Professional basketball is back in San Francisco for the first time in 48 years.
The Warriors opened the 2019-20 season with the unveiling of Chase Center, and NBA commissioner Adam Silver gave the arena rave reviews Thursday night. He also hinted at a desire for more basketball.
Could the WNBA come to the Bay Area?
"A lot people don't know, Joe Lacob was an owner in the old ABL, a women's league, which was an initial competitor to the WNBA," Silver told NBC Sports Bay Area's Kerith Burke on "SportsNet Central: Warriors Edition." "It's something we've talked to he and Rick Welts about a lot, and we'd love to see a WNBA team in this great city."
Lacob, the Warriors' owner, was a primary investor in the ABL before the league eventually folded. If anybody can bring the WNBA to the Bay, he seems like the perfect person to do so.
The Bay Area also is rich in women's basketball talent.
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The Stanford women's basketball team is one of the best in the country every year, and their coach, Tara VanDerveer has 1,000-plus career wins between stops with the Cardinal and at Idaho and Ohio State. Stanford has produced two No. 1 WNBA draft picks in the past eight years in sisters Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike.
Cal women's basketball has a storied program, too. Coach Lindsay Gottlieb, who won 179 games over eight seasons, was named a Cleveland Cavaliers assistant before this season.
While the Warriors are back in San Francisco, a WNBA team might be on the way down the road. Stay tuned.
