Kate Starbird and Jamila Wideman sat in a conference room after finishing their senior seasons at Stanford in April 1997 with something that hadn’t been previously available to women’s college basketball stars: options.
A year earlier, the NBA had announced that it was creating a women’s league, the WNBA, launching that summer. It was a summer league with a limited schedule but promised TV deals, name recognition and big-money backing.
Meanwhile, the American Basketball League, which played a traditional eight-month schedule in the fall and winter, had launched a few months earlier with the promise of competitive salaries, player-focused leadership and a chance to own stock in the league.
For the first time, U.S. players could stay home to continue playing after college, instead of heading overseas. And not only that, but these women had two options of domestic play to choose from.
Wideman, a guard who had helped lead the Cardinal to three Final Fours, chose the WNBA, going third overall to the Los Angeles Sparks in the inaugural draft of collegiate players.
Starbird, the 1997 Naismith Player of the Year, was excited to play in her hometown for Seattle’s ABL franchise. To seal the deal, the ABL offered her a contract that according to reports at the time…
