The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a women's professional basketball league based in the United States and is composed of 12 teams. The league was founded on April 24, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the National Basketball Association (NBA). League play began in 1997. The regular season runs from May to September, with each team playing 40 games. The top eight teams (regardless of conference) qualify for the playoffs, culminating in the WNBA Finals, which is played in October.The All-Star game occurs midway through the season in July (except in Olympic years). The league hosts an annual mid-season competition, The Commissioner's Cup, which dates vary from year to year.
Five WNBA teams have direct NBA counterparts and normally play in the same arena: Indiana Fever (Indiana Pacers), New York Liberty (Brooklyn Nets), Minnesota Lynx (Minnesota Timberwolves), Los Angeles Sparks (Los Angeles Lakers), and Phoenix Mercury (Phoenix Suns). The Atlanta Dream, Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, Dallas Wings, Las Vegas Aces, Seattle Storm, and Washington Mystics do not share an arena with a direct NBA counterpart, although four of the seven (the Dream, the Sky, the Wings, and the Mystics) share a market with an NBA counterpart, two (Mystics and Dream) play in NBA G League arenas, while the Storm shared an arena and market with an NBA team, the SuperSonics, at the time of its founding. The Dream, Sky, Sun, Wings, Aces, Sparks, and Storm are all independently owned.
The creation of the WNBA was officially approved by the NBA Board of Governors on April 24, 1996,[1] and announced at a press conference with Rebecca Lobo, Lisa Leslie, and Sheryl Swoopes in attendance.[2] The new WNBA had to compete with the recently formed American Basketball League, another professional women's basketball league that began play in the fall of 1996, but would cease operation during its 1998–99 season.
The WNBA began with eight teams: the Charlotte Sting, Cleveland Rockers, Houston Comets, and New York Liberty in the Eastern Conference; and the Los Angeles Sparks, Phoenix Mercury, Sacramento Monarchs, and Utah Starzz in the Western Conference.[3]
While not the first major women's professional basketball league in the United States (a distinction held by the defunct WBL), the WNBA is the only league to receive full backing of the NBA.[4] The WNBA logo, "Logo Woman", paralleled the NBA logo and was selected out of 50 different designs.[3]
On the heels of a much-publicized gold medal run by the 1996 USA Basketball Women's National Team at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, the WNBA began its first season on June 21, 1997. The first WNBA game featured the New York Liberty facing the Los Angeles Sparks in Los Angeles. The Liberty defeated the Sparks 67-57. A crowd of 14,284 attended the game at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, California.[5] The game was televised nationally in the United States on the NBC television network. At the start of the 1997 season, the WNBA had television deals in with NBC (NBA rights holder), the Walt Disney Company and Hearst Corporation joint venture channels, ESPN, and Lifetime Television Network. Penny Toler scored the league's first point.[6][7]
The WNBA centered its marketing campaign, dubbed "We Got Next", around stars Rebecca Lobo, Lisa Leslie, and Sheryl Swoopes.[8] In the league's first season, Leslie's Los Angeles Sparks underperformed and Swoopes sat out much of the season due to her pregnancy. Perhaps the WNBA's first star was MVP Cynthia Cooper, Swoopes' teammate on the Houston Comets. The Comets defeated Lobo's New York Liberty in the first WNBA championship game.[9] The initial "We Got Next" advertisement ran before each season until it was replaced with a "We Got Game" campaign.
Two teams were added in 1998 (Detroit and Washington),[10] and two more in 1999 (Orlando and Minnesota), bringing the total number of teams in the league up to twelve.[11] The 1999 season began with a collective bargaining agreement between players and the league,[12] marking the first collective bargaining agreement to be signed in the history of women's professional sports.[13]That year, the WNBA also announced that it would add four more teams for the 2000 season (the Indiana Fever, the Seattle Storm, the Miami Sol, and the Portland Fire), bringing the league up to 16 teams. WNBA President Val Ackerman discussed expansion by saying, "This won't be the end of it. We expect to keep growing the league."[14]
In 1999, the league's chief competition, the American Basketball League (ABL), declared bankruptcy[15]. Many of the ABL's star players, including several Olympic gold medalists (such as Nikki McCray and Dawn Staley) and a number of standout college performers (including Kate Starbird and Jennifer Rizzotti), joined the rosters of WNBA teams, enhancing the overall quality of play in the league[citation needed]. When a lockout resulted in an abbreviated NBA season[16], the WNBA saw faltering TV viewership[citation needed].
On May 23, 2000, the Houston Comets became the first WNBA team to be invited to the White House Rose Garden. Before this invitation, only men's sports teams had traveled to the White House. At the end of the 2000 season, the Houston Comets won their fourth championship, capturing every title since the league's inception. Led by the "Big Three" of Sheryl Swoopes, Tina Thompson, and Cynthia Cooper (who won the Finals MVP for all four championships), the Comets dominated every team in the league.[17][18] Under head coach Van Chancellor, the team posted a 98–24 record their first four seasons (16–3 in the Playoffs). After 2000, Cooper retired from the league, and the Comets' dynasty came to an end.[18]
The top contender in the 2001 WNBA season was the Los Angeles Sparks[citation needed]. Led by Lisa Leslie, the Sparks posted a regular-season record of 28–4[citation needed]. They advanced to their first ever WNBA Finals and swept the Charlotte Sting[citation needed].
