Seattle Reign (basketball)
 |
|
| Founded | 1996 |
|---|---|
| League | American Basketball League |
| Team history | 1996–1998 |
| Based in | Seattle |
| Arena | Seattle Center: Mercer Arena & KeyArena (on occasion) |
| Colors | Maroon, Gold |
| Head coach | Tammy Holder |
| Manager | Karen Bryant |
| Championships | 0 |
| Mascot | "Triumph", a Russian eagle |
The Seattle Reign was the first women's professional basketball franchise in Seattle, Washington, USA. The Reign was a charter member of the American Basketball League (ABL). The team played from 1996 through 1998. The team's name was a punning reference to the city's reputation for precipitation and its location in King County, with an accidental-on-purpose allusion to "The Reign Man" Shawn Kemp, then the city's biggest basketball star.
The Reign played most of its home games in the Mercer Arena, part of Seattle Center, but occasionally the team played at the larger KeyArena, home of the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics. The Arena was an old-fashioned, intimate setting for a basketball game, but its seating capacity of about 5,000 limited the team's upside attendance potential.
In the team's inaugural season, the Reign drafted 1996 Olympic team veteran Venus Lacy to play center, but Lacy was generally outshone by the team's other two "big women", Cindy Brown and Tari Phillips. (This was the case even before February 4, 1997, when Lacy was lost for the season due to a severe car injury.) The starting point guard for most games was Christy Hedgpeth, and Kate Paye was the shooting guard. Another player of note was Angela Aycock.
In the team's second season, with some fanfare, the team drafted Stanford small forward Kate Starbird, who had been a local prep star at Tacoma's Lakes High School. An even bigger impact player proved to be the University of Alabama's Shalonda Enis, who was named the ABL's Rookie of the Year for the 1997–98 season.
...
Wikipedia