Manny Millan/Sports Illustrated
In 1984, the year after her Women’s American Basketball Association championship victory with the Dallas Diamonds, Nancy Lieberman was a reigning champion in a league that folded almost as quickly as it started. In the midst of deliberating her next plan of action to continue playing basketball, Lieberman received word that David Stern, then NBA commissioner, wanted her to come to New York to speak with him. Little did she know she’d be involved in the beginning conversations of an idea that led to the most innovative and progressive women’s league in history.
“I was really nervous,” Lieberman says. “I was sitting in [Stern’s] office, and he closed the door. I was 24, 25 years old. I was like, ‘Why am I here?’ And he says, ‘Well, they’ll fire me if they hear this.’ He sat down and he goes, ‘Nancy, before I’m done being the commissioner of the NBA, there’s going to be a WNBA.’ I just looked at him and went, ‘What are you talking about?’ He goes, ‘It’s gonna take time, but I’m telling you, there will be a WNBA, and my greatest hope is that you will play in it.’ ”