The American Basketball League, often abbreviated to the ABL of 1996 was a professional women's

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

league in the United States. At the same time the ABL was being formed, the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA) was creating the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Natio ...

(WNBA). The ABL began league competition in the Fall of 1996, while the WNBA launched its first game in June 1997. Both organizations came into existence during a surge in popularity for women's basketball in the United States that followed the perfect 35–0 national championship season for the

Connecticut Huskies The UConn Huskies (or Connecticut Huskies) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Connecticut, located in Storrs. The school is a member of the NCAA's Division I and the Big East Conference. The university's fo ...

in 1995 and the undefeated, gold medal-winning performance of the United States Women's basketball team at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

. The ABL lasted two full seasons: 1996–97 and 1997–98. The

Atlanta Glory The Atlanta Glory was a women's professional basketball team in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a member of the American Basketball League. The Glory played its home games in Forbes Arena. The team folded before the start of the abortive third ABL se ...

and

Long Beach Stingrays The Long Beach Stingrays was a women's professional basketball team. It existed for only the 1997–98 season, and was a member of the American Basketball League (ABL). The Stingrays played most of their home games at the Walter Pyramid on the ...

folded prior to the start of the 1998–99 season, and were replaced by two expansion teams, the Chicago Condors and

Nashville Noise The Nashville Noise was a short-lived member of the American Basketball League (ABL). The site was a sound one, capitalizing on the long-time success and well established fan support of the University of Tennessee's women's basketball program, a ...

. On December 22, 1998, with almost no warning, the ABL declared

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...

and suspended operations. Each team had played between 12 and 15 games of the 1998–99 season. The ABL got off the ground before the WNBA, and at least early on its quality of play was higher than the rival league. This was partly due to the league's signing of a majority of players from the 1996 USA women's national team. Although the WNBA was bankrolled by the NBA, the ABL offered higher salaries. The two leagues did not compete directly; the ABL played during the winter while the WNBA played during the summer. However, this arrangement put the ABL in competition with the established men's NBA for an audience. Ultimately, the ABL found the WNBA's stronger financial resources—augmented by the NBA's marketing machine—to be too much to overcome. The league operated as a single-entity structure, which was intended to control costs until it found its feet. However, it also meant that even the most basic decisions related to team operations had to go through the league office in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

. League officials were so fixated on national sponsorships that they hamstrung the teams' efforts to market themselves locally. The ABL was also underfinanced. Allison Hodges, general manager of the short-lived Condors, later told ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' that she was led to believe league officials rejected her marketing ideas because they clashed with its national focus, only to find out that the league did not have enough money to finance them. Hodges also believed the league had already planned to shut down before announcing the Chapter 11 filing. Of all the ABL cities,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, and

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

now have WNBA teams.

1996–98 clubs

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:500px height:auto barincrement:25 Period = from:1996 till:1999 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:20 left:60 bottom:20 top:0 Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData = width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:Glory color:coral from:1996 till:1998 text:

bar:Quest color:coral from:1996 till:end text:

Columbus Quest The Columbus Quest was a professional women's basketball franchise located in Columbus, Ohio in the now-defunct American Basketball League (ABL). They were one of the league's original eight teams that started play in 1996. In the league's b ...

bar:Blizzard color:coral from:1996 till:end text:

New England Blizzard The New England Blizzard was a women's professional basketball franchise based in Hartford, Connecticut. The Blizzard was a charter member of the American Basketball League (1996–98), American Basketball League (ABL). Playing from 1996 through 1 ...

bar:Rage color:magenta from:1996 till:1997 text:Richmond Rage bar:Rage color:coral from:1997 till:end text:

Philadelphia Rage The Philadelphia Rage, were one of the eight original franchises of the American Basketball League (ABL), a women's professional basketball league. The franchise existed for just two-and-a-half seasons—1996-97 in Richmond, Virginia, 1997–98 ...

