A lifelong WNBA fan on why this moment feels different — and why it has always mattered
I have been a basketball fan since the third grade. Not as a passing interest. The kind of fan where the game lives in your bones and never really leaves. So, when I say that what is happening in the WNBA right now makes me genuinely happy, I want you to understand that this is not a casual observation. This is thirty-plus years of caring deeply about the game and finally getting to watch the rest of the world catch up.
The Moment That Stopped Me
This past weekend, I was seated beside a man on a plane whose grandkids call him Pops. He lives out in the Las Vegas area and makes a point to catch games when he can. We talked the whole flight about a sport that has been woven into my life for over three decades, two strangers seated side by side, bonded immediately by something we both love.
That is what the WNBA does. It connects people. It always has. We are just finally in a moment where more people are showing up to feel it.
The WNBA’s Growing Popularity Has Deep Roots
Every new WNBA commercial puts me right back. I can feel myself in that old Sheryl Swoopes USA jersey, watching the Houston Comets and believing with everything I had. Cynthia Cooper. Tina Thompson. Jennifer Azzi. Lisa Leslie. Teresa Weatherspoon. Rebecca Lobo. Ticha Penicheiro. The talent was always there. It was always extraordinary. The world just was not paying the kind of attention it deserved.
That is the part I need people to understand. This is not a league that suddenly got good. This league has always been good. We are just finally watching it with the volume turned up.
The Details That Tell You Everything
The championship rings for the Las Vegas Aces stopped me in my tracks. They were designed with women in mind. Not as an afterthought. Not scaled down from a men’s version. Designed for the women who earned them. That kind of thoughtfulness is starting to feel like the standard rather than the exception, and I am here for every bit of it.
The new CBA. The sold-out arenas. The record viewership. The young talent coming in alongside the veterans who held this league together through years of being underestimated. The league has done a real job of honoring the women who built the foundation so that those playing today could be taken care of the way they should be. That matters deeply to me.
My Favorite Part
I love walking into an arena and seeing those seats filled. I love watching young girls in the stands with their eyes wide open. I love seeing fans who do not even follow a specific team, just the league, because the whole thing is worth showing up for.
But my absolute favorite thing? The young boys. The middle-aged men. Wearing WNBA jerseys and cheering without any hesitation. That image tells me we are getting somewhere real.
Why This Connects to Breaking the Huddle
Everything I do with Breaking the Huddle Education comes from the same place this love for the WNBA comes from. I want little girls to know they belong in sports before anyone ever has the chance to make them wonder. My books put a girl quarterback named Kaycee front and center. Wild curly hair, big glasses, two homes, one big dream. The next book in the Breaking the Huddle series will be a basketball story rooted in 1993 and the WNBA’s launch in 1997, because those years changed everything for girls like me.
The WNBA tells girls they can make it. Breaking the Huddle tells girls they already belong.
Those two things together? That is the whole game.
— Kim Chaffin, Founder, Breaking the Huddle Education LLC
