Rough Notes: Women’s Basketball Is Cool Because For So Long It Wasn’t
Including a sneak preview of the new Rough Notes season!
Women’s basketball isn’t just cool right now. It is Angel Reese’s “Juicy Couture” 23rd birthday party in Chicago with entry between $60-$3,000 (and yes my friend and I nabbed two general admission tickets so stay tuned) kind of cool. It’s watch parties at downtown nightclubs with DJ’s intended for “25-35+” sapphic queers at “IRL” events sorta extremely cool.
Even the Big Ass Watch Party I threw with friends from Babe’s Sports Bar last month had over 120 people at a concert venue watching March Madness on the big screen (by the way, if you haven’t already, check out these pictures from the event & scroll to the end for a tidbit about results from the March Madness Fandom Poll that I accidentally never announced.)
And there is so much that I love about the reality of so many more folks joining the women’s basketball world. So many new fans who have discovered the WNBA at the intersection of sports and culture, and bring with them the spirit of both imagination and disruption (and special interests in things like attachment theory and Kehlani and the Bechdel Test, if you know what I mean.) In any case, it’s a joy to be here with you all.
But there’s also a narrative I despise that sometimes comes along with the WNBA & women’s basketball’s popularity today: the idea that before this, “no one” watched it at all.
That’s so far from the truth. In fact, rather than a barren landscape without members, women’s basketball communities of yore were actually incredibly active.
As I wrote about last summer, people scrambled for years to find a ways to follow the sport. They scrambled to get even a single game on TV and convinced people to drive long distances across the plains and highways to watch the NCAA in-person and they navigated nearly-broken sports websites for a scrap of information (probably spelled incorrectly) about their favorite players. They were gutsy and resilient. They included former hoopers and other athletes and big sports-loving families and neighborhood kids and a lot of queer women who weren’t ever publicly recognized for showing up in the first place. But they were there — and many are still here, too.
Longtime women’s basketball fans are the backbone upon which the dazzling allure of the WNBA today has been built. They prove that women’s basketball fandom has been earned, rather than given. And the fact that people, including many of us still here, gave a shit about women’s basketball when it was decidedly uncool, is a reminder that the worth of women’s basketball is ultimately unquantifiable. We wouldn’t be here without that.
And tapping into that history, and understanding better this heartbeat of women’s basketball, are exactly what the next season of Rough Notes & the 2025 WNBA season is all about.
I want to give you a sneak preview at Rough Notes this summer and fall, when my goal is to braid together two different stories…
First, The Women of the San Francisco Pioneers:
They played two short seasons between 1979-81 for the Bay Area’s first pro women’s basketball team, part of the nation’s first-ever professional women’s league, called the WBL (Women’s Basketball League). These women were under incredible pressure to make the WBL a success, competing in games across the country and navigating the complex currents of being pro women’s basketball players together. They were in their early 20’s, so hungry for the experience, and alongside one another they battled through tough 4-hour practices, won & lost games, faced constant criticism and realized the collective dream of playing pro basketball. As a team, the Pioneers loved the cha-cha slide and having BBQs and watching General Hospital; once, they even spent a few days at Mardi Gras together between road games. They were, briefly, a kind of sisterhood.
first pro women’s basketball team in the bay, baby! When the WBL folded suddenly in 1981, the Pioneers players scattered, some redefining their lives entirely, others finding ways to stay connected to basketball. They've never had the chance to come back together in the Bay. But now, as women in their 60’s and 70’s, they have a perspective on women’s basketball unlike anyone else. And I really want you to know more about them.
I’ll share stories from the Women of the Pioneers through multiple installments in a series that you should basically think of (because why literally not) as the San Francisco Pioneers, A Team of Their Own*! Doing a series is new and kind of vulnerable and an honor to bring these women’s stories alive in Rough Notes.
*also a marketing device I think should be applied to as many forgotten and overlooked basketball teams throughout the history of our game as possible.)
Second, classic WNBA Rough Notes from both the Golden State Valkyries and the Chicago Sky:
These are the two teams against the two sides of my heart, and the two places I’ve been living. I’ll be in the Bay Area for most of May and June, and then back in Chicago in July & August :) That’s as far as I’ve gotten (just to keep you guessing.)
I’ll tackle some of the hottest questions of the 2025 WNBA season: Will the Chicago Sky ever rebuild? Where the hell is Chennedy Carter? How can the Valkyries keep their Oakland fanbase while playing in the dystopia of SF? And where will gay people watch the WNBA in public in 2025?
And I’ll be deep diving into the here & now in all complex glory, its tunnel fitted sold out arenas, the beefy new security guards and the still mostly joyful fans, the drama of the secondary ticket market and arguably the main character of the 2025 season: the players’ union’s collective bargaining agreement, which is due by 2026 and very likely about to be the biggest stud/dyke/chick in town.
Of course the only way any of this reporting & and writing is possible is because of your support, so if you like reading Rough Notes, then I’m passionate about signing you up for the paid subscription:
And to all you folks already upgraded: thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Also, real live Rough Notes T-Shirts are coming soon that you can buy to support the new season!
P.S. March Madness Fandom Poll Results:
And the winner was…
