But the long-term vision was clear. To cultivate talent such as former Tokomanawa Queens player turned Los Angeles Sparks guard Jihyun Park. To use this emerging talent to help lift the standard here. Getting the eyes of those tasked with talent development for the world’s top league trained on our league, watching their current prospects and perhaps a couple of our own.
The landscape for women’s basketball has rapidly shifted though. When Tauihi launched, the majority of WNBA stars were playing the off-season overseas to make a liveable wage. This started to shift, first with the creation of the new short-format league Unrivaled and then with the landmark collective bargaining agreement coming in this season.
With players suddenly being paid properly, many are taking the off-season off. So those journeywomen that Tauihi once sought to attract are now a smaller proportion of the player base.
With competition for this talent heating up, the league needs an ambassador to keep Tauihi on the radar. Enter Charlisse Leger-Walker, a strong performer in the Connecticut Sun’s sunset season. Playing alongside some of the biggest names in women’s basketball, she’s already made history for New Zealand.
Choosing to return home at this point in her career is sending the elevator back down to the next wave of New Zealand basketball talent and inviting them to join her. And Leger-Walker may be able to rope in a couple of her mates from across the WNBA to come this way too.
We’ve already seen the attention this signing has brought. Basketball is still a minority sport in New Zealand but this week dominated the headlines while membership sales spiked. Sponsors will want to buy into that attention, increasing the earning potential for the Tokomanawa Queens and their rivals.
Broadcast games become more attractive for those home and away, with a growing global market of basketball fans. We’ve seen what the star power of Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark has done for the WNBA; now we will see what Leger-Walker can do for Tauihi.
Like all good sports stories, though, this isn’t just about strategies and revenue streams. It’s about the unbreakable bond between sisters, Charlisse and Krystal, who under the guidance of their legendary Tall Ferns mum, Leanne Walker, have become basketball royalty. They also get to reunite after injury robbed them of the opportunity to play together for New Zealand.
A WNBA star will play in the Tauihi league this season. Even sweeter, it’s one of our own. A Kiwi talent finding opportunities abroad and then coming home to inspire the next wave so we don’t have to wait another 30 years to see a New Zealander enter the WNBA.
Sports columnist Alice Soper is a former provincial rugby player and current club coach, she has a particular interest in telling stories of the emerging world of women’s sports.
