WBL Basketball Pioneers: Ann Meyers Q&A
This week, WNBA.com checks in with Ann Meyers, who earned co-MVP honors for the WBL in 1979-80. Meyers was the first selection in the first WNBA draft, althought she did not enter the league until the following season. Meyers, who now serves as a broadcaster for WNBA games on ABC and ESPN, looks back on her WBL days.
Up next: Tonyus Chavers Previously: Michelle McKenzie | Mariah Burton Nelson | Molly Bolin
What was it like to be the top pick in the WBL draft?
Well I was at UCLA at the time, and I was the number one pick by the Houston Angels, for 78-79. '78 was the year we won the championship at UCLA. I was thrilled. I was honored and thrilled, but at that time you still had to be an amateur to play in the Olympics, and I was hoping the league would still be around and I really wanted to be in the Olympics again in '80. I was a starter on the team in '76 when we won a silver medal, the first year they had women's basketball in the Olympics. And I really wanted to repeat as an Olympian, and as honored as I was to be the number one pick in the WBL, I just wanted to represent my country again.
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I remember when I was 24, and I was the captain of our national team at that time. And we'd been to Russia and the Jones Cup in Taiwan and we won the World Championships in '79, which was huge. We'd beaten the Russians. Blaze [Carol Blazejowski] was on that team. I had carried the flag at the Pan Am Games, and I was the first woman to do that, selected by all the other U.S. teams at the Games, and that was quite an honor.
What happened after that?
I received a call from the owner of the Pacers at that time, Sam Nassi, who lived in Beverly Hills, and my name was pretty well out there, especially here in Southern California. It was the first year in the NBA for the three-point line. His idea was to sign me to a contract with the Pacers and in his mind help market the team. In my mind it was an opportunity of a lifetime, and so with what was happening in U.S. basketball, it really wasn't to my advantage to pass this up. I knew in the WBL, they weren't offering the kind of money as the NBA. What my contract ended up being was a one-year personal services contract for $50,000. I was signed as a free agent, I was not drafted in the NBA. So I had made this decision before Jimmy Carter boycotted the '80 Olympics and it had really tugged at my heart to pass the Olympics up at that time, but then Carter boycotted Olympics. And even then, to think of all those athletes who had trained so hard.
So when I didn't make it as a player with the Pacers, which I had every intention of doing, with my personal-services contract, I worked in broadcasting and that opened the door for me as far as broadcasting. I had taken some broadcasting classes at UCLA, so I wasn't walking into something unknown, but I knew it would open doors, and I was the first woman to broadcast NBA games.
But it was quite interesting the response from the WBL because I had chosen not to go into the league, and now all of a sudden, I'm going into the NBA. The WBL was not receiving a lot of attention at that time and this was a way for them now to receive some media attention, but in my mind it was negative against me. But I look back now and it was a positive for them.
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But here I am, I'm 24 years old and I'm in great shape and I want to play basketball and the only option open to me is the WBL. Houston had traded my rights to the New Jersey Gems. My brother, David Meyers, is in the NBA at this time with the Milwaukee Bucks. So in my humble opinion, I was excited about the WBL but I also saw things in the NBA that I felt that we should have in the WBL � such as having players who are from certain coasts play with those teams, the players the fans were familiar with. But yet the WBL was sending me to the East coast and I was a West coast player � which doesn't help marketing, not only for your team but for the league.
During the course of while I was with the Pacers, they released me from my contract after about two and a half months, so I only got about $8,500 of my contract. That's a far cry from what I thought I was going to make. I did a 7-Up commercial with Magic. I did a lot of speaking, so I was learning from the NBA on how to help promote. But I was excited to play again. I was thrilled.
Howie Landa was our coach. He was an assistant coach with Cheryl Miller with Phoenix in the WNBA. He'd been coach of the year at the community college level with Mercer County College in Trenton and they'd won national championships. We had Denise Burdick from Immaculata and Donna Geils who had played at Queens College.
