Women’s Pro Game Shows There Is Hope For Future

The timing was perfect - the slowest weekend on the sports calendar. But the basketball wasn’t.

The first game of the WNBA featured 54 turnovers and a combined 47-for-128 shooting by the Los Angeles Sparks and New York Liberty. The two marquee players - Lisa Leslie and Rebecca Lobo - shot a combined 12 for 35.

Few points. A lot of turnovers. A lot of air balls. Who did these women think they were? The Miami Heat?

The players appeared nervous; who could blame them? This was a stage like none they’d ever experienced.

This was women’s basketball, backed by the NBA’s muscle and televised with NBC’s eye. The sports world watched.

This was the chance many of them had asked for all of their hoop-playing lives.

And we watched - both Saturday’s debut and Sunday’s game between Charlotte and Phoenix - with mixed emotions, wanting the games to be well-played but believing women’s professional basketball deserves better than the WNBA’s 10-week summer run.

We watched, enjoying Phoenix’s transition game, the floor sense of Phoenix’s Michelle Timms, the all-around game of teammate Bridget Pettis, the open-floor magic of Charlotte’s Andrea Stinson.

But we watched knowing there is a rival league, the ABL, home of the Seattle Reign, fighting for the love and attention of the fans and for the participation of the players.

The ABL feels like a more serious league. Its schedule is more viable. It is basketball during basketball season, not a summer-vacation league.

It plays 44 games instead of 28. It is all about basketball, not marketing.

The WNBA has all the muscle. The NBA marketing machine is formidable. The WNBA had next. We were reminded of that by arena readerboards and league-sponsored commercials almost every day of the NBA season. The countdown to the season openers began during the NBA Finals when we were bathed in commercials for the new league.

The WNBA opened to national fanfare. Almost every major sports page in the country devoted chunks of space to the league’s beginning. The ABL’s debut was much quieter.

NBC and ESPN irresponsibly ignored the first ABL season. Those same networks have deluged us with features and notes on the players of the WNBA, because they are television partners in this season.

Not accidentally, the WNBA began on a lazy summer weekend after the NBA Finals, golf’s U.S. Open and the first blush of baseball’s interleague play were completed. The ABL opened in the middle of the football season.

Still, the first impression is that the ABL’s game is better. Its talent is deeper. Signing Kate Starbird and Kara Wolters gives its second season even more credibility.

The WNBA got next, but the ABL got first. The WNBA got next, but the ABL got best.

The WNBA is a part-time, summer job. Like indoor soccer, it is a way to keep the lights on inside NBA buildings during the quiet months of summer. It is another NBA revenue source, selling tickets, merchandise, parking and concessions. It is another way to brand the NBA’s name into our consciousness.

The second half of the Charlotte-Phoenix game turned ugly. Charlotte missed its first 14 shots and didn’t score a field goal for the first 9-1/2 minutes.

Still, the crowd of 16,102 waxed enthusiastic. The first weekend’s crowds were encouraging - 14,284 in Los Angeles, 11,455 in Cleveland.

But the measure of the league’s appeal will come next month, when the novelty wears off and the NFL’s exhibition games begin.

I believe the game won’t be denied. The interest is there. The players are there. And the need is there.

But somehow the two leagues will have to work together. If the NBA is serious about women’s basketball, it can find a place for this game to peacefully co-exist in the fall and winter with its game.