Having a (Basket) Ball

Fifteen years after NBA legend Kevin Durant hit the last basket in Seattle SuperSonics history, the wife-husband team of Jacqueline Yang and Pierre Cockrell Sr. are bringing men’s professional basketball back to the hoops-starved city.

They are the owners of the expansion Seattle Super Hawks, a men’s minor league basketball club that will begin play this year in The Basketball League, or TBL. The league is in its fifth season, with 44 teams across the United States.

Yang is a senior project manager at Bellevue software company Inviso and a former Microsoft executive. Cockrell Sr. is a former professional track athlete who works as an agent with Forum Group Sports Management. He is a former SuperSonics ballboy and will serve as the club’s general manager.

Yang, a Seattle native, is the first woman Asian owner of a men’s professional basketball team in North America.

“Owning a professional basketball team has been a passion of mine for many years,” Yang says. “Seattle is primed for this, and we are excited to be filling the void.”

Seattle has not had a professional basketball team since the Seattle SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City after the 2008 season. Rumors persist that the NBA is close to either awarding an expansion team or relocating an existing club here, but has remained noncommittal.

TBL launched in 2018 with just eight teams. Seattle will play in the West Conference along with eight other clubs. Two are in Washington state: the Wenatchee Bighorns and the Vancouver Volcanoes. The only other club in the Northwest is the Salem Capitals in Oregon.

Most of the rosters consist of former college and overseas players who can earn up to $6,500 per month. Former UW star and NBA veteran Eldridge Recasner will coach the team.

TBL is guided by the first African American woman to own a male professional sports league in the U.S., Evelyn Magley. Yang and Cockrell Sr. say that was one of their motivations to buy into the league.

“I love the vision of TBL as it stems from the view of a woman whose mission is to impact community first and build out from there,” Yang says, “by supporting our wonderful local talent.”

Another motivation: Providing an affordable experience for fans. The team website says tickets cost $10 for students and $20 for adults. Season-ticket packages are available. The club also seeks to engage youth in the community through basketball camps and other opportunities involving player outreach.

The Super Hawks’ first home exhibition game is against the Newfoundland Rogues on March 8. The regular season tips off with a home game March 10 against Wenatchee and runs through May.