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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
May 5, 2021
New York – By age 22, Rebecca Lobo had picked up a national college basketball championship, numerous player-of-the-year awards and Olympic gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
But the 6-foot-4 (193 centimeter) center’s future on the court was uncertain: She joined the Women’s National Basketball Association in its inaugural 1997 season, at a moment when some questioned whether a professional women’s league could survive for the long term.
The U.S. Olympic team was “a little bit of a test balloon (for the) market for women’s professional basketball,” Lobo, now a 47-year-old Basketball Hall of Famer and ESPN basketball analyst, told Reuters.
Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans. It provides designated time to recognize African Americans’ central role in U.S. history.
Also known as African American History Month, the event grew out of “Negro History Week,” the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson, also known as the Father of Black History, and other prominent African Americans.
Since Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month in 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. Other countries around the world, including Canada and the United Kingdom, also devote a month to celebrating Black history. Former President Ford encouraged the public to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”