bar:Condors color:coral from:1998 till:1999 text: Chicago Condors bar:Noise color:coral from:1998 till:end text:

bar:Xplosion color:skyblue from:1996 till:end text:

Colorado Xplosion The Colorado Xplosion was the first women's professional basketball franchise in Colorado, an American Basketball League (ABL) team based in Denver. Playing from 1996 through 1998, the team produced many memorable moments for Colorado sports fan ...

bar:Power color:skyblue from:1996 till:end text: Portland Power bar:Lasers color:skyblue from:1996 till:end text:

San Jose Lasers The San Jose Lasers were a women's professional basketball team in San Jose, California. It was a member of the American Basketball League. Their home games were primarily held at the San Jose State Event Center with an occasional game being p ...

bar:Reign color:skyblue from:1996 till:end text: Seattle Reign bar:Stingrays color:skyblue from:1997 till:1998 text:

ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:1996

Seasons

1996–97

The 1996–97 ABL All-Star Game was played on December 15, 1996, at the

Hartford Civic Center Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

. The Western Conference defeated the Eastern Conference, 81–65, and the game's MVP was

Tari Phillips Tari L. Phillips (born March 6, 1969) is an American professional women's basketball player. She currently plays with Acer ERG Priolo, an Italian A1 team based in Priolo Gargallo, Sicily. Her cousin Tayyiba Haneef-Park plays for USA Volleyball ...

1997–98

The 1997–98 ABL All-Star Game was played on January 18, 1998, at

Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex The ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex is a multi-purpose sports complex located in the Walt Disney World Resort, in Bay Lake, Florida, United States, near Orlando. The complex includes nine venues and hosts numerous professional and amateur s ...

Lake Buena Vista, Florida Lake Buena Vista () is a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. It is mostly known for being the mailing address for Walt Disney World—although almost all of the resort facilities, including all four theme parks, are physically located i ...

. The Eastern Conference defeated the Western Conference, 102–73.

1998–99

The 1998–99 ABL All-Star Game was scheduled to be played on January 24, 1999, in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

, but was canceled when the league ceased operations in December 1998.

Notable players

Jennifer Azzi Jennifer Lynn Azzi (born August 31, 1968) is a former basketball coach, most recently the head coach of the women's team at the University of San Francisco. Azzi is also a former collegiate and professional basketball player, as well as an Olympic ...

* Debbie Black * Cindy Brown * Edna Campbell * Sylvia Crawley *

Teresa Edwards Teresa Edwards (born July 19, 1964) is an American former women's basketball player and four time Olympic gold medalist. In 2000, ''Sports Illustrated'' magazine placed her as 22nd of the "100 Greatest Female Athletes of the 20th Century". She ...

Tonya Edwards Tonya LaRay Edwards (born March 13, 1968) is an American retired professional basketball player born in Flint, Michigan, currently an assistant coach of the Chicago Sky in the WNBA. She was previously head coach of the Alcorn State Lady Braves ...

, now head coach at

Alcorn State University Alcorn State University (Alcorn State, ASU or Alcorn) is a public historically black land-grant university adjacent to Lorman, Mississippi. It was founded in 1871 and was the first black land grant college established in the United States. O ...

Shalonda Enis Shalonda Enis (born December 3, 1974) is a former professional basketball player who played for the Washington Mystics and Charlotte Sting of the WNBA. Biography Enis started playing basketball at age 12 at her middle school in Celeste, Texas. ...

* Jackie Joyner-Kersee, the Olympic-champion long jumper and heptathlete * Molly Goodenbour * Yolanda Griffith * Sonja Henning *

Kedra Holland-Corn Kedra Holland-Corn (born November 5, 1974) is an American professional women's basketball player with the Detroit Shock of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). After attending the University of Georgia, she played for the Sacramento ...

* Shannon Johnson *

Carolyn Jones-Young Carolyn Jones-Young (born Carolyn Jones; July 29, 1969) is an American former professional women's basketball player. A 5'9" guard, she played for the New England Blizzard of the American Basketball League (1996–1998), and also played for the P ...

