WOMEN'S PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL

Although professional and collegiate basketball programs have opened doors for men, it is only within the last 20 years that women's basketball has gained national backing. In the mid-1990s, after years of success by women's collegiate and Olympic basketball teams, public interest in women's basketball convinced a group of entrepreneurs to form the American Basketball League (ABL). The eight teams of the ABL began play in 1996, and in March 1997 the Columbus Quest defeated the Richmond Rage in a five-game series to win the inaugural league championship. (The ABL declared bankruptcy and folded in December 1998.)

The NBA also formed an eight-team women's league, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), which began play in June 1997. Both leagues recruited the top women basketball stars in college, including former U.S. Olympic stars Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes. The 6 ft 5 in tall Lisa Leslie is a member of the Los Angeles Sparks (WNBA). She is considered one of the top shot blockers and rebounders in the league. Swoopes, a 1996 Olympic champion and member of the Houston Comets in the WNBA, is the first woman to have her own shoe named after her, the Air Swoopes. African American women, like their male counterparts, have brought innovation and style to the game of basketball. They have opened new doors for young women and in turn, have made remarkable contributions to the struggle to empower women throughout the world.

Basketball has always been about much more than guiding a ball through a hoop. The history of American basketball tells a compelling story about athletic competition in a nation struggling to live up to its ideals of freedom and democracy. Segregation forced African American basketball players to develop a unique game that is distinctly urban, relentlessly innovative, and always stylistic. Today basketball is about the head fake and the swagger, the finger roll and the sky hook; it's about the jump shot and the crossover dribble. Basketball is also about wearing the latest sneakers and sporting the sleekest haircut. It is about playing the game above the rim, a term that has come to symbolize not just whether or not points are scored, but the way in which the game is played. Basketball is a sport transformed by the presence of African Americans, and as such, a signifier of the cultural, political, and social changes in the United States.