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Her fifth-grade assignment required her to list her life's aspirations, and Barbara Turner knew what she wanted.
Ten years ago, the 10-year-old Turner's aspirations were more like fantasies. First of all, it was rather presumptuous for the Cleveland native to believe she would someday be good enough to play professional basketball; second, it was rather audacious for her to assume it would be in an American women's league.
For her class project, Turner wrote that she wanted to play in the "W-NBA," a women's version of the men's professional basketball league. It was a farfetched idea, especially considering the league didn't exist and every previous attempt at creating an American women's basketball league had failed, despite efforts to sell physical beauty as well as talent.
In hindsight, Turner's fantasies turned out to be far more realistic than a boy dreaming of flying to Mars or becoming a superhero. America was indeed ready for another women's professional basketball league, and two formed at nearly the same time to accommodate the desires of an ever-emerging fan base.
Shortly after the American Basketball League began play in the fall of 1996, the National Basketball Association, in conjunction with owners from eight of its teams, decided to form the WNBA, the same moniker Turner used in her class project a year before.
Turner is now a rookie with the Seattle Storm, which began play in the WNBA in 2000, as the league begins its 10th year. With a new team in Chicago, other cities on the waiting list and potential superstars getting tutelage in the NCAA, the WNBA appears cemented in the American sports landscape, or at least in the minds of little girls who can't conceive of a time when an American women's league was a dream reserved for class projects.
"I added a 'W' to the NBA because there was no WNBA," Turner said after the Storm prepared for its season-opening game against the Los Angeles Sparks on Sunday. "That next year, they inaugurated the season and once I saw that, it was a dream of mine to play on this level."
The WNBA has transformed itself, going from a league filled with over-the-hill players, unproven youngsters and established stars pressured to sell the league, to a flourishing outfit brimming with brilliant players.
Former college All-Americans Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes and Rebecca Lobo were each paid $250,000 to join the league for the summer of 1997. The league advertised using the phrase "We Got Next" and offered fans an opportunity to see some of their favorite college players on a professional level.
Leslie, who was 25 and three years out of USC when the league began, said she wasn't exactly convinced the league would operate on a professional level.
"I actually thought it would be a summer league with reversible jerseys and that kind of thing," she said last week. "Not a first-class league that we have. We actually got to play in the same arenas as the NBA teams. We got to use the same locker rooms and facilities. It's been first class the entire time."
Leslie thinks the league's talent base has grown exponentially over the past decade. Gone are the days in which players could flourish in the league as specialists, helping a team in one category.
"We've seen many players come and go," Leslie said. "Jobs are scarce, the kids are playing faster. I don't want to call anybody out, but we got rid of a lot of players who probably didn't belong in the league. The competition and level of play is so high right now."
Still, Leslie and Swoopes remain the league's most dominant players, despite approaching their mid-30s. Seven players are entering their 10th season in the league, including 31-year-old Wendy Palmer of the Storm.
Palmer's route to the 10th anniversary is different then her more heralded contemporaries. Seattle is her sixth team. Palmer has never approached the salary of the highest-paid players. She and other medium- and minimum-salary players learned the harsh realities of professional sports when the league was nearly derailed by a players strike in 1999.
The level of uncertainty regarding the league's survival seems to have subsided, however. The growth of the league has been slow and methodical, but rules changes this season -- including a 24-second clock and four-quarter play -- is expected to spark interest.
"In this business, we have the younger players that are ready to take the torch and carry it," said Storm coach Anne Donovan. "It's tough to see the players who helped establish the WNBA fade out but in Lisa and Cheryl's case, that's still several years away."
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