‘I really feel like I’ve been smiling all day’: First WNBA All-Star Game was awash in pomp and circumstance

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New York Liberty heart Kym Hampton remembers feeling exhausted earlier than even stepping on the basketball courtroom.

On a New York City summer time morning in 1999, Hampton and her WNBA friends have been readying for tipoff of the league’s inaugural All-Star Game in entrance of a sold-out crowd of 18,649 followers at Madison Square Garden.

What got here earlier than have been door-to-door press obligations — from picture shoots to picture alternatives, autograph signings, interviews, and appearances — all to showcase the pomp and circumstance of the massive day. It’s a media junket that has since change into commonplace within the WNBA, however for the primary All-Stars, it was a tad draining.

The Los Angeles Sparks’ Lisa Leslie (from left), Houston Comets’ Sheryl Swoopes and Sacramento Monarchs’ Yolanda Griffith performed for the Western Conference squad through the inaugural WNBA All-Star Game in 1999.Nathaniel S. Butler / NBAE by way of Getty Images

“I just remember saying, ‘Oh my God, I feel like I’ve been on my feet all day,’” mentioned Hampton, a starter within the 1999 All-Star Game. “When we got to the arena and after everything was over, we were tired, like, really tired. I feel like I’ve been smiling all day. We were proud, but we were tired.”

As the WNBA celebrates its thirtieth stretch and prepares for the 2026 All-Star Game (8:30 p.m. ET Saturday, ABC), gamers from the league’s first midseason contest look again fondly on the recreation that set the bar for as we speak’s All-Stars.

“It was absolutely an amazing moment,” former Liberty guard Teresa Weatherspoon mentioned. “To feel the arena, the way the New Yorkers and [fans] from all over the world came to watch us play … it was a lot of fun just to be a part of that very first one.”

Though the league launched in 1997, its first All-Star Game arrived two years later — although that wasn’t significantly prime of thoughts for its gamers.

“We were still trying to digest the fact that there was a WNBA in America,” Hampton mentioned.

As the 1999 All-Stars lined up on reverse ends of the courtroom to face for the nationwide anthem, heads whipped in shock as they acknowledged who had joined them on the ground: multiplatinum-selling recording artist Whitney Houston.

“We didn’t know Whitney was singing the anthem,” Hampton mentioned. “We were surprised, too.”

Houston was in New York City for back-to-back reveals at Madison Square Garden, touring her acclaimed 1998 album “My Love is Your Love.”

“To feel the arena, the way the New Yorkers and [fans] from all over the world came to watch us play … it was a lot of fun,” mentioned Teresa Weatherspoon (heart), who performed within the recreation as a member of the New York Liberty. Keith Torrie / NY Daily News Archive by way of Getty Images

Eight years after her famed Super Bowl XXV rendition of the nationwide anthem in 1991, Houston carried out at MSG surrounded by a gaggle of kids carrying shirts from the eight franchises that comprised the WNBA on the time.

As she exited, Houston thanked the viewers earlier than elevating the roof and leaping up and down on the brand at midcourt. Her look on the inaugural All-Star Game was a serious cultural milestone for the league.

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“To know that she was there celebrating with us — that’s phenomenal. You can’t ask for anything other than that to know what eyes are really upon what you do,” Weatherspoon mentioned. “To have people like Whitney Houston and many others who came to sit and watch us play, especially in the Garden … that’s special.”

Spike Lee, Queen Latifah, Tyra Banks and Liza Minnelli have been among the many celebrities watching from the sidelines. Also in attendance have been girls’s soccer stars Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain, who had led the U.S. girls’s nationwide squad to a dramatic FIFA Women’s World Cup victory simply 4 days earlier. Robin Roberts referred to as the recreation alongside legendary Tennessee Lady Vols basketball leader Pat Summitt.

Above: Singer Joan Jett (left) and mannequin Tyra Banks (proper) have been among the many celebrities on the recreation. Below: Film director Spike Lee and his household additionally have been in attendance.Kathy Willens / Associated Press

Keith Torrie / NY Daily News Archive by way of Getty Images

For Hampton and a few of the different Liberty gamers, although, the response to Houston’s presence was extra muted. That’s as a result of members of the squad have been buddies with longtime Houston confidante Robyn Crawford.

“My team, we felt somewhat close to [Houston] because Robyn is a friend of ours. Robyn played basketball,” Hampton mentioned. “We would hang out with Robyn. We went to Whitney’s birthday party one year as well. So we kind of felt a little bit close to [Houston] and not so much in awe. … We kind of felt like she’s our friend.”

In all, 9 future Hall of Famers performed within the inaugural recreation, together with Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper and Chamique Holdsclaw. Sandy Brondello, the present head leader of the Toronto Tempo, made her sole All-Star look as a athlete representing the Detroit Shock.

Players wore their particular person squad jerseys through the recreation, which the WNBA in the end moved away from in 2006.

“I wish they’d bring that back.” Hampton mentioned.

Though Leslie was named the first-ever WNBA All-Star MVP, Utah Starzz heart Natalie Williams recorded a game-high 14 factors and eight rebounds. (Swoopes additionally had eight rebounds.)

“What was crazy is everyone was like, ‘You should have been MVP.’ But, you know, I understand that there were things that, with it being the first one, I’m sure they wanted to highlight their main people,” mentioned Williams, who was an All-Star in her first stretch within the WNBA after being named MVP of the American Basketball League in 1998. “I was just proud that I had a great game.”

The Washington Mystics’ Nikki McCray (from left), University of Tennessee head leader Pat Summitt and the Sacramento Monarchs’ Ruthie Bolton-Holifield take within the crowd at Madison Square Garden.Manny Millan / Sports Illustrated by way of Getty Images

Williams and Leslie have been each a part of a Western Conference squad that routed its Eastern Conference opponents 79-61.

“It was a little tough. It was kind of like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re getting waxed,’” mentioned Hampton, an Eastern Conference athlete. “We were a little disappointed in ourselves on how we were playing.”

Almost 30 years after the inaugural contest, Hampton and Williams have hazy reminiscences of the particular recreation. There are two elements of it, nonetheless, that also stand out.

“The lack of chemistry,” Hampton mentioned. “When you play an All-Star Game, you know, it can definitely be sloppy. I think that’s why the league has probably changed … how they choose to play it.”

Williams’ lasting reminiscence is of the bodily nature of the recreation. The contest was no celebratory scrimmage.

“How All-Star Games have gone recently, they’re not as physical. I just remember [1999] being a real game — it was very physical,” mentioned Williams, who tried a game-high 10 free throws. “No one really wanted anybody else to do scoring or trick shots. It was a battle. I was getting fouled a lot.”

The 1999 All-Star Game was a serious success for the WNBA, which on the time was nonetheless aspiring to ascertain a basis inside the American skilled sports activities panorama.

Now it’s the longest-running girls’s skilled squad sports activities league within the U.S., and its pioneers stay happy with what they helped construct.

“When we first started this thing, you know, critics … would say [the WNBA] was not going to last. ‘It’s just fresh, it’s new, so of course people are going to come,’” Weatherspoon mentioned. “But we’re in 30 years now.”

Sean Hurd is a senior author for Andscape who primarily covers girls’s basketball. His athletic peak got here on the age of 10 when he was named camper of the week at a Josh Childress basketball camp.