Cleveland Rockers Retrospective

The year is 1996 and a meeting on April 24 of that year would mark a new era on the sports frontier. It was on that day that the Board of Governnors of the National Basketball Association voted to establish a brand new basketball league, The Women's National Basketball Association that would start play in 1997. It was settled on 8 teams in cities where an NBA team was already existant. The team nicknames would reflect the city or the nickname of the NBA franchise. These were Houston Comets (Rockets), Charlotte Sting (Hornets), Sacramento Monarchs (Kings), New York Liberty (Statue of Liberty), Utah Starzz (Jazz), Los Angeles Sparks (Lakers), Phoenix Mercury (Suns) and Cleveland Rockers (Cleveland being the birthplace of Rock and Roll).

June 21, 1997 saw the league begin play with the New York Liberty beating the L A Sparks by 10 points. Since then the league has expanded (and sometimes contracted) and now stands at 14 teams with the Toronto (Tempo) and Portland scheduled to begin play in the 2026 season. The league is again set to expand by 3 three teams by 2030, Cleveland (2028 - The original Rockers franchise folded after the 2003 season) Detroit (2029 - The Shock franchise moved to Tulsa in 2009) and Philadelphia (2030)

You will find here a retrospective of the history of one of those original teams from 1997, the Cleveland Rockers. I can't honestly say that I've attended any game or games of the Rockers although as a sports fan, I would dutifully look up the standings and box scores of the team on occasion. In compliling the data for this page a couple of players names seemed to strike a chord in the back of my mind, but not much more than that. So I can't say I am an expert on the distaff side of basketball as I might be in other sports, but I did learn a few thing while working on this page.

Having said that, I hope that you find this site useful if not informative and that it answers some or all of your questions.

Disclaimer-Coding, concept, design and other rights (as asserted) are © 2026 M. A. Sopko. WNBA, Women's National Basketball Association, various team names and other references are © WNBA and their reespective owners, entities, and successors and are used here under "fair use" provisions of copyright law and no infringement is implied or intended. I have no affliation with the WNBA, the original Cleveland Rockers franchise, the upcoming Cleveland WNBA team or any individual involved in either franchise.