WNBA All-Stars Ready to Show Their Stuff

P H O E N I X, July 17 -- The WNBA is keeping American players home, andcreating interest around the world.

The league’s All-Star game at America West Arena tonightwill feature the WNBA’s best players and be broadcast to 154countries in 23 languages.

“We consider ourselves the premier women’s sports league in the world,” WNBA president Val Ackerman said. “Our players are truly the best in the world, and in women’s team sports no other league has what we have — the quality of athletes, games live inprime-time and the support of global sponsors.”

TV, Fans Helped WNBA Grow

The overwhelming success the league has experienced in its fouryears has given women the opportunity to play professionalbasketball in the United States, rather than having to go overseas.

“I’m just happy to continue playing with a team in theStates,” said Minnesota’s Katie Smith, a first-time WNBA All-Star. Smith was a two-time All-Star in the now-defunct AmericanBasketball League.

“I hope we can really promote this and keep this thing going,because it would be great for myself to finish my career at home,”she said.

Smith, the league’s second-leading scorer, said she couldn’thelp but notice the difference in the two leagues.

“There wasn’t as much ink,” she said. “The fans, the promotions, the TV and all this are just so much better in theWNBA.”

Foreign Players Also Joining League

So is the quality of play in a league which has no domesticcompetition and is steadily adding top foreign women, who make up25 percent of the league’s 220-plus active players.

“The league now isn’t even recognizable to me from a basketball standpoint from where we started,” said Seth Sulka, vice president of the host Phoenix Mercury.

Three networks televise WNBA games, and the audience for thisprime-time game on ESPN is up from the 125 countries — in 20languages — that watched the inaugural All-Star game last year inNew York.