It took 27 years, but finally everybody watched THE game

The 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta was the catalyst for the current popularity the country is seeing right now in women’s basketball.

Winning the Gold Medal at those Games behind stars Lisa Leslie, Rebecca Lobo and Sheryl Swoopes is what single-handedly launched the WNBA a year later. The NBA powered – and still does – the WNBA, and they rode the shoulders of Leslie, Lobo and Swoopes on every marketing campaign from national TV ads, all the way down to local radio spots in one of the eight inaugural cities that called a team home.

One of those initial eight WNBA cities was Houston where the Rockets were given a WNBA team, who were called the Comets. The Comets, unfortunately, ceased operations in 2009.

I was the first employee of the Comets when I was named Director of Public Relations for the new team in March of 1997.

Those were very fun, memorable times. A women’s professional basketball league – I wasn’t sure how it would go, but I could tell from the first day I started that job that we were in for something special.

The first game in WNBA history was June 21, 1997. I was with the Comets in Cleveland as we faced the Rockers that evening. But the big game on that opening day was at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles where the hometown Sparks played host to the New York Liberty. That game was on national TV as NBC had the broadcast rights in the inaugural season.

The WNBA’s Director of Operations at the time was Kelly Krauskopf. She was at that game in Los Angeles when the WNBA officially tipped for the first time. A week later, she was in Houston for one of our home games.

I became friends with Kelly during that first season as she came to Houston a lot for our games. The Comets were pretty damn good and drew big crowds, and the league’s presence wasn’t a surprise.

I recall sitting with her at our game a week after the nationally televised Los Angeles vs. New York game. She told me how magical it was, how she and her female coworkers stood on the sidelines with tears in their eyes as they watched how far the sport they loved had come.

She said something I’ll never forget.

“I just can’t wait for the day when people around the water cooler at work talk about the game,” she said. “How they can’t wait for the game…or, did you see the game last night?”

The key word in that sentence – and she emphasized it very clearly – was the.

Not the WNBA game, or the NFL, NHL or Major League Baseball game. Just simply, the game.

“It’s going to be cool when a women’s basketball game is big enough to be known as the game and everyone will know what you’re talking about,” she said.

I’ve thought of that line often over the last 27 years. And, it’s never happened. I’ve often wondered if in my lifetime the sport will grow to a point where people looked forward to a women’s basketball game and it stood on its own without explanation.

It never happened. 

Until last Monday.

I was covering the Brandon City Council meeting for the Journal. As I sat in the back of the council chambers, I had ESPN.com up on my laptop as the women’s LSU vs. Iowa Regional Final was about to tip and I wanted to follow along by glancing at the box score.

“You coming down to watch the game with us,” a friend texted me from our local watering hole.

“What game,” I replied.

And then I sat back in my council chamber chair, leaned hard into the backrest, and held my breath.

“The Iowa game,” was the reply.

I grinned, even though the city council meeting was now deep into the captivating subject of rezoning a section of town.

It was then I knew. I knew that 27 years later, the day had come when everyone was anticipating the game, and it was a women’s college basketball game.

I got to the watering hole at about halftime where the Hawkeyes and Tigers were tied at the break. As the third quarter started, the five knuckleheads I was with were ‘ooohing’ and ‘ahhing’ at the screen as Iowa’s Caitlin Clark was doing crazy things.

A record 12.3 million people watched the game on ESPN, the most watched college basketball game ever on any of the network’s platforms.

After the Hawkeyes won, I made my way towards the door. I stopped, turned around and looked back at my four friends who were still yacking about the game.

Kelly, I thought, would have been proud.

But then again, I know she’s busy. She’s now the assistant General Manager for the NBA’s Indiana Pacers, becoming the first female assistant General Manager in NBA history, and I actually couldn’t be more proud.

When she was hired by the Pacers in 2019, she told the Indianapolis Star, “building winning teams and elite level culture is not based on gender. It is based on people and processes.”

I’m forever grateful that I got to be part of that process, and was able to watch the game 27 years after she hoped for what I saw on Monday.