Acceptance washed over Jenny Boucek as she collected her belongings and walked toward the gymnasium exit.
The year was 1997, and she was one of hundreds who came out to a court in Cleveland for tryouts to fill two roster spots and two openings for practice players on a team months away from debuting in the inaugural season of the WNBA. Days of cuts slashed the participants from roughly 300 to 150 to 75 before just 10 players remained. Boucek’s number survived each round like a marble making its way through a labyrinth.
When the last round of cuts came, and Boucek’s number wasn’t called, she was thankful that, at the very least, she took a shot at the WNBA.
But just as she was about to leave, a voice forced her life into a direction she, until that moment, had never believed was obtainable.
“Boucek, where are you going?”
In an instant, that question — catching the error resulting in her number mistakenly being omitted from the four who were to become future Rockers — erased her alternative plan of going to medical school. Nearly 30 years later, with news that the Rockers could be the first defunct WNBA team revived, Boucek reflected on her long career in the WNBA and NBA that began with a tryout.
The women who arrived to that inaugural tryout included those fresh out of college and others who were further removed. A shot at playing in the WNBA ignited a response from a backlog of women of all ages, backgrounds and athletic experience who dreamed of playing professional basketball in the U.S. In that gym and others across the country holding tryouts for seven more WNBA franchises, there was a shared sentiment — finally.
“Being part of that inaugural season was extremely powerful,” said Boucek, an assistant coach with the Pacers. “To look up in the stands and see grown women in tears and realize, wow, this means something. This represents a lot to a lot of people. A lot of nos that a lot of people before me had been told because of their gender, and this was a big yes.”
According to Sports Business Journal, the Rockers — expected to begin play in 2028 — will be the WNBA’s 16th franchise with a record bid valued at $250 million. The WNBA hasn’t confirmed anything, opting to acknowledge the “formal bids from many interested ownership groups in various markets” they are evaluating.
The Rockers were one of the WNBA’s original eight franchises, which included the Charlotte Sting, Houston Comets, Sacramento Monarchs, Utah Starzz — now the Aces — the Sparks, Mercury and Liberty. Only the latter four remain.
In 2003, the Rockers abruptly folded after seven seasons.
Coach Dan Hughes, who was in a contract year, was previously told he had nothing to worry about. “As long as there is a team in Cleveland, you’ll be the coach,” were the words relayed to him. A week after losing to the Detroit Shock —another franchise with potential for revival — 2-1 in the first round of the playoffs, Hughes was notified of ownership’s decision to close up shop.
“It broke my heart,” Hughes said. “We had invested in some really great young players. We had a good young base from which to grow.”
Hughes went on to coach in the WNBA for nearly two more decades, winning two WNBA titles with the Storm. He is the only coach in WNBA history to lead four franchises to the playoffs and advance past the first round. Despite his success, the Rockers folding is a memory that still hits him in the gut.
Some might say that his knack for drafting international talent began with Penny Taylor, an Australian star and future Hall of Famer who one day would help lead another original franchise to three WNBA titles.
Taylor was drafted to the Rockers by Hughes in 2001, although the experience was far from the glamorized affair the WNBA Draft has grown into in the last few years. Taylor didn’t know much about the WNBA — the games weren’t broadcast in Australia — but in five short years, the league had earned a global reputation as the best women’s pro league.
Taylor compiled some of her best games playing professionally in Australia onto VHS tapes and mailed them to the league’s then-16 teams. Fellow Australian star Lauren Jackson was selected first overall by the Storm, and Tamika Catchings was drafted third by the Fever. In the middle of the night, while away at an Opals camp, Taylor got a call notifying her she had been drafted 11th overall by the Rockers.
“I had no idea where Cleveland was,” Taylor said.
Taylor’s unfamiliarity with U.S. geography didn’t worry her. She was just appreciative to have an opportunity to play for a coach with vision like Hughes. His practices were demanding, often including two three-hour sessions a day. Fundamentals and defense were Hughes’ highest forms of currency. There were no outside practice players, which forced teammates into daily competitions. It was the foundation on which she would build a championship pedigree.
When the Rockers folded, Taylor and all of her teammates already had left Cleveland. Most went overseas to begin playing in international leagues, including Taylor who was on a flight to Italy the same night the Rockers’ season ended. Shock was the emotion felt when she learned a week later that the Rockers would cease to exist, mainly because their fan base had been so strong.
Taylor and all her teammates were made available to other WNBA franchises via a dispersal draft.
The Mercury used the first overall pick in the 2004 dispersal draft to select Taylor. She went on to play 10 seasons in Phoenix, averaging 13.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 3.3 assists for the Mercury. She was a two-time All-Star and was named to two All-WNBA teams.
One of the most significant challenges for former players of the Rockers has been navigating a sense of erasure. When the team folded in 2003, it was difficult not to fear their work being forgotten. In the years since, they’ve stayed in touch to varying degrees, ensuring their foundational impact on the WNBA would be celebrated.
Each player from the Rockers’ seven seasons has a unique story without which the WNBA would not be what it is today.
Like Boucek, Rushia Brown was a player whose dream became a reality after a tryout. After going undrafted, Brown opted to attend tryouts within driving distance from Atlanta where she was living. The first she attended was for the Sting. She made it to the final six before being cut. The following weekend, she drove from Atlanta to Cleveland. She was initially selected to be a practice player and played six seasons with the Rockers.
Isabelle Fijalkowski, a French star who began her pro career at 16, was the Rockers’ first-ever draft pick, selected with the second overall pick in the WNBA’s inaugural draft. Like Taylor, she was overseas when she learned she had been drafted.
Sparks general manager Raegan Pebley played just one season with the Rockers in 1998, but it gave way to a lifelong career furthering the WNBA.
Last year, during the Final Four in Cleveland, Brown helped organize a Rockers reunion. The team’s first-ever coach, Linda Hill-MacDonald, was in attendance along with Hughes and a number of former players. As the group regaled each other with talk of the franchise’s origins, rumors of its return hung in the air.
WNBA expansion is a beautiful thing to the players whose careers sometimes feel like apparitions because of how unexposed they were. Still, there’s something singular about an original franchise returning.
It’s not just an opportunity for a new roster of players. It’s a chance to resurrect a fan base that has laid dormant but not dead and to validate further the careers of athletes who laid the foundation today’s stars stand on.
“If it does happen — it’s all rumor-based right now — but if it does happen, there is a sense of affirmation for the players who played for the Rockers,” Pebley said.