Rebecca Lobo on Playing in the First W Game & Iconic “We Got Next” Campaign | Thirty Years of the W

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I'm Josh Muccio, host of The Pitch, where startup founders raise millions and listeners can invest. For our sweet Season 16, we're giving you more of what you love and less of what you don't.

Software is out, actual cool stuff is in. We've got consumer brands, deep tech that changes the weather. Our big vision is to make it rain and snow on demand. We've got hardware that helps blind people see and dairy.

Sue Bird (1:01)

I never imagined my life journey would be milk.

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Season 16 of The Pitch is out now.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts. This season is presented by NGIN.

Rebecca Lobo (1:11)

The nice thing was we practiced at the Reebok Club on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and they gave us a subway card.

And this is actually when you use that subway card. But the best part was they gave us a subway card for the exact amount of trips that we would need to get to and from practice. And I can remember it was like our third year in New York, and they gave us an unlimited ride subway card, and we were all like, yes!

Sue Bird (1:44)

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Bird's Eye View. New background, new hair part. Who dis? I don't know about you, but I am already missing WNBA basketball. This season was just so incredible. I mean, we saw so much. We saw records get broken. History was made in so many different ways. On the court, business-wise, just it makes you feel super excited for what's to come.

This season was also special because it was the league's 30th anniversary. This was something that LaChina Robertson and I talked about on the pod a couple of weeks ago, but this 30th season felt also like a homecoming, right? Like we saw so many players coming back into the league, so many players celebrating the league, both former, current, you name it. Everybody, you know, in between. And of course, we're celebrating just how far the league has come. And what a welcome reminder on how legendary the WNBA is and the reach of the WNBA. In honor of the 30th season, Bird's Eye View is going to spend the next few weeks looking back on the league's history in a special series called 30 Years of the W. It's going to be five episodes for five eras. Each episode, a special guest will join me to talk about the big stories of that period, the dynasties, the rivalries, the impact players and games, as well as the little moments.

I wanted to do the era by uniform. I think I'm one of the few players that, maybe the only player, actually, yeah, definitely, the only player that wore all the silhouettes. I didn't wear the current Seattle Storm Rebel uniform for the last iteration of it, but the silhouette. I'm the only player to wear all the silhouettes.

What a ride.

So for this week's episode, I'm taking it all the way back to the beginning, to the birth of the WNBA, and joining me is one of the league's OGs, the one and only Rebecca Lobo. Before becoming the prominent ESPN basketball analyst that she is today, Rebecca made history as one of the very first players to sign to the WNBA. As the face of the league and centerpiece of the New York Liberty's very first roster, she helped build the foundation of the W. I'm really excited to talk to Rebecca about the league's early days, from playing in that inaugural WNBA game to the trends both on and off the court that define that era. But before we get to the interview, you know what time it is. It's time for Sue's View.

Okay, so I thought it was only fitting that for this week's Sue's View, I would just kind of, you know, contextualize like who I was, where I was, what I was doing, how old I was when the WNBA started. So the WNBA gets announced in 1996 The first season is played in 1997 So I am, because I have a late birthday, I am 16 years old in, yeah, in 1997 I'm 16 years old. I have just finished my junior year of high school. And it's funny because I actually remember going to the Nike All American Camp that summer and doing like an interview and being asked about the WNBA. And I remember saying like, you know, and this is very, very true. It's like, I didn't have a professional league to grow up watching, to dream about. I knew about the Olympics. And of course, in 1996, you know, we win gold in Atlanta. And of course, you know, that whole year, they trained and played games and were together leading in to that Olympics. And that really marks like a big moment for me watching that national team, seeing Gen A's. That was my see it be it. Again, this is like in 95, 96 at this point. So this is all happening, but to have the WNBA in a league start, it just gave all of us, I think, at that point, just a different goal, a different North Star, a different thing to try to achieve. And to take you back to that interview I'm referencing when I'm at the Nike All-American camp, I remember saying like, we're going to be, and I think we are, I think my class is one of, if not the first, one of the first classes to choose a college based on knowing there was now a professional league to play in. And, you know, you fast forward 30 years, I feel like that plays a big role at times in the school that kids choose.