Dr. Luther Gulick played a role in creating the sport of basketball in 1891. Photo/Wikimedia
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n the fall of 1891, Dr. Luther Gulick, head of Springfield YMCA Physical Education allowed 14 days for his newest Physical Education teacher to create an indoor game to keep his track athletes in shape and provide an athletic distraction from the harsh winters that were customary in Massachusetts.
Within that 14 day period, the 30 year old PE teacher named James Naismith presented rules for Basket Ball. The first game consisting of nine versus nine male athletes throwing a soccer ball into separate peach baskets hanging from railings in a gymnasium took place on Dec. 21, 1891. Within two years, Basket Ball became basketball and Naismith’s creation spread internationally to all YMCA’s worldwide. In 1893 basketball became an official sport and it only grew from there.
Here are some of basketball’s firsts:
- Vanderbilt University was the first organized college team to play against one of Naismith’s YMCA’s in 1893
- The first college vs. college basketball game took place on Feb. 9 1895 between Minnesota A&M and Hamline University
- The first professional team was formed in Trenton New Jersey in 1896
- The U.S. Amateur Athletic Union was formed in 1897 and evolved into the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 1909
- The first professional league was formed in 1898 consisting of 6 teams known as the National Basketball League(Abandoned in 1904)
- The Eastern Basketball league was formed in 1909
- The Metropolitan Basketball league was founded in 1921
- The Commonwealth Five became the first all-black professional team in 1922; the first Amateur Independent African-American team known as the “Rens” followed them into the pro ranks in 1923
- The “Original Celtics” were formed in 1922 as an independent team
- The American Basketball League was formed in 1925 (Disbanded in 1955)
- The Basketball Association of America (BAA) was formed in 1946 and merged with the National Basketball League in 1949 to form the National Basketball Association as we know it today
Through all the growth and expansion in professional basketball, women have not played any major roles in what is now known as the NBA. The first professional women’s league wasn’t formed until 1978, although women have played basketball on a collegiate level ever since 1893.
The growth of the NBA has made basketball a global sport and has grown to be the most recognized sport in the world as well as the second most popular sport globally.
In all these years of men’s basketball, women have played minor roles. In the 68 years of the NBA, women have only been mere mentions and never headlines. From 1946 to 2013 the loudest bang heard from a woman in the NBA was probably Violet Palmer becoming the first female official in any sport worldwide to referee a regular season professional game in the season opener on October 31, 1997. Palmer has continued her career as a referee although she dealt with much scrutiny in her first years as an official.
From its inception until 2013, Women simply have never played a major role in the NBA throughout its illustrious reign. Then we turn the calendar to 2014. In the first 6 months of 2014, women have made more headlines in the NBA than they have in all years combined. This year has seen women make more contributions as well as changes to the sport than ever before. NBA basketball can be seen in 215 countries and its global brand is steadily growing, therefore this influx of women playing prominent roles in the other sports undoubtedly will continue to grow.
Here is a look at the women who have made major headlines in 2014 in the NBA.
- Violet Palmer: Aside from her breaking the gender barrier in 1997 as the first professional female official in any sport to referee a men’s game, Palmer also made history on February 16, 2014 as she became the first female to referee an All-Star Game in major United States sports. This writing is not intended to highlight any personal information related to ones sexuality or personal business, but Palmer also made headlines by expressing her sexual preference for females and her intention to wed her 20 year life partner in the near future. With basketball being such a widespread sport throughout the world with viewers from every corner of the earth having the ability to view NBA games, Palmer is a trailblazer and the first of qualified women that will eventually follow her. Other female referees have been hired and actually officiated NBADL, summer league, and on the collegiate level. With Palmer leading the way, there is sure to be other female officials that get the call to be in the pros and follow her excellent example of leadership and courage.
- Michele A. Roberts: In a sport that has never had an assistant coach, head coach, or even a woman in any capacity in the front office, 2014 saw a woman eclipse all of those positions in the NBA in one July voting session. Michele A. Roberts was voted executive director of the National Basketball Players Association in July 2014. The selection of Roberts to this position is historical on so many levels and it easily surpasses any other sporting accomplishment by a woman in the history of professional sports. The Civil rights act of 1964 was written and “Title IX” was amended to it in 1972 in order to allow women to have equal rights and inclusion into the professional sporting world as men have enjoyed for so long. As recently as 2006, Title IX was still being adjusted to allow greater flexibility for women to be included into single sex dominated sports. The first professional women’s league of basketball wasn’t created until 1978, and no woman held any position of authority in any major sport across the world prior to Roberts. Roberts represents the highest ranking for any woman in any professional league. She is the first African-American woman or woman of any race to hold authority over a men’s professional sport. Her position in the NBA is only surpassed in authority by the NBA commissioner Adam Silver and ranks her as the highest ranking official in any sport in the world held by a woman. Roberts broke ground for women everywhere in business as well as sports and her place in history is cemented by the fact that she will represent the voice of every male NBA player for the foreseeable future and have the ability to influence an all-male sport like no other woman before her. Roberts will forever be looked upon as a pioneer and a major player in female inclusion into male dominated areas throughout the sportsworld forever. The only thing that can surpass this accomplishment in sports is for a woman is to hold the position of commissioner and the only thing that can surpass that on any other level is if a woman were to be elected president. Roberts will have little time to sit back and enjoy her accomplishments, because her leadership and authority will be challenged as early as 2017 when the collective bargaining agreement in the NBA can be opened up for renegotiation. Her ability to help avoid a lock-out will be vital and her skills will be tested like never before when she is challenged by the commissioner and all 30 owners in the NBA as they will fight to fairly divide the revenue received by both parties. As an attorney, Roberts should be up for the challenge, but being the first ever woman to sit in and have authority in these proceedings will make her highly scrutinized and there will be plenty of onlookers to criticize her efforts. Regardless of the outcome, Roberts has her place in history and will forever be the pioneer for women in all professional sports.
