“I didn’t even know which way to enter Madison Square Garden”

2023-06-24 20:53:43

Barcelona On Friday it was 25 years since the first Catalan basketball player made her debut in the WNBA. After missing the first six games with the New York Liberty, who placed her on the disabled list, Betty Cebrián’s debut came on June 23, 1998, when her franchise beat the Cleveland Rockers 59- 57. The Catalan played five minutes and committed two personal fouls.

“Sometimes, that happens. When you don’t expect things, that’s when they happen.” Betty Cebrián went to the WNBA at a time when female basketball players did not even dream of this possibility. The competition, which sought to replicate the NBA, had been launched a year earlier in the United States. The phone rang and Reusenca couldn’t even imagine the reason for the call. “I received an offer that I did not expect. I was playing in the University, but I had decided to put the brakes on my life a little. He only played the League and did not compete in the Euroleague because he wanted to start studying. After many years away, he had returned home and was looking for some peace. Interestingly, that season I put up the best numbers of my career. I could tell that she was playing very freely and things went very well for me”, she says.

“The call was to tell me that the New York Liberty wanted me to go to theirs training camp. I said that I couldn’t go there because I had to compete in the World Cup with the Spanish national team in Berlin, but that I could join later, when the championship had already ended”, he remembers. The franchise accepted Cebrián’s terms. “I joined the team the day before the season started, and we also had to go on a trip to the West Coast. They gave me a bag with clothes, I did a workout and got on the plane, but I didn’t even know what to do. I remember studying the systems during the flight. I barely knew a couple of players from the team”, he confesses.

“That season was shock therapy, but I started as the twelfth player and little by little I improved my situation. The coach, Nancy Darsch, had a lot of faith in the European players. He made my role very clear to me. When we played against very high pivots I had important minutes. When we competed against more physical and athletic players, my role was reduced. The roles were very clear. Mine was more defensive”, analyzes Cebrian, who shared a dressing room with Sophia Witherspoon, Vickie Johnson, Rebecca Lobo, Kym Hampton, Teresa Weatherspoon and Kisha Ford.

“We used to play at Madison Square Garden. The first day I had to go to the pavilion I didn’t even know which way to enter. I walked and followed a friend entering the garage. There are many lifts and I even had a hard time finding the dressing room”, he says.

A strategic signing

Cebrián, who now works for the International Federation (FIBA), is clear that his signing was strategic. “Over the years I realized that my signing had been to cover the Hispanic market, which is very important in New York. They were clear that the twelfth player would not be key to winning titles and they bet on me to open up a new fan market. She was the player who had the most promotional activities scheduled. My signing was a mix between marketing and sport”, he sums up.

The Catalan has a privileged view of the growth that women’s sport is experiencing. “The elite athlete goes from being on everyone’s lips when a championship is being decided to the anonymity of the next day, where nobody seems to remember you. Currently, there is a very strong social movement regarding gender equality. There are many countries that are starting to claim more equality and this has started a new context and represents a historic opportunity. Federations, leagues and clubs have started to make women’s sport a key priority and have changed their communication to give it more visibility”, she celebrates.