Hoop Muses

This illustrated guide is an homage to WNBA and women's basketball, bringing style and flair to all the details, moments, and people who have shaped the collective world of women's hoops.

“In vibrant color and style, Hoops Muses tells the vital stories that celebrate the history and tradition of our game.” —Sue Bird, WNBA legend

Hoops Muses will take us through time—literally. We begin in the future, in 2072, on the night of the WNBA’s 75th Anniversary, as New York Liberty phenom Jacklyn Jones is paid a visit by one of basketball’s long-ago (wink, wink) greats. This unlikely duo then goes on a sweeping, roundtrip adventure through basketball history, starting at the very beginning: Springfield, 1891.

As the years pass, they learn the roots of the game (think: the first-ever collegiate game between Stanford and Cal, where men scaled the walls for a peek inside, or, the legend of Chicago’s Club Store Co-Eds, the all-Black barnstorming squad of the 1930s). And as the early 20th century morphs into modern times, they see the game grow, the milestones reached.

On their journey, they learn about the teams and the women (along with a few men) who helped build the foundation on which The Future will be built:

• Fort Shaw and the 1904 World Championship
• Pat Summitt and the early years of the Lady Vols
• Delta State, featuring Margaret Wade and Lusia Harris
• Cheryl Miller and Hollywood’s USC Trojans
• UConn-Tennessee and the “Sliding Doors” moment that sparked their rivalry

Plus, they have front-row seats to a whole lot of quirky, blissful fandom not often celebrated in popular culture. Hoops Muses is here to change that.