‘It’s about making room for girls’: the NBA’s long game beyond superstardom

Lauren Jackson (special arrangement) TimesofIndia.com in Singapore: For years, women’s sports have fought one battle above all else: Visibility.It demanded television coverage, sponsorship, bigger crowds and, most importantly, the right to be taken seriously. And in much of the sports world, that battle has shifted.The Women’s Premier League has changed the commercial landscape of women’s cricket in India. The WNBA enters its 30th season at an unprecedented pace, expanding its footprint, attracting record investment and producing a new generation of global stars.Women’s football has broken attendance records as governing bodies across sports continue to invest in creating stronger pathways for female athletes.The challenge today is not just to get girls to play. It makes sure they stay.Because while leagues, sponsorships and television audiences have grown, one stubborn reality continues to permeate across sports and geographies. Too many girls leave organized sports during adolescence, taking with them not only playing careers, but the opportunity to become future coaches, referees, administrators and leaders.That was the conversation that unfolded at Singapore’s House of Tan Yeok Nee while hosting the NBA’s Her Time To Play panel. About how to build an ecosystem where girls never feel like they have to leave the game.

Lauren Jackson during Her Time To Play NBA Panel Discussion (Special Arrangements)

This was not a new conversation for the NBA. Neither the girls competition at the NBA Rising Stars Invitational nor initiatives like Her Time To Play represent a shift in philosophy.The league has spent decades investing in women’s basketball, grassroots programs and leadership.However, the rest of the sports world is also asking the same questions.

Lauren Jackson’s bigger question

And that’s why one note from Lauren Jackson — a WNBA legend and one of the greatest players the women’s game has produced — stood out above all others.“We are aware of departures between the ages of 13 and 16,” she said.The future of women’s sport may well depend on what happens next.Jackson has spent her life proving what women can achieve in basketball.Four Olympic medals. Multiple WNBA championships. Three WNBA Most Valuable Player awards. A Hall of Fame career that helped shape the understanding of women’s basketball for an entire generation.“I think Her Game, Her Future is emblematic of the space for women and girls in sports,” Jackson said. “We are at a stage where opportunities and resources are being put into girls and women’s basketball.

NBA Her Time To Play Initiative (Special Arrangement)

But it is important to create these spaces just for girls. It gives them a chance to enjoy the game without fear. The more of these opportunities we create, the more impact we will have.”It’s easy to assume that the biggest challenge in women’s sport lies at the elite level. Jackson believes it starts much earlier.During an earlier interview with the Tech Word News, she reflected on growing up as an awkward, unusually tall teenager who often struggled with self-confidence despite her extraordinary talent.“I wish I had learned as a child how to really step into my power,” she said. “I wish I could learn how not to be quiet and how not to be afraid.The lesson, she admits today, came much later than she would have liked. This idea came up again during the panel.“I didn’t really know my identity until much later in life,” she said. “If you invest in understanding who you used to be, life will be a little bit easier. Nobody really teaches that to young people.”“We know the drop-offs between 13 and 16. In basketball, we’ve started to close that gap by offering leadership opportunities, scholarship programs, mentoring, coaching and officiating.”“We’re seeing more girls staying with the sport, which is what we want. We want them to lead the sport in the future.”Some may become players. Others may never play professionally. Instead, they can become coaches, officials, teachers.The success of women’s sports, Jackson suggested, should be measured not only by the stars it produces, but also by the communities it builds.

Building more than players

This broader idea found an echo in Rachel Lim’s story.Long before she co-founded Love, Bonito into one of Southeast Asia’s most respected fashion brands, Lim spent ten years playing competitive netball.Looking back, she credits those years less for developing athletic ability than for forging the resilience and leadership that would later define her entrepreneurial journey.“Sports have taught me so much to become an entrepreneur, leader and parent,”In much of Asia, she argued, parents continue to see sports and education as competing priorities. Maybe they are asking the wrong question.“Instead of asking if my daughter should spend two hours studying or two hours playing sports, maybe we should be asking what she’s getting out of these experiences.”Sports teach young people how to bounce back from failure, work in teams, adapt under pressure and lead others, qualities that will last any sporting career.Her advice to parents was disarmingly simple.“When your child comes home from sports, maybe don’t ask, ‘Did you win?’ Ask instead, ‘What did you learn?'”If Lim explained why cultures needed to change, Natalie Dau focused on individuals.The Singaporean endurance athlete, motivational speaker and Guinness World Record holder has built a reputation for pushing the boundaries of physical endurance. Nevertheless, she repeatedly returned to an idea that had little to do with extraordinary success.Authorization.“When I hear Her Game, Her Future, the first word that comes to mind is permission,” she said.“We spend so much time waiting for someone to give us permission to move forward. But you already have that choice.”

