Last Updated: March 27, 2000
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Women in sports
Do you know who I am?
A professional athlete reflects on what the rise of
women’s sports has meant to her
By Cynthia Cooper
I am a professional basketball player in the United States. I have earned
two Most Valuable Player honors and three scoring titles. I have helped
lead my team to three world championships?
Do you know who I am?
I have played on two U.S. Olympic teams, winning both gold and bronze
medals. I have represented the United States in the Goodwill Games, the
World Championship and the Pan Am Games.
Do you know who I am?
I was a member of two NCAA Championship teams. I graduated from the
University of Southern California in 1986. I am a woman.
Do you know who I am?
I am Cynthia Cooper and I have been collecting basketball trophies for
more than 20 years. When asked what it’s like to be a superstar of the
Women’s National Basketball Association, I often have to stop for a moment
and remember where I am in my life.
Though I have been playing basketball for more than half my life, it
has not been until the past three years that people have begun to recognize
me.
Though I played in the 1988 and 1992 Olympics, it wasn’t until the success
of the 1996 U.S. Olympic Team in Atlanta that women’s basketball came upon
the national scene in the United States. The players and coverage of their
spirited journey helped launch women’s basketball into the spotlight of
American sports. There was a demand to know everything about these outstanding
female athletes and the public was impressed with what it saw.
The public began to learn, as did journalists from around the world,
that many of these women had been playing basketball for up to 10 years
overseas.
Having spent 11 years playing professionally in Italy, I was accustomed
to being a superstar overseas and not even being recognized at home.
Women as athletes have only just begun to make an impact on society.
For centuries, women have served in traditional roles of mother, wife,
sister or daughter.
While these are wonderful roles and labels that I am proud to embody,
there has been a progressive push to expand these roles to include women
as working professionals, including astronauts, politicians and athletes,
to name a few.
This progress has helped launch a whole new dimension to the female
persona.
In the afterglow of the 1996 U.S. Olympic Team success, two women’s
professional leagues were born. I couldn’t wait to sign up. The opportunity
to play at home and live closer to my family was an answer to my many prayers.
I had been away from my mother and other family members for more than a
decade and I was ready to come home.
When it came time to pick which league I wanted to be involved in, the
American Basketball League or the WNBA, there was no doubt in my mind which
would be more successful. The association between the WNBA and the NBA
was a powerful partnership that offered credibility to the start-up women’s
league.
Within the first three months of my contract with the WNBA, I knew I
had made the right decision. The coverage we received was a mix of criticism
and optimism, but at least we were being heard. I was just as excited to
see the skeptics as the fans because no longer could women’s basketball
be looked at with indifference.
The WNBA was guaranteed to make a big splash, but it would take competitive
play and some old-fashioned superstar power to make it a long-lasting entity.
Initially, the coverage was focused on the sheer novelty of the league
and its athletes. There had been women’s basketball leagues before us that
were not able to survive in the U.S., and people were curious.
During the league’s first year, all my interviews would start off with,
“So, tell us a little bit about yourself.” They were intrigued more by
what I did off the court than the style of my play. I was used to focusing
on my game and my abilities on the basketball court. This time, instead
of the world being interested in me as a female athlete, the world wanted
to know me as both an athlete and a woman.
Fans wanted to know all about the players and their stories of success
and achievement. I think that people were drawn to the league because we
were athletes who also happened to be real women with families, responsibilities
and emotions.
On the court we were fierce competitors but off the court we were dear
friends who had a history together of living overseas, struggling to fill
the distance between our families and ourselves. As the inaugural WNBA
season began, we opened our lives to the public through the media.
The league and its players go beyond the sports page. Our stories and
tributes to the world belong in every section of the newspaper.
I am a success story in more ways than one, and I am proud to be a role
model for young girls who dream of getting out of their neighborhood to
live their dreams. My talents on a basketball court have been my means
of earning a living, but my attitude and spirit have made me a successful
person. I am much more than just an athlete; I am a mentor and a friend.
In the league’s second year, people began putting labels on me. The
media began comparing everything about me to a male counterpart. I was
labeled the ‘’The Michael Jordan of women’s basketball” and the Comets
became the “Chicago Bulls of the WNBA.” I’m not complaining about being
compared to one of the greatest male basketball players ever, but I want
people to remember my athletic abilities under my name — not his.
By the league’s third year, I was a recognizable figure in Houston and
it actually became difficult to eat out at restaurants. The media had opened
a door to my life so that many people felt I was a close friend.
It is a blessing to have such a strong impact on people’s lives, but
it can also take its toll. When my mother died in February 1999 after a
two-year battle with breast cancer, I was amazed at the outpouring of affection
from fans around the country. Two weeks later, when my best friend and
teammate, Kim Perrot, was diagnosed with lung cancer, I prayed to God that
I would have the strength to continue in the public eye.
The public life I was leading and my role as a mentor became even more
of a challenge. The WNBA and its relationship with the media had worked
so hard to bring fans into our lives and to let them share our emotions.
But I didn’t think I could share such deep and tender losses.
Through it all, I began to see that these people, these fans, had been
changed by Kim’s life and, later, by her death. I could positively affect
their lives by remembering her spirit and her love of life.
Kim wrote a bi-monthly column for the Houston Chronicle that was targeted
toward teen-agers and talked about issues they face while growing up. Anyone
could write that article, but Kim was an adult who stood at five feet,
five inches and represented a fiery spirit that connected with young people.
Kim was able to touch lives through her writings, and I knew that I could
help people deal with pain and loss on their own by seeing my own strength
in spirit through the media.
I am not an expert on the media coverage of the WNBA, but I can offer
my own insight into what I have experienced as a player. The Chronicle
has proven to be a step ahead of its counterparts with its coverage of
our team.
Every day during the season, I wake up and grab the paper from outside
my door. I like to read what our beat writer, William H. Stickney Jr.,
has written about the team. I may not always agree, but I appreciate his
opinion and knowledge of our team and women’s basketball.
“Stick” spends time at our practices, travels with us and has really
developed important relationships with each of us. His relationship with
our team has enabled the Chronicle to print progressive and in-depth stories
about our players and coaches.
The WNBA came around at a time in my life when I felt I had a lot to
offer the world. I had been playing basketball overseas for almost 11 years
and I was raising my young son in Italy. I had grown up a lot in those
seasons overseas, away from my family and friends. I had to give up a lot
to fulfill my dreams of playing professional basketball.
There are many other outstanding female athletes and amazing women playing
professionally in the United States, each of whom has, like me, sacrificed
in order to get where they are today.
All of us women athletes recognize that life is just a game. And we
don’t intend to stand watching on the sidelines.
Cooper is a player for the Houston Comets WNBA team. She is scheduled
to speak before the ASNE convention in April.
