Manny Millan/Sports Illustrated
In 1984, the year after her Women’s American Basketball Association championship victory with the Dallas Diamonds, Nancy Lieberman was a reigning champion in a league that folded almost as quickly as it started. In the midst of deliberating her next plan of action to continue playing basketball, Lieberman received word that David Stern, then NBA commissioner, wanted her to come to New York to speak with him. Little did she know she’d be involved in the beginning conversations of an idea that led to the most innovative and progressive women’s league in history.
“I was really nervous,” Lieberman says. “I was sitting in [Stern’s] office, and he closed the door. I was 24, 25 years old. I was like, ‘Why am I here?’ And he says, ‘Well, they’ll fire me if they hear this.’ He sat down and he goes, ‘Nancy, before I’m done being the commissioner of the NBA, there’s going to be a WNBA.’ I just looked at him and went, ‘What are
Mandy Bujold, the boxing mother in a legal fight to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics
The Canadian, who missed the rearranged qualification window due to maternity leave, is taking her case to Court of Arbitration for Sport
9 May 2021 • 8:30am
Mandy Bujold is the only female boxer to win back-to-back titles at the Pan American Games
Credit: SHUTTERSTOCK
For those seeking concrete proof that female athletes still face battles in trying to reconcile a sporting career with motherhood, look no further than boxer Mandy Bujold.
Canada’s 11-time national flyweight champion had meticulously planned her pregnancy in November 2018, when she gave birth to her daughter. But never did she envisage it would seriously hamper her chances of competing at the Tokyo Olympics more than 2½ years later.
WNBA) announced today that
Google will become a WNBA Changemaker through a new multiyear partnership that will drive engagement during many key moments throughout the year. As part of the partnership, Google will serve as Presenting Partner of the WNBA Playoffs and as an Associate Partner of WNBA All-Star on ESPN and the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup.
Google is the fourth company to step up and become a WNBA Changemaker, joining the exclusive collective of current Changemakers AT&T, Deloitte, and Nike. As a WNBA Changemaker, the WNBA and Google will work together on developing innovative marketing initiatives, community-driven programming, and new Google product experiences for fans that will help elevate the league, WNBA players and women’s sports. The WNBA Changemakers platform is designed to provide direct support to the WNBA in its ongoing business transformation across marketing, branding, and player and fan experience. Changemakers are deeply invested in driving positive chang
/PRNewswire/ New Jerseyans have another chance to choose their heroes as the New Jersey Hall of Fame (NJHOF) announces its 50 nominees for the 2021 public.
May 5, 2021
New York – By age 22, Rebecca Lobo had picked up a national college basketball championship, numerous player-of-the-year awards and Olympic gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
But the 6-foot-4 (193 centimeter) center’s future on the court was uncertain: She joined the Women’s National Basketball Association in its inaugural 1997 season, at a moment when some questioned whether a professional women’s league could survive for the long term.
The U.S. Olympic team 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, told Reuters.