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The American Basketball League (ABL) was a women's professional league that saw its inception in 1995. It couldn't have started at a better time for Carol Ann Shudlick.

"I thought I might be done with basketball," says Shudlick. The six-foot forward had played professional basketball in Spain for a year and helped her team to a second-place finish. But homesickness brought her back to the United States.

"I had a good experience overseas, but I didn't enjoy being so far from my family." Shudlick came back home to Minnesota and started a career in advertising. Then she got a call from the ABL.

In 1998, the ABL was forced to close its doors due to bankruptcy -- a dismal day for women's basketball. However, the WNBA continues to thrive on relentless support from fans across North America.

Shudlick tells girls who are interested in the career to focus on both their intellectual and athletic development in college. "Focus on that, because there will come a time when basketball won't be there." When her playing days are over, Shudlick plans to pursue a career in marketing.

Dean Oliver works for a company that used to do strategic scouting for college teams.

With fierce competition for the few professional basketball slots, what makes a player reach that level? "Physical skills are the easiest thing to scout because someone who can jump or who has exceeding quickness demonstrates it all the time," he says.

"You will see it whether you see them once or several times. That is part of the reason 'athletes' are making it into the NBA even if their basketball skills aren't refined. Beyond that -- and I definitely looked beyond that -- I looked primarily for players who were outstanding in one basketball skill," says Oliver.

"Could they dribble, shoot from the outside or block shots exceedingly well? Specialists often don't get noticed and turn out to be solid contributors to good teams, if they know that they are specialists.

"The great players are usually fairly obvious, having a combination of natural ability and refined basketball discipline. Another class of players are those that score a lot for poor teams. These [players] often get too much credit, and I looked for things in these players that would show whether they were to blame for the team's poor record or whether the rest of the players brought things down."

"Young people need to keep in mind that there are other avenues to get there aside from going right from a university to the NBA," says Matt Akler, spokesperson for the Toronto Raptors.

"A lot of people play in the European leagues, which pay fairly well. Another route is to play for the CBA [Continental Basketball Association], which is the developmental league of the NBA.

"The CBA is one of the places that NBA teams will scout and look for players to fill in if someone is injured or to invite people to training camp in the next year."

Head coach Steve Knight says anyone considering the career must have a clear understanding of what it takes to be a successful professional player.

"Obviously, you must be quite talented in the sport, but that's just the beginning," he says. "You must be dedicated, know how to handle the media, fans, those so-called friends who try to involve themselves in your life because of who you are, finances and many other things. You must be a mature, well-rounded individual in order to have success over a long period of time."