The WNBA was the cover story of Sunday's N.Y. TIMES
MAGAZINE, as three separate stories and a photo spread
detailed the league under the header, "A Sport You Can
Love." In the lead piece, TIMES sports reporter Kirk
Johnson wrote there "really is something different and
refreshing about the W.N.B.A. and its rival, the [ABL]. ...
Here there are no pampered, self-important superstars, no
snarling multimillionaires. They have their labor and
contract disputes, but to date these are low-key and mostly
out of sight." Johnson added that women's basketball, both
on and off the court, "is remarkably free of the glitz and
corporate packaging that increasingly alienate many fans
from men's pro sports. This may be just a happy stage for a
sport in its infancy. But it might just as easily mark the
beginning of a new era in professional sports." In one
sidebar, author John Edgar Wideman, father of Sparks G
Jamila Wideman, wrote, "What's exhilarating is that the
women of the W.N.B.A. are embracing responsibility." In
another sidebar, former TIMES sports editor Le Anne
Schreiber wrote, "The W.N.B.A. is enjoying a protracted
honeymoon period with its fans, who may in due time become
demanding aficionados. In fact, the league's future
probably depends on its fans' becoming more uniformly
knowledgeable and demanding" (N.Y. TIMES MAGAZINE, 8/16).
