It was a hot July day in 1970, at a public swimming pool somewhere in Spain.
I was one of four young Americans trying to cool off in the crowd of Spaniards -- and for amusement, we had brought along a Frisbee.
We were far from experts with the plastic disk, but we were way ahead of the Europeans, who clearly had never seen one. When we inexpertly started tossing the Frisbee, it went in all directions, and was immediately fetched by a Spaniard. At first, small boys chased it down and tried to throw it back to us. Soon, young teen-agers had taken over, relegating the boys to spectator status. After about half an hour, the teen-agers had lost their place, and adult males were the ones who were laughing and launching the Frisbee.
If a professional women's basketball league is the Frisbee, the small boys are the leagues that tried and died in the past. The teen-agers are the ABL, enthusiastic, awkward and a bit frail. The adults, obviously, are the NBA, with muscles and presence the young ones cannot hope to match.
Now, it may be that the ABL will manage to hang on to the Frisbee long enough to master it to the point that the men with mustaches decide not to embarrass themselves, but it's going to take a lot of effort -- and more than a little luck.
Right now, things don't look so bright in the ABL. Though some franchises are already in high gear, some don't even appear to have even put the key in the ignition. And, infinitely worse, the players who were going to launch the league are dropping away like Olympic pretenders facing the American juggernaut in Atlanta.
Yes, the ABL still has 85 to 90 percent of the top U.S. players on its rosters, but that's small comfort when Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, Ruth Bolton, Katrina McClain, Rebecca Lobo and Venus Lacey look like they'll never put on an ABL uniform. That would be like an NBA without Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, Reggie Miller, Charles Barkley, Jason Kidd and David Robinson. Sure, it would be a nice league, but would it be the NBA? And more important, would it sell as many tickets and draw as many TV viewers?
It's possible, I guess, but only if Jordan, O'Neal, Miller, Barkley, Kidd and Robinson weren't around to put their stamp on another league -- and that won't happen. The WNBA has made it clear it will be glad to allow players to join its summer league after the ABL and international seasons, and it has the TV contracts, marketing savvy and media muscle to make it work.
Here's the scenario, from the WNBA perspective: The ABL struggles its first year without its stars, most franchises fail to draw and TV ratings are dismal, below those of the NCAA games. At season's end, the WNBA starts up its franchises, and offers the remaining Olympians contracts for its abbreviated summer season. With the ABL about to crumble, most accept, as do the other emerging stars the ABL has created over the season. ABL owners, facing another season of red ink, and the possible defection of even more of their top players, throw in the towel, and the WNBA is left as the only American professional women's basketball league.
The ABL must pin its hopes on an entirely different script. The league must be successful at the gate, not only going head-to-head with female college and high school games, but also men's games at all levels. It's also a truism that only winning teams draw, and at least three of the new ABL franchises won't have winning records.
But if the turnstiles turn, it will justify media coverage from newspapers and sports magazines. At that point, SportsChannel would decide to pick up its options for regional broadcasts, which also must succeed in the face of televised competition from the NBA, NCAA men and NCAA women.
At this point, you'd have to say the WNBA plot line seems a lot more likely, especially with Swoopes, Leslie, Bolton and McClain not there in support of the ABL. But stranger things have happened, and if the ABL manages to catch some magic, it might be in such a strong position next June that the WNBA becomes just an exhibition season for top American players before they get serious in the winter.
There is most likely room for a professional women's basketball league in America, and eventually it will have to be played in the winter, holding its own against all the other hoopsters and ice hockey and everything else. Will it be the ABL? The league has nine months to prove itself -- and if it doesn't, the WNBA, like those Spanish guys in that public swimming pool, will swoop in, pick up the Frisbee and never let it go.
8/17/96