Lasers forward Jamillah Lang hasn't had much playing time because of injuries, but she saw some action during a Nov. 10 game against the Colorado Explosion, taking shots and aiding in defense. Photograph by Robert Scheer.
By Cristy Shauck
First Richard Nixon signed Title IX into law, forcing schools to provide the same athletic opportunities for girls and young women as its male students. More than 20 years later, women's athletics has taken another leap forward with the establishment of the American Basketball League, a women's professional basketball league.
Billed as "one of the hottest new start-ups in Silicon Valley," the San Jose Lasers is California's first women's professional basketball team. The season began Oct. 18 and continues through playoffs in early March. There are eight teams in the nationwide league, which is split into East and West conferences.
Stanford women's basketball fans will recognize a few Lasers names: Sonja Henning, Anita Kaplan, Val Whiting and Jennifer Azzi, who also played on the U.S. Olympic basketball team.
Although their salaries of $40,000 to $120,000 aren't in the same league with men's professional basketball, they aren't terrible. Still, the high cost of living in Silicon Valley was a shock for players who came from out of the state. Add to that the current housing crisis, with its 1 percent occupancy rate, and the team found resettling in Silicon Valley a more difficult transition than they had hoped.
Lasers management tried to ease the transition by asking for community volunteers to board the young women until they could find appropriate housing.
Jim and Diane McClenathan of Los Gatos invited Jamillah Lang, Colorado University's fourth-ranked all-time leading scorer, to stay with them until she can find a place of her own.
For the Los Gatos family, including Cristen, 13, Scott, 11, and Katy, 10, having a pro basketball player as a house guest is a special treat. They enjoy shooting hoops at a local athletic club and receiving tips from the 6-foot-tall Laser forward.
Cristen has been learning ball handling and offense skills in addition to practicing shooting with Lang. Already 5-foot-9, Cristen may someday follow in Lang's footsteps. "She's kinda like a big sister," said the Fisher Middle School eighth-grader.
Katy feels the same way about Lang. "It makes me feel good to have someone from the pros staying with us," she said. "It's really special to me."
Cristen plays on her school's basketball team, and Katy plays for the National Junior Basketball League and the Ray Townsend League.
Parents Jim and Diane have enjoyed having Lang as a guest. "It's been terrific," Jim said. "It's an opportunity to get involved and get to know what's going on. She's really a nice young lady," he said of Lang, adding that she communicates well with children.
This comes as no surprise, given that last year Lang counseled troubled teens in Colorado.
Once her playing career ends, she wants to coach or return to counseling, eventually becoming a sports psychologist. "I'll probably start off at the college level, then work my way to the pro level," Lang said.
"College life is really difficult for athletes, especially if you are away from home. You've got to deal with cultural and team differences. It can be little things like in high school, you were a 90 percent free-throw shooter, and now you're only 60 percent. What happened?"
The family drove her through downtown Los Gatos on the day she arrived. Since the McClenathans often eat on the go, what with the children's afterschool sports schedules, Lang has tried some of the fast-food places in Los Gatos and especially enjoys the burritos at Andale.
Although the Lasers no longer endure 2 1/2-hour double practice sessions almost daily, Number 54 still follows a grueling schedule. Due to injuries and illness, Lang has some catching up to do before she will regain the endurance and stamina that made her a formidable foe as a college athlete.
In addition to attending practice, Lang lifts weights and rides a stationary bike for cardiovascular improvement. She wears a brace to protect a knee that has already been operated on four times. Lang says game injuries did not lead to surgery.
"I've been playing sports all my life," she explained. "The way I'm built, my kneecap's going deep into my tissue. Being pigeon-toed doesn't help."
Until she went to college, Lang was more comfortable with a tennis racket in her hand than a basketball: She played on the pro tennis circuit as a child and as a teenager. "It was my number one sport until my sophomore year in high school," Lang said.
Lang didn't even pick up her first basketball until she was a sophomore in high school. "It was difficult to play because I was tall but I didn't know how to field yet. But I learned quickly."
Although she and her family were already close, basketball has brought Lang's family even closer together. "They've always been there for the games," Lang said.
When she was growing up in Kansas City, Kan., Lang and her older sister helped out in the family's cheesecake business. Her parents moved to Colorado when she was in college, so they could watch her games. Her father has already made a trip to California to watch her first couple of Laser games.
Lang was the first female player to actually get a scholarship with a Division One school. She was a member of the North Squad, which won a silver medal at the U.S. Olympic Festival of 1990. During her senior year at Colorado, she averaged 19.2 points and 7 rebounds per game.
Unwilling to give up the sport after college, Lang played for the J.B. Knights in Stockholm during the 1994-95 season, averaging 35 points and 15 rebounds per game.
"European guards are pretty accurate shooters," Lang said. "But the post players [the centers] aren't that fundamentally sound. They don't have extreme post moves like we define here in the States. There they are used to shooting the ball. I think we are better in the posts over here."
Lang said she enjoys working with her teammates, including Anita Kaplan, who was a member of the Stanford team that defeated Colorado in the Sweet Sixteen Conference of 1994. "We have some diverse personalities--some really outgoing people and some laid-back personalities--and I think that's good. Too much of the same thing is not that much fun. We all know what it takes; we've all been there before. So, we all get along.
"We can move up and down the court pretty good," Lang added. "And Anita kills people up close."
Because the players haven't been together long, it may take time for the team to get their moves right. And, as Lang pointed out, "Everyone was a leader at their school, but here no one is a leader. I don't know if that's a weakness. We'll know more after we play together a while," she said.
The Lasers' head coach, Jan Lowry, described the team as "pretty balanced."
"We have some quickness at our parameter spots. We have some speed with our point guards and off guards. I think we are pretty solid inside. We are big and strong. With those qualities, we have a good shot at beating anybody," Lowry said.
She said Lang has missed a considerable part of the pre-season training because of injuries.
"She's having to fight coming back to get in shape as well as get involved in the things she's missed out on. She's got a tough road ahead of her for a few weeks. If she'll stick with it and continue to work hard as she has, then she will be able to pick it up fairly easily."
About the team, the coach added: "We're really excited about this opportunity; it's something women have been looking forward to for years. Now it's at hand, so we've got to make it happen, make sure we take care of every aspect of what we're doing. Not only do we have to put a good product on the floor, we've got to be good role models off the floor. And we've got to be in the community. It's exciting to have the opportunity to do all those things."
Fellow teammate Azzi recently presented an award to the only girl on a boys' basketball team at a San Francisco school. Azzi believes she and other female basketball players have "changed the minds of the American public as far as what they think of female athletes now; it's fun to be a part of that scene. People respect us now, and it's not just girls out there playing to have a good time."
Azzi also said she has trouble describing what it was like to participate in the Olympics. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It brought my family and people from all over the world together to celebrate sports; that was the most exciting thing for me. It represented so many of the good things in life for me. Just to come away with a gold medal--that was incredible. We had put in so much time and effort for that."
Since salaries in the women's league aren't going to make its players rich, they understand that there has to be life after the pros. Each has earned a college degree; Sonja Henning has degrees from Stanford and Duke Law School. Several players would like to coach or go into sports medicine, sports marketing or broadcasting when they retire.
In the meantime, for Lang, the search for housing continues.
"I'm so grateful the McClenathans are letting me stay with them. I love hanging out with them."
Does she have any regrets? Lang laughed and said, "Sometimes I wish I was at least an inch taller. Sometimes I wish I was shorter."
Lasers home games are played at San Jose State University's Event Center, Seventh and San Carlos streets. For more information, call 271-1500.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, November 20, 1996.
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