The Seattle Reign were the first professional women’s basketball team in Seattle, playing from 1996 to 1998 in the American Basketball League (ABL). The ABL was founded in 1996, with Seattle as one of eight founding teams. The league collapsed partway through the 1998 season under the financial pressure of competing with the rival Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), which was better funded and had higher average game attendance than the ABL. Many ABL players transferred to the WNBA, including several Reign players who later played for Seattle’s WNBA team, the Storm (founded in 2000).

This image shows Kate Starbird at the ceremony for her signing with the Seattle Reign, held at the Space Needle. Starbird, who grew up in Tacoma, chose the Reign partially in order to play in her hometown. She played for the Reign until the ABL collapsed, then joined the WBNA, including nine games played for the Storm in 2002. After retiring from basketball, Starbird earned a doctorate and became a professor at the University of Washington's Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering.

Caption information source: “Seattle Reign’s league dies – bankruptcy sidelines women’s basketball teams,” by Ronald Tillery, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 23, 1998, page A1.
Caption information source: "Starbird signs in, Brown ships out," by Jim Moore, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 23, 1997, page D1.
Caption information source: "Kate Starbird, former basketball star, chooses a different route - as usual," by Jayda Evans, Seattle Times, retrieved from https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/college/kate-starbird-former-basketball-star-chooses-a-different-route-8212-as-usual/