Rita Easterling was the MVP of the WBL the first year. The second year I came in and I was MVP. I was in the top five or top 10 in all the statistical categories. I lived in the Howard Johnson's across from Newark Airport. I probably got there in November and played through the season, so I was there at least three months, which was a difficult adjustment for me, coming from a family of 11 children and being used to having people around all the time. I kind of felt isolated.
We played our games at a high school in Elizabethtown, which was a nice high school with great facilities, but I felt that marketing for that would be tough, but cost-wise it was great. Houston was playing at the Summit, New York was at Madison Square Garden. We didn't have huge crowds so the costs had to be astronomical. If we had played at a college, it might have given it a little more prestige for New Jersey.
What is one of your funniest memories or strangest obstacles you faced during your WBL playing days?
I'll never forget this: the owners talked to us and said we have a 7:30 game at New Orleans. We get in there at about 1 o'clock and they weren't getting us a hotel so you have to keep yourselves occupied until game time.
I said to the players, we need to get two rooms so we can at least lay down and there were 12 of us and the owners were a little upset at me but I said I'd pay for it so we can be rested for our game tonight. It was hard for a lot of the players because a lot of them didn't have the money. The majority were getting $12,000 to $15,000; some were getting $8,500. Players weren't making very much money, and here I am saying this and they didn't know what to do because they didn't want to upset the management.
But anyways, the owners got us two rooms which helped us tremendously. After the game, we didn't have time to shower because we had to catch a flight back to New Jersey, so we were all in our uniforms and sweats and winter coats because it's January and we have to get a police escort to get to the airport to get our flight back to New Jersey. There was always a cost factor � some players worked at secretarial jobs within the office.
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I am so proud of the WBL because without that league I don't think the WNBA would be where it is. I think the WBL was a huge part of establishing ways of doing things and not doing things� There was nothing better than playing on the floor. All our rules were exactly as the NBA. And I think the one thing us WBL players can be proud of is we introduced the small ball even though there was no way college and high school was going to change (NCAA and high school didn't change until 1985) and now it's a natural that the small ball is what girls play with. So the WBL should be very proud of the innovation and the WNBA has adopted that.
And it's also interesting to look back and a lot of college players and coaches were very critical of the WBL, saying "we could beat them" but if that league had been around for 15, 16 years, in my mind, I really believe in my heart that a high school kid could not compete on the women's side, unlike a LeBron James, Mose Malone or Darryl Dawkins, so I'm very proud of the WNBA and its existence and how the players have just matured and taken the game to another level.
Where do you think the WNBA will be at 25?
If we've got this league around at 10 years, talk about being proud. Give credit to upper management, but it shows you how long it takes, even WNBA people, to market the game. We had NBA rules, 48-minute games, our three point line and our lane were the same, but we've made the adjustments. We've seen how the coaches have had to develop, how the ticket prices have had to differentiate, we've had to understand TV, which a lot of other leagues didn't have, different uniforms� Coming into the eighth year for the WNBA, we're still learning. If you go back to when the NBA started, some of those ball clubs couldn't get 1,000 people. And look at what Washington's done; I go to Madison Square Garden and it's magic.
When the WNBA started, it took people who were involved with the women's game. Well today because the league is going on its eighth season, it's changed� Look at Brian Winters, Dee Brown, they're hiring guys who have an understanding of the game. I'd like to see more women, but you can't fault teams for going with guys who have knowledge of the game. But you also have Kelly Krauskopf and Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil, who understand what has to be done on the women's side. It might take another eight years to see the benefits.
I like the fact that we don't have the dunk. Maybe experiment with a nine-foot basket... One thing I really admire is that the WNBA has tried things. But they have to be cautious because of the criticism in the media. But when you have such good role models as with a Lisa Leslie, Sue Bird, Rebecca Lobo, Cynthia Cooper � people really relate to these players. Here I am in Huntington Beach and I've seen a young man on the street with a Teresa Weatherspoon jersey on, so the WNBA has made an impact on people.
And I'm looking forward to the future and this summer with the Olympics too, it's another chance for us to shine. It's going to be a lot more difficult with all the WNBA players on the other teams. It's a different game than back in 1980.