ABL HOPES TOP WOMEN HOOPSTERS KNOW THE WAY TO SAN JOSE

     The American Basketball League, one of three new women's
leagues announced in the past year, held their inaugural draft
yesterday in San Jose, CA, yesterday.  San Jose GM Christine
Forter said they have already sold 500 season tickets, "and we
still don't have a nickname, logo, coach or schedule" (SAN JOSE
MERCURY NEWS, 6/20).  Sheryl Swoopes was the only member of the
U.S. Olympic team who declined to be drafted by the ABL, which is
scheduled to start in October (USA TODAY, 6/20).  In San
Francisco, C.W. Nevius writes the "gripe in San Jose was that the
NBA has been talking about starting a women's league of its own.
In fact, some think Swoopes is holding out in case the NBA needs
a star to get its women's league off the ground."  But the ABL
"expects to get all the major players" because the NBA's league
would played in the offseason, a "kind of summer replacement for
the men" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 6/20).