Back to the Future: Detroit finally gets its WNBA presence returned
Before women's hoops became buzzy, Detroit had a successful, three-time champion WNBA team. Until it was derailed by family/weath dynamics in 2009. Now, 17 years later, things are made right.
As a native Detroiter, this is one of my favorite tells on people claiming to be deep in Motor City sports lore. Name off the championships won by major Detroit pro franchises over the past 40 years: Tigers (1), Pistons (3), Red Wings (4), and the Lions…well, they’re getting closer.
Smug smile, denoting final answer.
Ah. I would smile at the Final Jeopardy participant and kindly tell them they are off by 3.
??
Remember the Detroit Shock? 2003, 2006, 2008 WNBA champions? Like we had parades and stuff?
Oh. Yeah. Forgot about them.
The erasure of the Shock from the Detroit sports scene was unnecessary, and yet it happened. Good news is the WNBA has awarded a franchise back to Detroit, to a blended ownership group run by Tom Gores (maj owner of the Pistons), and the team will start play in 2029. A new practice facility is promised for the team, no more share-share with the Pistons in the in past. They will play at Little Caesar’s Arena, the downtown Detroit home of the Pistons and Red Wings.
(I don’t know if they will be called the Shock for the 2.0 franchise run, but for discussion sake and because I like the name…we’re going with Shock for this.)
I smiled with a degree of happiness about yesterday’s news, because I had a front row seat to the Shock’s first era here as a Detroit News sports journalist who was part of covering the Pistons. I would jump on Shock stuff here and there, their playoff runs, and when their players got selected for USA Basketball Olympic teams. As one of the only women around the Pistons, it was kind of fun at times to feel a lot of female sportsy energy at work. Like a good reset from being in very tall boyland 24/7.
The Shock was one in the first wave of expansion teams in the W, debuting in 1998. A perspective of W history is worth review. Women’s hoops blew up during the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, thanks to to Team USA’s gold medal run. The WNBA wasn’t the first women’s pro hoops team in the country, as the WBA blipped on the radar in the mid-1980s, and the ABL launched in 1996 (and folded in 1999, crushed by the WNBA’s strength.)
The WNBA came online in 1997, with eight teams - and most importantly, supported fully as a business arm of the NBA. Stars such as Rebecca Lobo, Sheryl Swoopes, and Lisa Leslie were on the marquee. Swoopes was a sensation, the first female basketball player to have her own signature shoe. (If you have a pair of Air Swoopes I, there is gold sitting in your sneakerhead collection.)
Detroit is a basketball town. Obviously, the Pistons have the captive audience. Michigan and Michigan State hoops are a big thing. University of Detroit Mercy and the Pistons were Dick Vitale’s last coaching stops before he turned to the TV side. Girls and women’s hoops are big in the state. There’s money here with corporations such as the Big Three, Little Caesar’s and other big global corporations.
Having love and support for women’s pro ball is not a stretch for the D. Things took off for the Shock when former Pistons Bill Laimbeer and Rick Mahorn became its coaches in 2002. For those outside of Detroit, adding two of the OG Bad Boys, players so hated in Chicago and Boston that it was real real, to coach WOMEN, seemed like the worst gimmick ever. Except it was the secret sauce. Mahorn is a sweetheart, a good guy with the ability to teach and mentor. Laimbeer was still in his tsundere era, but knew how to motivate with his intensity. The female players, who had their own swag, were not afraid to give shit back to either of them, and they bonded and forged winners. The Shock played Detroit ball, nasty guards, good D, rebounding, and some three-point shooters.
The Shock winning its first title in 2003 brough just as much joy for the fans as the Pistons taking the NBA title in 2004. Of course, the crowds, media coverage, and visibility was much different. Hundreds of media focused on the NBA Finals. The Shock-Sparks tilt had 1/3 the media, and it showed in terms of coverage.
As the decade proceeded, the Shock won two more titles, with players such as Deanna Nolan, Katie Smith, Ruth Riley, Cheryl Ford and Swin Cash. It was good basketball. But ultimately, the performance on the floor didn’t matter. Detroit was sliding into a financial mess, along with the global crash of 2008. Pistons/Shock owner Bill Davidson died in March 2008, and his second wife made it clear all assets were on the table. The Shock franchise was sold by the fall, and moved to Tulsa. The Pistons were sold in 2011, with the team leaving the arena in 2017…and the Palace of Auburn Hills arena complex was demolished by 2020.
The official reason why the Shock got dumped? Allegedly the falling population of Detroit and financial pressures. Sure. Sounds like the dog ate my homework excuse. The pressures of maintaining a WNBA franchise at that time, when the ownership group was sitting on billions, were probably petty cash.
Will was weak. Erasure was full.
I was asked by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to be part of a Task Force to examine issues and opportunities for the state’s women and girls in sports. For three years, we asked a lot of questions and listened to all spectrums of sports and women across the state. One of the major recommendations in our 2022 final report was to pursue the return of a WNBA franchise to the state. Women’s sports are not the “let’s do the right thing, but lose money for the cause” jam anymore. Detroit, which has come back nicely from the dead, thank you very much, would be a great place for a WNBA team to succeed.
The WNBA is making money, signing bigger deals for players and teams, and viewership is strong. I see the shift in society right in front of me. I have college students (male and female) who are really into women’s hoops for the last 6-7 years now. Well before the arrival of Caitlin Clark. They watch the sport, consume content, and support teams/players. They love basketball - played by men and women. They’re not stuck in stereotypes and sexism to the same degree as Boomers, and some GenXers.
I can quickly tell who chooses to live in the past. Yesterday, I retweeted a video from Whitmer, talking about how happy she is the WNBA is back in Detroit soon. My comments and DM’s? “Women’s basketball sucks”, “I won’t watch it”, or my personal fave “They’re all gay/trans/too masculine and I don’t want to be exposed to that”.
Oh, my sweet, sensitive boys with big feelings. If you are a basketball purist, I hope your outrage extends to regular season NBA games, which can be sheer trash. This year’s epic NBA finals between OKC-Indy cleansed the timeline. You choosing not watching the WNBA is fine, as people nicely are picking up your slack.
And regarding the subtext of homophobia…some breaking news. There are gay players in the NBA, NHL, MLB and NFL. I have seen them and they exist - but maybe they chose not to say anything because you’re not ready. They’re all playing sportsball, right in front of your salad! If some of the out women in the WNBA trigger your brain, just move on. This isn’t for you.
But oh, to have the freedom of a not-pro athlete male to espouse idiocy about things that are not dependant on your brilliance! (Slow golf clap. CLAP.)
The space that is being expanded for women’s professional sports is expanding, and those who recognize the opportunities are investing. It’s simple. Money follows money. The Detroit, Philly and Cleveland franchises are coming at $250 million expansion price tags. The values of the existing franchises are booming.
So this is the right time, and the right place, to reboot the Shock. 2029 can’t come fast enough.