Friday, August 7, 2026

Before the WNBA became a phenomenon, Billie Jean King asked NBA commissioner David Stern for one promise

Billie Jean King in conversation with New York Liberty CEO Keia Clarke and Fortune's Emma Hinchliffe.

Courtesy New York Liberty

There’s nothing like being with Billie Jean King at a New York Liberty game. Already a legend wherever she goes, inside of Barclays Center, King is surrounded by thousands of fans who truly appreciate her legacy. The tennis icon was the first woman to fight for and earn equal pay in sports; without her, there would be no WNBA as we know it today nor would there be a robust women’s sports ecosystem.

I was lucky enough to interview King alongside the New York Liberty’s CEO, Keia Clarke, at a special event with Barclays before the team’s game against the Seattle Storm this week. Walking into the arena after, we saw 16,000 fans packing the stands. King watched courtside alongside Liberty owner Clara Wu Tsai and Anna Wintour (a longtime tennis fan, attending her first Liberty game). The cheers that erupted when King flashed on the screen were like no other.

While King’s sport was tennis, she is now an investor across women’s sports. And in our conversation on Wednesday, she drew the connections between her own sport and what we saw in Brooklyn.

It’s important for athletes, owners, execs, and everyone in the ecosystem to “worry about women’s sports, and not just our own sport,” she told me. Some athletes and execs can have tunnel vision about their own sport. But “we’re all in it together,” King argues.

Indeed, she may be to thank for the success of the WNBA today—beyond the impact of her dominance on the court and fight for equal pay. She recounted a story, remembering sitting next to longtime NBA commissioner David Stern at the U.S. Open shortly after the launch of the WNBA in the 1990s. “You have to promise me you will not let the WNBA fail,” she said to him. “He looked at me and said, ‘I promise,'” she remembers. “I always think about that when I watch a WNBA game.”

The NBA’s role in both keeping the WNBA afloat through seriously challenging years and in other ways limiting its growth is hotly debated. But Stern’s promise to King was on her mind at this game, where the impact of investing in the sport, its athletes, and its fans was so clear. And the Liberty won, 92-86!

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com

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