* Venus Lacy *

Andrea Lloyd-Curry Andrea Lane Lloyd (born September 2, 1965) is an American former professional basketball player, a 2007 inductee into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, and previous television analyst for the Minnesota Lynx. Currently she is working as a te ...

Stacey Lovelace Stacey Lovelace (born December 5, 1974) is an American professional basketball player who played in the WNBA. Lovelace attended college at Purdue University and graduated in 1996. On May 2, 2000, she was assigned with the Indiana Fever later in ...

Michelle M. Marciniak Michelle M. Marciniak (born October 29, 1973) is a former All-American collegiate and professional basketball player who played point guard in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). As a floor general, Marciniak competed for two nati ...

Nikki McCray Nikki Kesangane McCray-Penson (born December 17, 1971) is the former head coach of the Mississippi State Bulldogs women's basketball team and a former professional women's basketball player. She played in the Women's National Basketball Associat ...

* Carla McGhee *

Chasity Melvin Chasity Melvin (born May 3, 1976) is a retired American professional basketball player, originally from Roseboro, North Carolina. A 6'3" (1.90 m) forward, Melvin entered the WNBA in 1999, and played for the Cleveland Rockers, the Washington My ...

* Delisha Milton *

Taj McWilliams-Franklin Taj McWilliams-Franklin (born October 20, 1970) is a former American professional women's basketball player. A two-time WNBA champion with the Detroit Shock and Minnesota Lynx and six-time all-star, McWilliams-Franklin's professional career has ...

Kate Paye Katherine Anne Paye (born March 6, 1974) is a former collegiate and professional basketball player. She is currently the women's basketball associate head coach at Stanford University. Early life and college career Paye was born at the medical c ...

, now an assistant coach at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

* Elaine Powell *

Katrina Price Katrina Price (December 3, 1975 – January 18, 1999) was an American basketball player. A star guard in her college career at Stephen F. Austin State University, Price committed suicide after her rookie season in professional basketball. High s ...

* Jennifer Rizzotti, now the President of the Connecticut Sun *

Crystal Robinson Crystal LaTresa Robinson (born January 22, 1974) is an American basketball coach and former player, who is currently an assistant coach for the Phoenix Mercury. She grew up in Atoka, Oklahoma, and first garnered national recognition during her col ...

* Saudia Roundtree * Sheri Sam * Katie Smith, now an assistant coach for the

Minnesota Lynx The Minnesota Lynx are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team won the WNBA title in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017. Founded pr ...

* Charlotte Smith, now the head coach at Elon University *

Dawn Staley Dawn Michelle Staley (born May 4, 1970) is an American basketball Hall of Fame player and coach, who is currently the head coach for the South Carolina Gamecocks. Staley won three Olympic gold medals with Team USA as a player and later was head co ...

, now the head coach at the University of South Carolina * Katy Steding *

Kate Starbird Catherine Evelyn Starbird (born July 30, 1975) is an American computer scientist and former professional basketball player. Playing at the guard position, Starbird earned All-American honors as a high school athlete at Lakes High School in Lake ...

* Sonja Tate *

Val Whiting Valeria Olivia Whiting (born April 9, 1972) (also known as Val Whiting-Raymond) is a former collegiate and professional basketball player. She played center for the Stanford Cardinal women's basketball during her four years of pre-med study at St ...

Natalie Williams Natalie Jean Williams (born November 30, 1970) is an American basketball executive and former player in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Williams was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016. She was also an acc ...

* Kara Wolters

References

External links

John Sage's ABL webpage capture, containing old interviews, articles, and final statistics

Professional basketball research
{{DEFAULTSORT:American Basketball League (1996-1998) Defunct women's basketball leagues in the United States Defunct professional sports leagues in the United States Articles which contain graphical timelines 1996 establishments in the United States 1998 disestablishments in the United States Sports leagues established in 1996 Sports leagues disestablished in 1998