- Shelly Sterling: The estranged wife of Billionaire Donald Sterling made headlines by taking over the Sterling family trust and orchestrating the highest sale price for any NBA team in history. Shelly sold the Los Angeles Clippers to Ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer after courts ruled that Mr. Sterling was incapable of handling the duties of the sale after the NBA banned him and forced his removal. The sale of the team was more than three times the highest amount an NBA team was ever sold for. Mrs. Sterling sold the team for 2 Billion dollars, which was only surpassed by the 2.1 Billion dollars received in the sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team which represents the highest amount ever received for a sports franchise. Shelly impacted the world of pro sports sales by setting a new ground floor for NBA teams as she raised the value of future franchise sales from millions to billions. The previous high selling price for an NBA franchise was the Milwaukee Bucks who were sold for 550 million. Shelly shattered that previous record just a few months later setting the bar for all future NBA franchise sales.
- V. Stiviano: The hero or the villain (you decide) responsible for the Donald Sterling racist rant recordings. V. Stiviano was at the center of the biggest story of the year in the United States in 2014. Most of the outrage that came from this scandal was based on the racist remarks made by Sterling, but the bigger picture shows that Stiviano started a domino effect that shook the NBA and the sportsworld unlike anything in the history of sports. In the simple recordings that Stiviano manipulated from Sterling, she single handedly caused a major shakeup in the sports world. Here are the effects of her recordings; Donald Sterling was removed as owner of the Clippers, banned for life from the NBA, forced to sell his team, banned from all NBA venues, and exposed as a racist. Shelly Sterling secured control of the Sterling trust, orchestrated the highest sale of an NBA franchise in history by far, and just to add a little more excitement to her summer, filed a lawsuit against Stiviano. The NBA found itself removing an owner for the first time in its history, received its largest sum of money for a franchise, dealt with players and owners who were outraged by the recordings, prepared to vote an owner out of his perch, received threats from players who planned to ban events if Sterling wasn’t removed, and received multiple threats and lawsuits that never materialized from Sterling. The NBA players and players union threatened to boycott games, were forced to utilize the help of Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson to organize proceedings to find a new leader for the players union as well as be the voice of the players while the playoffs were underway, elected a new executive director to make sure they were protected in case they received resistance from the Sterling camp in their attempt to remove him, and responded to the recordings by giving their total support to the players and staff of the Clippers. The commissioner Adam Silver was tasked with investigating the validity of the recordings, making a decision to execute the harshest penalty to the full extent of his authority on Sterling in lieu of his rants, and privately negotiated with players to prevent them from boycotting games as a result of Sterling’s comments. All from a recording! The biggest story of the year, the most talked about situation of the decade thus far, and so many subplots you can expect multiple books and movies from the backlash of this one simple recording. Stiviano made a name for herself as a key contributor to the demise of Donald Sterling and caused the largest domino effect in recorded history that ever came from a recording.
- Becky Hammon: On August 5, 2014, the San Antonio Spurs hired professional basketball player Becky Hammon as an assistant coach. Hammon is not the first female assistant coach, but what makes her hiring special is the fact that she will become the first full time female assistant coach in an all-male sport. Hammon will actually be present on the bench full time and participate in every facet of coaching and traveling with the team unlike her predecessor, which makes her the first full-time, salaried female coach in NBA history. Coach Gregg Popovich made the decision to hire Hammon after she spent the 2013 season attending practices and lending her opinion while she was rehabbing a season long injury. Coach Popovich was impressed and the two sides came to a historical agreement.
- Natalie Nakase: With the Clippers dominating the headlines this summer for all the wrong reasons, this major accomplishment for women might have gone unnoticed. Clipper President and Head Coach Doc Rivers approached his assistant video coordinator and asked her one simple question; “Hey, do you want to coach summer league?” The 34 year old coordinator with aspirations to be a head coach one day immediately accepted. Even though Nakese was coaching the summer league, it marked the first time in NBA history that a woman sat on the bench as an assistant coach on the NBA level. It remains to be seen if Coach Rivers will promote her to a full time assistant, but her accomplishment will go down as a historical first in the world of the NBA and in her own words, “This is the type of work I want to be doing, what I love doing.” Expect her to keep striving towards her goal all the while being the best assistant video coordinator she can be until she gets another opportunity to prove that she is ready to move up the coaching the ladder.
In a time where most news is bad news, it’s nice to see the underdogs get their due. In this case it’s the women who have created some headlines in a male dominated sport. These women are just examples of the accomplishments that raise moral and give hopes for those that aspire to do big things.
These women (All except Stiviano) exemplify what can be accomplished with true dedication and determination even if you don’t fit the gender requirements in order to achieve your aspirations. These women have all broke ground in a place that has never seemed welcoming to women. The NBA has always been a pioneering establishment, and with the inclusion and exclusion of these women making impacts going in both directions, the NBA continues to lend opportunities that no other sport before it.
With more opportunities arriving due to an influx of new capital from endorsements and expanded revenue from television rights, there are sure to be more available job opportunities in the NBA, and if the right woman is qualified, look for more women to play more prominent roles in the future of the NBA.