Looking to repeat in 2002, the Sparks again made a strong run toward the postseason, going 25–7 in the regular season under head coach Michael Cooper, who formerly for the Los Angeles Lakers[citation needed]. Again, Leslie dominated her opponents throughout the Playoffs, leading the Sparks to a perfect 6–0 record, beating the New York Liberty in the 2002 Finals[citation needed].
Teams and the league were collectively owned by the NBA until the end of 2002[citation needed], when the NBA sold WNBA teams either to their NBA counterparts in the same city or to a third party as a result of the dot-com bubble. This led to two teams moving: Utah moved to San Antonio, and Orlando moved to Connecticut and became the first WNBA team to be owned by a third party instead of an NBA franchise. This sale of teams also led to two teams folding, the Miami Sol and Portland Fire, because new owners could not be found[citation needed].
The Women's National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) threatened to strike in 2003 if a new deal was not worked out between players and the league. The result was a delay in the start of the 2003 preseason and the 2003 WNBA draft. As a result of the strike, the league received negative publicity.[19]
Former Detroit Pistons forward, Bill Laimbeer, took over the Detroit Shock in 2002 as head coach and general manager. He had high hopes for the Detroit Shock, despite the team having gone just 9–23 its previous season. Three Shock members made it the 2003 All-Star Game (Swin Cash, Cheryl Ford, and Deanna Nolan) and Laimbeer orchestrated a worst-to-first turnaround with the Shock finishing the season 25–9 and in first place in the Eastern Conference. After winning the first two rounds of the Playoffs, the Shock faced two-time champion, Los Angeles Sparks, and Lisa Leslie in the 2003 Finals. The Shock defeated the Sparks, winning Game Three on a three-pointer by Deanna Nolan[citation needed].
After the 2003 season, the Cleveland Rockers, one of the league's original eight teams, folded because its owners were unwilling to continue operating the franchise[citation needed].
Val Ackerman, the first WNBA president, resigned effective February 1, 2005, citing the desire to spend more time with her family. Ackerman later became president of USA Basketball. On February 15, 2005, NBA Commissioner David Stern announced that Donna Orender, who had been serving as the Senior Vice President of the PGA Tour and who had played for several teams in the now-defunct Women's Pro Basketball League, would be Ackerman's successor as of April 2005[citation needed].
The WNBA awarded an expansion team to Chicago (later named the Sky) in February 2006[citation needed]. In the off-season, a set of rule changes was approved that made the WNBA more like the NBA.[20]
In 2006, the league reached a milestone as the first team-oriented women's professional sports league to exist for ten consecutive seasons.[21] On the occasion of the tenth anniversary, the WNBA released its All-Decade Team, comprising the ten WNBA players who had contributed, through on-court play and off-court activities, the most to women's basketball during the league's existence.[citation needed]
After not making it to the Finals in 2004 and 2005, the Shock bounced back in 2006 behind newly acquired Katie Smith, along with six remaining members from their 2003 Finals run (Cash, Ford, Holland-Corn, Nolan, Powell, and Riley). The Shock finished second in the Eastern Conference and knocked out first-seeded Connecticut in the second round of the Playoffs. The Shock faced reigning champion Sacramento Monarchs in a five-game series, winning in Game Five on their home floor.[citation needed]
In December 2006, the Charlotte Bobcats organization announced it would no longer operate the Charlotte Sting. Soon after, the WNBA announced that the Sting would not operate for 2007. A dispersal draft was held on January 8, 2007. Teams selected in inverse order of their 2006 records with Chicago receiving the first pick.
Former Los Angeles Lakers championship coach, Paul Westhead, was named head coach of the Phoenix Mercury on October 11, 2005, bringing his up-tempo style of play to the WNBA. This fast-paced offense was perfect for his team, especially after the league shortened the shot clock from 30 seconds to 24 seconds in 2006. Much like the early Houston Comets championship teams, the Phoenix Mercury had risen to prominence led by their own "Big Three" of Cappie Pondexter, Diana Taurasi, and Penny Taylor.[citation needed]
The Mercury were well-suited for the fast offense driven by their three stars. Phoenix averaged a league-record 88.97 points per game in 2007. Other teams could not keep up with their new style of play, and the Mercury were propelled into first place in the Western Conference. Facing the reigning champions, the Detroit Shock, the Mercury imposed their high-scoring offense with hopes of capturing their first title in franchise history. Averaging 93.2 points per game in the Finals, the Mercury beat Detroit on their home floor in front of 22,076 fans in game five to claim their first-ever WNBA title.[citation needed]
In October 2007, the WNBA awarded another expansion franchise to Atlanta. Atlanta businessman Ron Terwilliger was the original owner of the new team. Citizens of Atlanta were voted for their choice of the new team's nickname and colors.[22] The Dream, as they were