New York ¨C By age 22, Rebecca Lobo had picked up a national college basketball championship, numerous player-of-the-year awards and Olympic gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
But the 6-foot-4 (193 centimeter) center¡¯s future on the court was uncertain: She joined the Women¡¯s National Basketball Association in its inaugural 1997 season, at a moment when some questioned whether a professional women¡¯s league could survive for the long term.
The U.S. Olympic team was ¡°a little bit of a test balloon (for the) market for women¡¯s professional basketball,¡± Lobo, now a 47-year-old Basketball Hall of Famer and ESPN basketball analyst, told Reuters.
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