry, Phoenix X-Factor) We kept Compaq sold out, loud and rocking. It reminded me of the types of crowds we had for Rockets games in the mid 80's until the average fan got priced out of NBA games. Until the 2000 WNBA season I never attended a home playoff game loss until the miracle three quarter court heave by Teresa Weatherspoon of the New York Liberty delayed our celebration of Championship Number Four for 24 hours.
This season is going to be interesting. The game format is changing from two 20 minute halves to four ten minute quarters to more closely align it with the international game and FIBA rules. The Chicago Sky, a new expansion team joins the league. The Women's World Basketball championships will happen this September in Brazil after the WNBA champion is crowned.
I hope this tenth anniversary season ends the same way the inaugural season ended, with Tina Thompson and Sheryl Swoopes holding aloft the WNBA Championship trophy. The only differences will be that it would happen at Toyota Center instead of Compaq Center and the WNBA president handing out the trophy will be Donna Orender instead of Val Ackerman.
Happy 10th Anniversary, WNBA!