You can’t discuss the impact black women have had on sports without discussing basketball. College basketball and the WNBA have afforded black female athletes a one of the very few high-profile, professional platform to pursue their sport and the financial opportunities that go along with being a successful athlete.
Despite the difficulties the WNBA currently face, its mere existence is a remarkable achievement. Founded in 1996, 24 years after Title IX mandated equality in funding and facilities for women’s sports and 33 years after the Civil Rights Act, the 12-team league, while not the first of its kind (that credit goes to the WBL), just concluded its 14th season, making it the most enduring American women’s professional basketball organization.
Currently, the league holds a grade of A from the Institute of Diversity and Ethics in Sports for its hiring practices on and off the court. The presence of black women on the court is obvious. Currently, 69% of WNBA players are black. But the league also does a great job of hiring black people, men and women, in professional positions.
But enough about the league. Let’s meet some of the women who were integral parts of the groundbreaking beginning years of the WNBA.
Name: Laurel J. Richie
Position: President of the Women’s National Basketball
Association
Notable Achievements: First woman of color to head a national sports league. Named one of the 25 most influential black women in business by The Network Journal.
Name: Sheryl Swoopes
Position: Swingwoman for the Houston Comets and Seattle Storm
Notable Achievements: Set several school-wide records during her time at Texas Tech, first player signed in the WNBA, won three gold medals and three WNBA MVP awards, first woman to have a Nike shoe named after her (Air Swoopes).
Name: Lisa Leslie
Position: Center for the Los Angeles Sparks
Notable Achievements: Earned All-American honors while playing for USC from 1992-1994 and was voted National Player of the year her senior year. On July 12, 2002 she was the first woman to dunk in a WNBA game. She holds the league’s career scoring and rebound record. By the time she retired at the end of the 2009 season, she had scored 6,000 points and had 10,000 PRA over her twelve year career.
Name: Cynthia Cooper-Dyke
Position: Guard for the Houston Comets
Notable Achievements: Gold medalist at the 1988 Olympics, started playing for the WNBA at 34 and led the league in scoring for her first three years; first WNBA player to score 500, 1,000, 2,000 and 2,500 points.
The WNBA season runs from June-September, finals in October. Find your team and show them some support this upcoming season.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: The temptation when discussing women’s basketball is to discuss their achievements and abilities by comparing and contrasting them with well-known male basketball players. It’s a trap that both commentators and players fall into equally and often. The problem with that language is that it treats this sport and the women who play it as merely a derivative of the men’s sport. Female athletes of all colors, in all sports, deserve to have their efforts recognized on their own merits, using their own names. Anything less is outright sexism (poorly) disguised as flattery.
