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 (appro ...

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 composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

(NBA) was creating the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a women's professional basketball league in the United States. The league comprises 13 teams (scheduled to expand to 15 in 2026). The WNBA is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. The WNBA w ...

(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 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 and Long Beach Stingrays folded prior to the start of the 1998–99 season, and were replaced by two expansion teams, the Chicago Condors and Nashville Noise. 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, w ...

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 ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

. The ABL was also under-financed. Of all the ABL cities,

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, and

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

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: Atlanta Glory bar:Quest color:coral from:1996 till:end text: Columbus Quest bar:Blizzard color:coral from:1996 till:end text: New England Blizzard bar:Rage color:magenta from:1996 till:1997 text:Richmond Rage bar:Rage color:coral from:1997 till:end text: Philadelphia Rage bar:Condors color:coral from:1998 till:1999 text: Chicago Condors bar:Noise color:coral from:1998 till:end text: Nashville Noise bar:Xplosion color:skyblue from:1996 till:end text: Colorado Xplosion bar:Power color:skyblue from:1996 till:end text: Portland Power bar:Lasers color:skyblue from:1996 till:end text: San Jose Lasers bar:Reign color:skyblue from:1996 till:end text: Seattle Reign bar:Stingrays color:skyblue from:1997 till:1998 text: Long Beach Stingrays 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. The Western Conference defeated the Eastern Conference, 81–65, and the game's MVP was Tari Phillips.

1997–98

The 1997–98 ABL All-Star Game was played on January 18, 1998, at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. 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 the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

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

Notable players

* Jennifer Azzi * Debbie Black * Cindy Brown * Edna Campbell * Sylvia Crawley * Teresa Edwards * Tonya Edwards, now head coach at Alcorn State University * Shalonda Enis * Jackie Joyner-Kersee, the Olympic-champion long jumper and heptathlete * Molly Goodenbour * Yolanda Griffith * Sonja Henning * Kedra Holland-Corn * Shannon Johnson * Carolyn Jones-Young * Venus Lacy * Andrea Lloyd-Curry * Stacey Lovelace * Michelle M. Marciniak * Nikki McCray * Carla McGhee * Chasity Melvin * Delisha Milton * Taj McWilliams-Franklin * Kate Paye, now head coach at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

* Tari Phillips * Elaine Powell * Katrina Price * Jennifer Rizzotti, now the President of the Connecticut Sun * Crystal Robinson * Saudia Roundtree * Sheri Sam * Katie Smith, now an assistant coach for the Minnesota Lynx * Charlotte Smith, now the head coach at

Elon University Elon University is a private university in Elon, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1889 as Elon College, the university is organized into six schools, most of which offer bachelor's degrees and several of which offer master's degrees or ...

* Dawn Staley, now the head coach at the

University of South Carolina The University of South Carolina (USC, SC, or Carolina) is a Public university, public research university in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. Founded in 1801 as South Carolina College, It is the flagship of the University of South Car ...

* Katy Steding * Kate Starbird * Sonja Tate * Val Whiting * Natalie Williams, now the general manager of the Las Vegas Aces * 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