Lauren Jackson on NBA’s Her Time To Play (Special Arrangement)

Later, reflecting on the 1,000km endurance run that nearly ended on opening day, Dau explained that resilience is rarely built through big moments of inspiration.“I stopped being afraid of failure and started using it as fuel.As the session drew to a close, Jackson returned to the simplest message of the afternoon.“Dream,” she said. “If you have something you really want, dream it into existence.” And for everyone around her – lift her up. Be a village.”The future of women’s sports, it seemed, will not be built only by exceptional personalities. It will be built by communities that will ensure that ordinary girls never stop believing that they belong.

Ecosystem effect

And over the course of five days in Singapore, Jackson’s words kept resurfacing.The answer to the question she asked was not limited to discussion. The entire week was played at the OCBC Arena where some of the best school teams from across the Asia-Pacific region competed in the NBA Rising Stars Invitational.The girls’ pageant was never considered a supporting act. It wasn’t new either.Like the boys’ tournament, it formed an integral part of the event and reinforced the NBA’s long-standing belief that the women’s game deserves equal space in the conversation about the future of basketball.Japan’s Seika Girls’ High School showcased a discipline that has long supported Japanese basketball throughout the week. Yangming High School in Chinese Taipei showcased a program built on years of technical development.Australia, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore brought different styles that reflected different stages of basketball’s growth, but a common commitment to investing in girls’ sports.It wasn’t just the standard of basketball that stood out. It was the ecosystem that surrounded him.After the games, the coaches exchanged ideas. NBA development staff moved between the courts and classrooms. Management sat alongside elite competition and talks of officiating, coaching.Earlier in the week, David Lee, the NBA’s head of strategy for Asia and country head for Singapore, described the league’s ambitions in similar terms during an interview with the Tech Word News.He explained that success was not only measured by producing elite players, but by strengthening the entire basketball ecosystem across the region, bringing together schools, federations, coaches, communities and commercial partners to create sustainable pathways for the next generation.Seen through this lens, programs like Jr. The NBA, Basketball Without Borders, Her Time To Play and the NBA Rising Stars Invitational are not separate initiatives.They are interconnected parts of a long-term strategy the league has pursued for years, one that recognizes the future of the sport depends as much on participation and retention as it does on the production of elite athletes.This philosophy should sound familiar to Indian sports.

What India can learn

The Women’s Premier League has shown what can be achieved with sustained investment in a remarkably short period of time. In addition to television ratings and awards, the franchise’s aspirations have fundamentally changed.Young girls growing up in India these days don’t have to imagine what a professional cricket career looks like. They can watch him every season.Ripple effects extend beyond the boundary rope.Sponsors see long-term value in women’s sports. Parents who once saw cricket as a distraction are beginning to see it as a legitimate career. The league didn’t just produce stars; it changed the perception.Basketball, admittedly, operates in a very different environment.It lacks the cultural footprint of cricket in India and the commercial scale of the WPL. However, the principles remain strikingly similar.Visibility creates interest and pathways create participation, while communities create longevity.The development of the WNBA offers another reminder of that journey. Nearly three decades after its inception, the league has entered one of the most significant periods in its history.The expansion of franchises, groundbreaking media rights deals and the arrival of a new generation of stars have brought women’s basketball into the mainstream sports conversation.Players like A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers have become more than elite athletes; they are cultural figures who have broadened the league’s appeal and inspired new audiences.But commercial success alone does not guarantee the future. Any thriving professional league depends on an even healthier core system.This may be the biggest lesson that India can learn from Singapore. The ecosystem that Jackson was talking about.“We’re seeing more girls staying with the sport,” she said. “We want them to lead the sport in the future.”The fight for visibility is far from over, especially in many parts of the world. But where that battle had begun to shift, another had emerged in its place. Not whether girls can dream. Whether the sport can build systems strong enough to ensure they never have to give up on those dreams.