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I’m the first ever WNBA player drafted and now I work at Amazon and sign my co-workers’ trading cards
Dena Head’s journey is a remarkable one. The now 54-year-old has played basketball in almost every corner of the planet but her potential last stop in her stellar professional career is the inside of an Amazon warehouse. Dena Head now works at Amazon as a HR manager@AmazonNews Back in February 1997, Head was 26 and in Mirande, France waiting for her name to be called in the first ever WNBA draft ahead of the inaugural season. Head was in France because she played basketball there and she lived in a house owned by the neighbours, that was tucked away by a small body of water. Mirande is a small town in southwest France, over 500 miles away from Paris and the closet major city is Toulouse. When she graduated from Tennesse in 1992, Head’s only viable option to play basketball was overseas, there was no serious league in the US. Along with France, Head would make stops in Hungary, Italy, Brazil and Spain as she hopped around professional leagues across the globe. When the WNBA was launched in 1997 and was backed by the NBA, Head finally had the opportunity to return home for good. The guard could not speak to her family and friends, and actually talk to them. “You didn’t call home every single day,” Head told ESPN last year. “You could, but it cost an arm, a leg, and a couple of toes.” So when the WNBA draft occurred ahead of it’s first season, Head was part of the elite player group – essentially for players who weren’t in college and had already played professional basketball. Dena Head was the first player ever drafted in the WNBAGetty Dena Head would play for the Utah Starzz and Phoenix MercuryGetty As the draft began, Head’s phone rang first, as she would be selected as the No.1 overall pick by the Utah Starzz. “There was just a lot of excitement around bringing a women’s league to the States,” said Head. “Long time coming.” Head went on to play three seasons in the WNBA, she would play her last season in 200 for the Phoenix Mercury, retiring at 29. Now she works at Amazon in human resources, after spending eight years in operations. When her colleagues discovered her remarkable past, they found one of her old trading cards online and brought it on for her to sign. “It was a big old surprise, and that’s pretty meaningful,” Head said. “For so many people, what we accomplish, or where we’ve been, and the experiences that we have, that’s fascinating for the masses.” Head told ESPN, she has a wall in her home that documents her basketball journey. On it are frames of her Tennessee, Utah and Phoenix jerseys. She has two WNBA basketballs in clear boxes, and her own copy of her trading card. Plus a book full of color photos from the first WNBA season. Head is one of those figures in women’s basketball that will never be forgotten, a true trailblazer and she knows she had a role to play in the current growth of the WNBA Head (left) spent three years in the WNBAGetty “For all of us that were afforded that opportunity to be a part of that inaugural season, I would definitely say that we all had a role in [the WNBA’s growth],” Head said. “The Lynette Woodards of the world, the Teresa Edwards of the world, they have all set the tone for where we are today — and never to be forgotten.”
Dena Head’s journey is a remarkable one.
The now 54-year-old has played basketball in almost every corner of the planet but her potential last stop in her stellar professional career is the inside of an Amazon warehouse.
Back in February 1997, Head was 26 and in Mirande, France waiting for her name to be called in the first ever WNBA draft ahead of the inaugural season.
Head was in France because she played basketball there and she lived in a house owned by the neighbours, that was tucked away by a small body of water.
Mirande is a small town in southwest France, over 500 miles away from Paris and the closet major city is Toulouse.
When she graduated from Tennesse in 1992, Head’s only viable option to play basketball was overseas, there was no serious league in the US.
Along with France, Head would make stops in Hungary, Italy, Brazil and Spain as she hopped around professional leagues across the globe.
When the WNBA was launched in 1997 and was backed by the NBA, Head finally had the opportunity to return home for good.
The guard could not speak to her family and friends, and actually talk to them.
“You didn’t call home every single day,” Head told ESPN last year.
“You could, but it cost an arm, a leg, and a couple of toes.”
So when the WNBA draft occurred ahead of it’s first season, Head was part of the elite player group – essentially for players who weren’t in college and had already played professional basketball.
As the draft began, Head’s phone rang first, as she would be selected as the No.1 overall pick by the Utah Starzz.
“There was just a lot of excitement around bringing a women’s league to the States,” said Head. “Long time coming.”
Head went on to play three seasons in the WNBA, she would play her last season in 200 for the Phoenix Mercury, retiring at 29.
Now she works at Amazon in human resources, after spending eight years in operations.
When her colleagues discovered her remarkable past, they found one of her old trading cards online and brought it on for her to sign.
“It was a big old surprise, and that’s pretty meaningful,” Head said.
“For so many people, what we accomplish, or where we’ve been, and the experiences that we have, that’s fascinating for the masses.”
Head told ESPN, she has a wall in her home that documents her basketball journey.
On it are frames of her Tennessee, Utah and Phoenix jerseys.
She has two WNBA basketballs in clear boxes, and her own copy of her trading card. Plus a book full of color photos from the first WNBA season.
Head is one of those figures in women’s basketball that will never be forgotten, a true trailblazer and she knows she had a role to play in the current growth of the WNBA
“For all of us that were afforded that opportunity to be a part of that inaugural season, I would definitely say that we all had a role in [the WNBA’s growth],” Head said.
“The Lynette Woodards of the world, the Teresa Edwards of the world, they have all set the tone for where we are today — and never to be forgotten.”
