SAN JOSE — When Otis Watson closes his eyes, he can still see the San Jose Event Center awash in green and black jerseys.
He can hear the sound of chants and rallies bouncing off the dimly lit gym, loud enough to wake the San Jose State students in neighboring Washburn Hall. It was here where Watson knew he could snag a decent bag of popcorn and what he recalls as the “best white wine in the Bay.”
The feeling of the crowd creating a life of its own still gives the San Jose native chills when he harkens back to the times he was a season ticket holder for the San Jose Lasers — a short-lived but beloved franchise in the pioneering American Basketball League.
“There were always sizable, enthusiastic crowds back in the day,” Watson recalled of the Lasers games he used to attend. “I remember the crowd used to give awards to who were the rowdiest fans in their sections. … They really caught your attention.”
Sitting courtside, Watson couldn’t help but notice a young owner named Joe Lacob, bouncing out of his seat, living and dying with every possession.
Nearly 30 years after owning the San Jose Lasers, Lacob is returning women’s professional basketball to San Jose. On Wednesday, the Valkyries will play their first-ever home playoff game in San Jose, hosting the Minnesota Lynx for Game 2 of the first round at SAP Center, just a few miles from where the Lasers once called home.
For Lacob, it’s more than just a venue change forced by the Laver Cup tennis tournament taking over Chase Center this week. It’s a chance to trace a straight line back to his beginnings in women’s basketball.
San Jose Lasers forward Sheri Sam drives around Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil of Long Beach during a game on Feb. 2, 1998. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
“It’s definitely a huge full-circle moment for me,” Lacob told this news organization in a recent interview. “I think in San Jose, even 30 years ago, there was an appetite for women’s basketball.
“… It was not the first choice because our fans deserve to have a home playoff game, but I don’t think it is a bad second choice, and I think it’ll be good for the development of our overall fan base. I think for some fans in the San Jose area, this will be a unique treat.”
The Lasers were one of eight teams in the ABL, a professional women’s basketball league that launched in 1996 – a year before the WNBA tipped off. Playing their home games at the San Jose State Event Center, the Lasers quickly built a loyal fan base in the South Bay.
The Lasers were led by former Stanford stars like Jennifer Azzi and Sonja Henning, who gave the Lasers instant credibility and star power in the Bay Area, and later featured players such as Olympian Kedra Holland-Corn. The ABL prided itself on paying higher wages and delivering better playing conditions to players, but struggled financially and eventually folded in 1998 as the rise of the WNBA dominated the women’s pro basketball market.
San Jose Lasers center Clarisse Machanguana jokes with teammate Sheri Sam (background) Wednesday during practice at the San Jose Event Center. (Jim Ketsdever/Bay Area News Group)
Despite the abrupt ending, the Lasers left their mark. They offered one of the first professional basketball stages for women in the U.S. and their fan base, including season ticket holders like Watson, carried lasting memories of those nights in San Jose.
Since the team didn’t have a mascot, Watson said the fans took the onus to create their own. One night, he recalled a fan dressing up as a computer mouse and parading from section to section to represent the city’s tech personality.
“It was a fun time for all of us, really,” Watson said.
The energy for the Lasers was felt by the team, too.
“We had some of the best crowds in the league,” said former Lasers coach Angela Beck. “I just remember feeling super blessed. It was an exciting time for us.”
For Lacob, owning the Lasers gave him his first foray into owning a professional sports team, even at a small scale.
According to Lacob, the team filled out the 5,000-seat arena at San Jose State often and even put on a few games at SAP Center, then called San Jose Arena. The Lasers made the playoffs in each of the two full postseasons that the league hosted.
“It was something I did because I’ve always wanted to own a basketball team,” Lacob said. “I wasn’t ready for the NBA at that point, and I was working in the venture industry, but I really wanted to do something to show my daughters. I cared about girls and women’s sports as much as men’s sports, so that was all part of the motivation why I got involved.”
But even after the team folded, Lacob has made good on his second shot at owning a women’s basketball team.
Lacob paid a then-record $50 million expansion fee in 2023 to own the Valkyries. Golden State has exceeded all expectations as the expansion team made the playoffs in its first year and set the record for attendance with 22 consecutive sellouts at Chase Center.
The scheduling conflict with the Laver Cup created the opportunity for the Valkyries to play in San Jose. According to Lacob, the only other venue they considered to host this playoff game was Oakland Arena, but the former home of the Warriors was booked this week.
Golden State Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase (35) talks to Golden State Valkyries’ Temi Fagbenle (14) during their game against the Indiana Fever in the second quarter at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
The South Bay turn is also a homecoming of sorts for Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase, who played in another fledgling women’s hoops league – the National Women’s Basketball League – for the San Jose Spiders in 2005. Nakase, the favorite to be named the WNBA’s coach of the year in her first season as a head coach, isn’t sentimental, though.
“That was like 50 years ago,” she said of her time with the Spiders. “I don’t think about that stuff. … I’m just excited we made the playoffs.”
Wednesday’s game will also be a full-circle moment for Lasers fans, who have yearned for pro basketball in the South Bay.
“I think it’s going to be pretty exciting. It’s not going to be Chase Center, but I think the excitement and those fans who came to root for the Lasers back in the day … it will feel like a regular home game for them,” Sacramento native and Valkyries season ticket holder Mary Barker said.
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For Barker, the setting is only part of the story. What excites her even more is seeing Lacob once again put real resources behind women’s basketball, something she’s admired since he owned the Lasers nearly 30 years ago.
“I’m actually impressed with his commitment to women’s sports,” Barker said. “I just think it’s great that he didn’t forget about us and reinvested back into women’s basketball. He saw the vision and he made the Valkyries have an identity that stretches beyond the Bay Area.”
That enduring support from fans like Barker is what convinces Lacob that San Jose was never just a stopgap.
For him, the passion that surrounded the Lasers nearly three decades ago has only grown, and Wednesday’s playoff game is proof.
“Even back then, I recall the tremendous passion of the core fan base for women’s basketball in San Jose,” Lacob said. “I think that passion in multiples now shines through. But even then, it was there with 5,000 fans at the San Jose Event Center. And I remember that. I remember how passionate these fans were. And I think we are seeing that in, you know, in even greater numbers now.”
Barker was optimistic that the passion will come through to support the team on Wednesday, even if the fans are 50 miles south of their usual seats.
“Ballhalla is a people, not a place,” she said.
Friends Laurisa Armstrong, Crystal Narsaiya and Tonika Jones, from left, root for the Lasers at a recent game in San Jose. (Anna Marie Dos Remedios/Bay Area News Group)