The year is 1997, and on a cloudy June evening, New York Liberty and Los Angeles Sparks are anxiously preparing to tip off inside the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, California, in the first ever game of the WNBA.
“We were nervous as hell,” says Teresa “T-Spoon” Weatherspoon, New York Liberty’s Director of Player Development and one of the players on the court that night.
Teresa’s reminiscing about that first game all those years ago at the same time as helping me work on my jump shot, despite carrying a knee injury. “Keep that elbow in. That’s it… You got it!” she says with a big grin, so encouraging that I start to think I could make it as a basketball player. “Did you win?” I ask. She flashes me another smile. “We went in that building and got ‘em.”