The 1996 US women\u2019s Olympic team enter the Hall of Fame on Saturday after giving momentum to the WNBA and re-launching an era of American dominance<\/p>\n
For the US women\u2019s basketball team, the 1996 Olympics weren\u2019t just about winning gold in front of their home crowd.<\/p>\n
It was about the future of women\u2019s basketball in America. The US women were knocked out of the 1992 Olympics in the semi-finals by the Commonwealth of Independent States \u2013 a stunning and embarrassing defeat. Heading into the 1996 Games, which were held in Atlanta, turning around the program was a top priority not just for USA Basketball, but the NBA as well, which was looking to start a women\u2019s league that would become the WNBA.<\/p>\n
With the support of the NBA, USA Basketball selected a national team to travel around on a year-long international tour, led by Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer, who took a sabbatical from the Cardinal to coach the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur group was a really tight-knit group, really tight,\u201d Olympic guard Dawn Staley said Friday. \u201cWe had been through so much together that yes, we often talked about what it meant [to be competing for the US at the time]. We had the perfect, in retrospect, the perfect coach in Tara that allowed us to handle any type of pressure that we would face because of the pressure she put on us to perform at a high level daily. She didn\u2019t let her foot off the gas.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd because of that, we knew we could handle anything physically, because the physical part of what we were doing strengthened us mentally and it never really broke our spirit. So we felt like if this team was going to be the team that pushes women\u2019s basketball, professional women\u2019s basketball over the line, it was [the team] that we could handle the pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the time the Olympics came around, the gamble paid off: Staley, Lisa Leslie, Teresa Edwards, Carla McGhee, Ruthie Bolton, Nikki McCray, Sheryl Swoopes, Venus Lacey, Katy Steding, Jennifer Azzi, Rebecca Lobo and Katrina Felicia McClain had become unstoppable \u2013 and the excitement domestically was palpable.<\/p>\n
When the US team brought home gold, it helped boost the launch for not only the WNBA, but the league that directly preceded and briefly overlapped with it \u2013 the ABL \u2013 as well.<\/p>\n
The WNBA celebrated its 30th season this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was pressure enough to play in the Olympic games in our home country after losing in Barcelona,\u201d said Staley. \u201cAnd then you\u2019re adding another big ticket item of a women\u2019s professional league starting in the States. And we felt somewhat responsible for the league starting and growing. And I mean, here we are 30 years later. It\u2019s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
For USA Basketball, it also was the start of what has been a winning streak of eight gold medals.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, the 1996 US women\u2019s basketball team will be inducted in the Hall of Fame along with three players who followed in the league they helped create: Chamique Holdsclaw, the first overall WNBA draft pick in 1999; Candace Parker, drafted first overall in 2008 and Elena Delle Donne, the second overall pick in 2013.<\/p>\n
The inductee group also includes NBA coach Doc Rivers, NBA referee Joey Crawford, and retired NBA player A\u2019mare Stoudemire.<\/p>\n
More than 15 years before she was drafted, Parker remembered watching the Olympic team on her couch, idolizing the game of Leslie, Swoopes and Edwards.<\/p>\n
A limited run women\u2019s basketball newsletter dedicated to the league\u2019s historic 30th season.<\/p>\n