But the 6-foot-4 (193-centimeter) heart’s future on the court docket was unsure: she joined the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) in its inaugural 1997 season, at a second when some questioned whether or not an expert girls’s league may survive for the long run.
The US Olympic staff was “a little bit of a test balloon (for the) market for women’s professional basketball,” Lobo, now a 47-year-old Basketball Hall of Famer and ESPN basketball analyst, instructed Reuters.
“Are these women marketable? Are these tickets that we can sell?” had been among the many questions that swirled across the girls’s sport.
The reply got here quickly sufficient, and it was a decisive sure from the followers.
Playing for New York Liberty within the staff’s first dwelling sport, Lobo stated the near-capacity crowd of 17,780 stuffed Madison Square Garden with deafening cheering.
“I remember it being so loud in Madison Square Garden, we couldn’t hear the PA announcers say our names,” stated Lobo.
Lobo and different pioneers of the WNBA by no means regarded again.
‘I did not envision how far it may go’
As play launched, Kym Hampton at age 35 was nearer to the tip of her profession than the start after spending greater than a decade abroad enjoying for groups in Europe and Japan.
Then a virtually unimaginable alternative introduced itself: an opportunity for an expert basketball profession within the United States. Hampton was certainly one of two gamers the Liberty picked up within the WNBA Elite Draft.
“Little boys in my era, they always grew up having a professional baseball league, professional football, professional basketball, professional leagues,” stated the Louisville native and ambassador for the Women’s Sports Foundation. “As women, we didn’t have that.”
“I didn’t envision how far it could go,” the 58-year-old recalled.
Hampton scored the primary basket for Liberty on the WNBA’s inaugural sport on June 21, 1997, between New York and the Los Angeles Sparks on the Great Western Forum, then the house of the Los Angeles Lakers.
She was struck by the connection she felt to the NBA stars who performed there when she noticed their locker room stools.
“Think of all the butts of the athletes, the former pro men’s NBA athletes that have sat in this,” she remembered telling herself.
“So I went and sat in every stool,” stated Hampton. “I’m taking all the good play from every player that’s ever set their butt in this stool right here.”
Juggling childcare and drills
While the WNBA teammates might have been enjoying in the identical areas as their male counterparts, they had been removed from parity. In 1997, they earned a base wage of $15,000 whereas even low-ranking NBA gamers made six figures.
“We were willing to do whatever we had to say and do in order for this league to be successful,” stated Vickie Johnson, a Liberty second-round decide within the inaugural elite draft.
“It wasn’t about the money. It was about playing the best league in the world and being recognized as a professional league and having a seat at the table,” recalled the 49-year-old, who after 13 seasons enjoying within the WNBA went on to function head coach of the San Antonio Stars and Dallas Wings.
Today’s high WNBA gamers can earn upwards of $500,000, courtesy of final yr’s landmark collective bargaining settlement, which assured new maternity advantages and higher journey circumstances.
“It’s a blessing to still be a part of a league that I sweat, I sacrificed my body for, and a league that I love,” Johnson stated.
Last yr, the sacrifices included all of the groups quarantining inside a “wubble” in the course of the pandemic. Several moms had their youngsters with them, they usually balanced childcare with a demanding coaching regime and sport schedule.
“But that just goes back to women, period,” stated Johnson. “We have always endured more than our share of responsibility.”
As the season kicks off May 14, the WNBA is going through strain to confront problems with race and equality like establishments all through the United States are. Johnson is the league’s solely Black girl head coach regardless of the gamers being predominantly Black.
NBA management are “going to have to devise a plan that allows these women to have opportunities,” stated Hampton.
Commissioner Cathy Engelbert instructed reporters lately that the league is making progress however “we have to do better.”
The gamers sense the league is prepared for a significant breakout. Television ratings are rising, and extra video games had been broadcast final summer time than ever earlier than.
WNBA is “right on the verge of just mainstream huge popularity,” stated Lobo.
