The WNBA’s latest initiative is meant to create new landmarks and turning points for the next generation of female shooters.
The WNBA hopes its latest 3-point barrage comes not from Sabrina Ionescu or Diana Taurasi but from its own fans—and the triple threats’ potential successors.
This week, the W unveiled its latest initiative beyond its 13 floors, giving rise to “Line ‘Em Up,” which takes the action from the hardwood to the concrete. Basketball courts in parks across the country will soon feature an orange 3-point line personally painted by the W. Those that bear the orange marking will also be receiving donations.
The line, branded in the W’s trademark orange, is meant to end an era where many concrete courts featured only 3-point markers from high school or NBA distances.
The initiative’s rollout is in full swing: the showcase will officially tip-off at an event at Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier on Thursday, June 12 (where two local New York City basketball associations will christen the new lines with a five-on-five showdown) while a short film promoting the cause. The four-minute feature pays tribute to the concrete courts of legend such as Rucker Park and Venice Beach and features appearances from shooters of W lore like Sue Bird, Tina Charles, Chamique Holdsclaw, and Epiphanny Prince.
Amidst the excitement, BIL spoke with WNBA chief marketing officer Phil Cook about the league’s new showcase …
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What inspired you and the league to attack an issue what like this and why was now the right time to strike?
PC: Issues like this are kind of woven into the DNA of the WNBA for the 29 years it has been around, there’s always been an impetus to find ways to grow the game, make the game better, inspire young girls to pick up a ball and play, and inspire the girls who are playing to play longer. That’s just part of who we are from the league, the teams, and the player level.
In this case, my hope, my intent was to find a legacy program that was simple and repeatable and that it would continue to inspire young athletes to get out there and get some shots up. The idea came to us last year, and there was no clock on it. It was when the right program comes along, that’ll be the time that we initiate it. Last summer, we started talking about this idea, and it came to life this spring. We’re launching this week, and we’re very excited about just the simplicity, and the repeatability, and the inspiration that this is going to provide for our athletes.
You mention these goals of sustainability, of leaving a lasting impact, leaving a legacy. How does something like this incorporate those goals, and what sort of results have you seen instantly so far?
PC: I think the fact that you were on a phone call talking about this makes it meaningful. It means that we’re on to something. This is a story that is interesting to be told, that we know we’re onto something. So that’s the immediate impact, it’s the interest that we’ve had beyond the four walls of the WNBA. When we’ve spoken with our team, with our athletes, with potential sponsors, they wanted to be a part of this, because it is people and it’s not anecdotal. It’s not one gun.
What does it mean to start the project in New York, where basketball of both the professional and amateur variety is woven into the entire identity of the city?
PC: What is the capital of street basketball in the world? That’s New York City, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. Someone wrote a song about that, right?
We recognize that the idea was going to be validated by the response that we got from the people who have been driving this community, this culture, this style of play. Knowing that they buy into this idea and recognize its value and jumped in immediately, it validates it for the rest of us. We know that, while we’re starting in New York, this isn’t going to be the only place we go. Obviously, this is, this is a national, potentially international, opportunity to represent young women all over who just want to get outside and get some shots up.
These lines are going to be orange, which, of course, is a major part of the WNBA’s identity and culture both on and floor. What does it mean to have this identity as part of a lasting off-floor legacy?
PC: It’s invaluable to be able to put your identity without having to do too much. We’re very fortunate that orange has become the color that is immediately connected to our game. I think the orange hoodie was illustrative of that and continues to be. It continues to represent us as more than just a basketball league, but everything that comes behind that basketball league, including empowerment in the ability just to be represented.
Everyone who recognizes the opportunity to connect with the W has that connection to an orange hoodie. Being able to simply put down the line, there is no room for interpretation. Whose line is that? This is the WNBA line. When you put an orange line down, and you know exactly what it represents, and I think that’s, again, built off of 29 years of history of having that orange color be a part of our identity, and then reflecting that in a community, in a public, in a democratic place like an outdoor basketball court is, is amazing.
In five-to-ten years, what do you want the major message and the major takeaway from this initiative to be?
PC: I want people to imagine why it took until 2025 for this initiative to take off. I expect every youth basketball court in five-to-ten years to have this orange line. I expect driveways from coast to coast, north to south, to have an orange chalk line on their driveway, the WNBA 3-point line. I just want this not to be an anomaly. I want this to be part of any court design. If you have a key, if you have a free throw line, they have a WNBA 3-point line as well. It should just be part of the dynamic and the design of any outdoor space as we move forward.
As women’s basketball becomes more of a national phenomenon, was there, perhaps for lack of a better term, any additional pressure on you and your team to get this right?
PC: No, I think it was an opportunity. A lot of ideas come our way, obviously, on across all different facets of building the game. I think we’ve been a part of clinics and initiatives that involve our athletes and our teams in the league itself, and we’ve always been involved in finding ways to grow the game. We know that this is part of our DNA. I think that this just became an opportunity for us, more people wanted to find ways to help us drive this initiative. When we briefed it out, it came back with this very simple but very, again repeatable, replicatable idea that is more meaningful than just, paint on a court. It means representation. So I think the simplicity of the initiative and the gesture, combined with what it represents, made at the right time to introduce.
How does this set the stage for what’s next in WNBA initiatives from both an on court and off court perspective?
PC: One of our jobs is to continue to find ways to inspire young girls to pick up a ball and young girls to keep playing. More athletes in the pipeline just means more basketball being played. More basketball being played means more talent coming into our league.
On the court, you’re going to see, this is going to reverberate. We’re going to see a presence of more athletes playing as we continue to expand and grow the league. Off the court, I think the outdoor basketball court means so much in the culture of the game. Now young women who show up at that court are going to feel like they belong, because they’re being seen and they’re being heard, and they have their line drawn.
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Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
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