Rare Gems

This is the story of the pioneers who shaped so much of the modern infrastructure for women's basketball, whose histories intersect and wind their way through the state of Minnesota. It is the story of forcing open doors-to ensure teams even existed, to allow those teams to play in conditions resembling those men could take for granted, to ensure that the color of your skin or who you love would not be a barrier to building a life centered around basketball. To end the double-standard that treats every undeniable success by women as a one-off, but every setback as a referendum. Four generations of women have played essential and diverse roles: Neuman and her friend and collaborator of a half-century, Vicky Nelson; Cheryl Reeve and her wife, Carley Knox; Lindsay Whalen, Maya Moore, Seimone Augustus, Sylvia Fowles, and WNBA's Minnesota Lynx; right through to the future of the game in Bueckers and the stars of tomorrow. Through meticulous research and evocative storytelling, this captivating narrative gives due recognition to the luminaries who ushered in women's basketball's modern era.