By Cameron Lee
March 25, 2025
When Rhonda Mapp got the call that she would be the first draft pick of the Charlotte Sting in the inaugural WNBA Elite Draft in 1997, she was playing basketball in Europe. Mapp was five years removed from her senior year at NC State, where she led the ACC in scoring and rebounding. For the Charlotte-born, former two-time First-Team All-ACC post player, it was not only a dream fulfilled but also a relief to come home to North Carolina after playing multiple seasons in Spain, France, and Italy.
“When the WNBA started, it started with a bang… I mean, we had all the networks, we were getting all the TV time, and people were coming out to the games. It was electric,” Mapp said.
Mapp seemed destined to be part of Charlotte’s first women’s professional basketball team. When Mapp’s mother was in labor with her, it was Hornets and Sting owner George Shinn’s housekeeper (whose name also happened to be Rhonda) who took her to the hospital — a story Mapp was told shortly after she was drafted. Mapp’s father, a military man who played basketball at Fayetteville State, was drafted into the Vietnam War when Mapp was born. When he returned from his duties, their family soon settled in Asheville, where a young Mapp received her first basketball lessons at three years old. She remembers watching intense pickup games in South French Broad, where her father used to coach and teach.
“My father was a father figure to a lot of kids that didn’t have fathers when I was growing up… so he would open up the gym for the kids, for us to go play while he’s playing pickup with his buddies,” Mapp recalls. “My dad would take the time out after they played, and he would start working with me.”
Mapp’s game progressed quickly, hooping mostly with boys at the Montford Community Center and developing her guard skills early. She eventually led Asheville High School to a 4A state championship in 1987. That same year, Mapp won an AAU national championship alongside North Mecklenburg’s Andrea Stinson, West Caldwell’s Schonna Banner, and South Meck’s Mia Nance.
Mapp and Stinson were a part of historic NC State recruiting class
Scholarship offers started rolling in when Mapp joined the AAU circuit. When it came time to decide which college she would attend, the highly touted recruit chose NC State — mainly because her cousin, Bobby Bowens, played football there.
Mapp was part of a historic recruiting class that included 1987 North Carolina Miss Basketball Andrea Stinson, Sharon Manning, Nicole Lehman, and Christa Hull — all recruited by coach Ed Baldwin, who later became the women’s basketball coach at UNC Charlotte for 13 seasons. Mapp played under the late, great Kay Yow, who brought the best out of her.
“At one point I thought I signed up for a scholarship for track. Coach Yow had us out there…we was out there running,” Mapp said. “We went through training, we went through weightlifting, and did everything we were supposed to do.”
That regimen paid off, as did some epic pickup games at Carmichael Gym, where Mapp and Stinson played with students and athletes to develop even more on-court chemistry — and a buzz on campus. Known for their hard-nosed defense and up-tempo pace, Stinson and Mapp led the Wolfpack to an ACC Tournament championship in 1991, finishing with a 27-6 record. Mapp averaged 16.9 points and 9.6 rebounds per game on 57.6% shooting that year. In her senior campaign, she led the conference in scoring with 22 points and 9.8 rebounds per game.
Early days of the Charlotte Sting
On the heels of the Women’s National Team’s gold medal run at the 1996 Olympics — with players like Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, Teresa Edwards, Rebecca Lobo, and Dawn Staley capturing the hearts and attention of basketball fans globally — the WNBA was primed for its inaugural season in 1997.
Initially, players were automatically allocated to teams to ensure each franchise had a couple of cornerstone pieces to build a competitive roster. The Sting were awarded two former ACC stars: Vicky Bullett (Maryland) and Stinson (NC State). Mapp was the franchise’s first pick in the Elite Draft of current pro players, which preceded the traditional college draft, where the Sting selected another ACC standout, Virginia’s Tora Suber. Mapp and Stinson also reunited with their former college teammate, Manning, who was drafted in the second round.
Prior to the Sting’s first season, the city was riding high after the Hornets’ franchise-best 54 wins in ’96-’97, led by Glen Rice, the late Anthony Mason, Dell Curry, and Vlade Divac. The Sting kept basketball spirits high in Charlotte, setting an early WNBA attendance record in their first season with 18,937 fans at the old Coliseum against the Houston Comets on August 16, 1997.
