‘I feel like I’ve been smiling all day’: First WNBA All-Star Game was awash in pomp and circumstance
Memories of courtside celebrities, cheering fans, and a Whitney Houston cameo linger for the players who competed in the inaugural contest in 1999 at Madison Square Garden
New York Liberty center Kym Hampton remembers feeling exhausted before even stepping on the basketball court.
On a New York City summer morning in 1999, Hampton and her WNBA peers were readying for tipoff of the league’s inaugural All-Star Game in front of a sold-out crowd of 18,649 fans at Madison Square Garden.
What came before were door-to-door press obligations — from photo shoots to photo opportunities, autograph signings, interviews, and appearances — all to highlight the pomp and circumstance of the big day. It’s a media junket that has since become commonplace in the WNBA, but for the first All-Stars, it was a tad draining.
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“I just remember saying, ‘Oh my God, I feel like I’ve been on my feet all day,’” said Hampton, a starter in the 1999 All-Star Game. “When we got to the arena and after everything was over, we were tired, like, really tired. I feel like I’ve been smiling all day. We were proud, but we were tired.”
As the WNBA celebrates its 30th season and prepares for the 2026 All-Star Game (8:30 p.m. ET Saturday, ABC), players from the league’s first midseason contest look back fondly on the game that set the bar for today’s All-Stars.
“It was absolutely an amazing moment,” former Liberty guard Teresa Weatherspoon said. “To feel the arena, the way the New Yorkers and [fans] from all over the world came to watch us play … it was a lot of fun just to be a part of that very first one.”
Though the league launched in 1997, its first All-Star Game arrived two years later — though that wasn’t particularly top of mind for its players.
“We were still trying to digest the fact that there was a WNBA in America,” Hampton said.
As the 1999 All-Stars lined up on opposite ends of the court to stand for the national anthem, heads whipped in shock as they recognized who had joined them on the floor: multiplatinum-selling recording artist Whitney Houston.
“We didn’t know Whitney was singing the anthem,” Hampton said. “We were surprised, too.”
Houston was in New York City for back-to-back shows at Madison Square Garden, touring her acclaimed 1998 album “My Love is Your Love.”
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Eight years after her famed Super Bowl XXV rendition of the national anthem in 1991, Houston performed at MSG surrounded by a gaggle of children wearing shirts from the eight WNBA franchises in the league at the time.
As she exited, Houston thanked the audience before raising the roof and jumping onto the court’s center logo. Her appearance at the inaugural All-Star Game was a major cultural milestone for the league.
“To know that she was there celebrating with us — that’s phenomenal. You can’t ask for anything other than that to know what eyes are really upon what you do,” Weatherspoon said. “To have people like Whitney Houston and many others who came to sit and watch us play, especially in the Garden … that’s special.”
Spike Lee, Queen Latifah, Tyra Banks and Liza Minnelli were among the celebrities watching from the sidelines. Also in attendance were women’s soccer stars Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain, who had led the U.S. women’s national team to a dramatic FIFA Women’s World Cup victory just four days earlier. Robin Roberts called the game alongside legendary Tennessee Lady Vols basketball coach Pat Summitt.
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For Hampton and some of the other Liberty players, though, the reaction to Houston’s presence was more muted. That’s because members of the team were friends with longtime Houston confidante Robyn Crawford.
“My team, we felt somewhat close to [Houston] because Robyn is a friend of ours. Robyn played basketball,” Hampton said. “We would hang out with Robyn. We went to Whitney’s birthday party one year as well. So we kind of felt a little bit close to [Houston] and not so much in awe. … We kind of felt like she’s our friend.”
In all, nine future Hall of Famers played in the inaugural game, including Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper and Chamique Holdsclaw. Sandy Brondello, the current head coach of the Toronto Tempo, made her sole All-Star appearance as a player representing the Detroit Shock.
Players wore their individual team jerseys during the game, which the WNBA ultimately moved away from in 2006.
“I wish they’d bring that back.” Hampton said.
Though Leslie was named the first-ever WNBA All-Star MVP, Utah Starzz center Natalie Williams recorded a game-high 14 points and eight rebounds. (Swoopes also had eight rebounds.)
“What was crazy is everyone was like, ‘You should have been MVP.’ But, you know, I understand that there were things that, with it being the first one, I’m sure they wanted to highlight their main people,” said Williams, who was an All-Star in her first season in the WNBA after being named MVP of the American Basketball League (ABL) in 1998. “I was just proud that I had a great game.”
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Williams and Leslie were both part of a Western Conference team that routed their Eastern Conference opponents 79-61.
“It was a little tough. It was kind of like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re getting waxed,’” said Hampton, an Eastern Conference player. “We were a little disappointed in ourselves on how we were playing.”
Almost 30 years after the inaugural contest, Hampton and Williams have hazy memories of the actual game. There are two aspects of the game, however, that still stand out.
“The lack of chemistry,” Hampton said. “When you play an All-Star Game, you know, it can definitely be sloppy. I think that’s why the league has probably changed … how they choose to play it.”
Williams’ memory is of the physical nature of the game. The contest was no celebratory scrimmage.
“How All-Star Games have gone recently, they’re not as physical. I just remember [1999] being a real game — it was very physical,” said Williams, who attempted a game-high 10 free throws. “No one really wanted anybody else to do scoring or trick shots. It was a battle. I was getting fouled a lot.”
The 1999 All-Star Game was a major success for the WNBA, which at the time was still aspiring to establish a foundation within the American professional sports landscape.
Now it’s the longest-running women’s professional team sports league in the U.S., and its pioneers remain proud of what they helped build.
“When we first started this thing, you know, critics … would say [the WNBA] was not going to last. ‘It’s just fresh, it’s new, so of course people are going to come,’” Weatherspoon said. “But we’re in 30 years now.”