Seattle Reign

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Seattle Reign

Founded	1996
League	American Basketball League
Team History	1996-1998
Stadium	Mercer Arena, Seattle Center
Based in	Seattle
Team Colors	Maroon, Gold
Head Coach	Tammy Holder
Manager	Karen Bryant
Championships	none
Mascot	"Triumph", a Russian eagle

The Seattle Reign was the first women's professional basketball franchise in Seattle, Washington. The Reign was a charter member of the American Basketball League (ABL). Playing from 1996 through 1998, the team produced many memorable moments for Seattle basketball fans and followers of women's sports in general. The team's name was a punning reference to the city's reputation for precipitation, with an accidental-on-purpose allusion to "The Reign Man" Shawn Kemp, then the city's biggest basketball star.

The Reign played most of its home games in the Mercer Arena, part of Seattle Center, but occasionally the team played at the larger Key Arena, home of the NBA's Seattle Supersonics. The Arena was an old-fashioned, intimate setting for a basketball game, but its seating capacity of about 5,000 limited the team's upside attendance potential.

In the team's inaugural season, the Reign drafted 1996 Olympic team veteran Venus Lacy to play center, but Lacy was generally outshone by the team's other two "big women", Cindy Brown and Tari Phillips. (This was the case even before February 4, 1997, when Lacy was lost for the season due to a severe car injury.) The starting point guard for most games was Christy Hedgpeth, and Kate Paye was the shooting guard.

In the team's second season, with some fanfare, the team drafted Stanford small forward Kate Starbird, who had been a local prep star at Tacoma's Lakes High School. An even bigger impact player proved to be the University of Alabama's Shalonda Enis, who was named the ABL's Rookie of the Year for the 1997-98 season.

From 1997 on, the ABL faced serious competition from the deeper-pocketed WNBA. Fifteen games into the Reign's third season, on December 22, 1998 the ABL suddenly reached a financial crisis and folded its operations. Ironically, the Reign was in the midst of its only winning season, and had only weeks before scored their most memorable victory, a double-overtime win before an enthusiastic crowd of 7,400 at the Key Arena, over the San Jose Lasers, led by Jennifer Azzi. ^[1]

Luckier than most localities that had an ABL team, Seattle was quickly awarded a WNBA franchise. The Seattle Storm debuted in 2000, and won the WNBA Championship in 2004.