The Sting beat the Comets that day in a game with crucial playoff implications, as Charlotte was vying for the fourth and final spot with one week left in the regular season. Stinson scored 25 points in a highly anticipated battle against the WNBA’s first big superstar, Cynthia Cooper, who would go on to win four straight WNBA championships and Finals MVPs (two regular-season MVPs) from 1997 to 2000. Mapp was pivotal in the game, adding 17 points and eight rebounds in a thrilling 80-71 win.
An All-Star cast of ACC stars
The team only grew in popularity when Olympic gold medalist Dawn Staley joined in 1999, after the American Basketball League (the other women’s professional basketball league at the time) folded in 1998. In addition to Staley, Mapp, and Stinson, the team also added First Team All-American and two-time ACC Player of the Year (1997, 1998) Tracy Reid, who was drafted No. 7 overall by the Sting the previous year. Reid went on to win WNBA Rookie of the Year honors, averaging 13.8 points per game on 49% shooting.
“Tracy complemented Andrea because she was a slasher… She was the opposite of Andrea but still a threat. She was a good rebounder and a great defensive player,” Mapp said of Reid.
Mapp and the team made several appearances at schools around the city and at Eastland Mall, hanging out at spots like Jock’s & Jill’s and Harper’s in SouthPark. The players would also often attend shows at the old Comedy Zone off Independence Boulevard.
“We were like rock stars walking around here, like we couldn’t even go inside of a restaurant without people bombarding us…I mean, it was crazy,” Mapp said. “I would never turn down a picture ever, because you never know the impact that could have on a little kid’s life. I don’t care if I came outside in the back of the Coliseum after a game and there were like 200 people lined up.”
Mapp says she was the type of teammate who tried to take the younger players under her wing, while Vicky Bullet served as a mentor to her.
“Vicky pushed me in practice to be great. She would tell me to come in there and do jump rope, and we would go do jump rope before practice started. When I tell you she was a hard worker, I’m talking about we had workouts before workouts and practice,” Mapp said.
Bittersweet Championship Ending in L.A.
Following the 2000 season, after a disappointing year in which the Sting finished last in the Eastern Conference, Mapp requested a trade. Sam Russo, the Hornets’ Executive Vice President of Operations, dealt her to the Los Angeles Sparks in exchange for South Carolina native and three-time Ivy League Player of the Year Allison Feaster, along with center Clarisse Machanguana.
While Mapp was excited to compete for a championship in Los Angeles with one of the league’s best teams, she found herself in unfamiliar territory and struggled to adjust. With hopes of being a key contributor alongside All-Star center Lisa Leslie, her role was drastically diminished, dropping from 28.5 minutes per game with the Sting to just 13.2 with the Sparks.
“I thought Lisa and I were going to be able to play together, and that wasn’t the case. So I ended up becoming a backup center, and that was the first time in my life that I wasn’t a starter, and I didn’t get the playing time that I expected,” Mapp said.
The Sting, coming off their worst season in 2000, continued to struggle the following year, starting with an abysmal 1-10 record. However, they miraculously won 17 of their final 21 games to face — yes, the Los Angeles Sparks — in the WNBA Finals. But the Sting’s Cinderella run would soon end, as the Sparks swept them in the Finals, and Mapp won her first WNBA championship, though the victory was bittersweet.
“Not getting to play and just, you know, being a part of that system, I didn’t feel like I was a good fit. So I wanted to go. I wanted to go back to Charlotte,” Mapp said.
Post-WNBA Life
Mapp moved back to Charlotte in 2003 and has lived here ever since. She’s become a successful entrepreneur, operating a ladies’ shoe store, a barbershop, and now a trucking company. Mapp also had stints coaching AAU basketball, most notably for Mushin Muhammad’s team, and eventually for her own, before coaching at Queen’s Grant High School in Matthews. Additionally, she volunteers with a nonprofit called Racing to Feed. In November 2024, she helped feed her hometown community with a charity event featuring fellow Asheville native and Super Bowl champion Leonard Little, along with actress Vivica A. Fox.
She remains in close touch with Stinson, Reid, and Suber, and even texts Staley while watching South Carolina games. Mapp is excited about the prospect of the Sting returning to the WNBA and is passionate about celebrating the original players. She also has aspirations to honor them in future business ventures.
“I honestly feel the WNBA needs to pay more homage and respect to the players that pretty much started the league, and carried this league on our back,” Mapp said. “I’m so excited to see where women’s basketball is today. I would have never thought that it would have gotten here.”
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