Women's National Basketball Association
Categories: Women's basketball | Women's National Basketball Association | Basketball organizations
- "WNBA" redirects here. For other uses, see WNBA (disambiguation).
The Women's National Basketball Association or WNBA is an organization governing a professional basketball league for women in the United States. Formed in 1996 as a counterpart to the NBA, the league started play in 1997.
The WNBA regular season is played in the Summer after the NBA season is over. Most teams play in the same venue as their counterpart NBA teams. Despite backing by the NBA, the league has yet to capture the popularity and financial success of its sibling league.
Contents |
History
We Got Next
Officially approved by the NBA Board of Governors on April 24, 1996, the creation of the WNBA was first announced at a press conference with Rebecca Lobo, Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes in attendance. 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, the world's most competitive professional basketball league.
On the heels of a much-publicized gold medal run by the USA Women's Basketball team at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, the WNBA started its first season in June 1997 to much fanfare. The league started its first season with eight teams; the first WNBA game featured the New York Liberty facing the Los Angeles Sparks in Los Angeles. 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 place with NBC, ESPN and the Lifetime Television Network. Penny Toler was the first woman to score a point in the league.
The WNBA centered its marketing campaign, dubbed "We Got Next", around stars Rebecca Lobo, Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes. In the league's first season, Leslie's team underperformed and Swoopes sat out the season due to her pregnancy, the league's true star emerged in 1997 WNBA MVP Cynthia Cooper, who led her Houston Comets team to victory over the New York Liberty in the first WNBA Championship game.
1999 season
The 1999 season was a milestone season for the WNBA in a variety of ways. The league's chief competition, the ABL, folded the year before and after the NBA lockout resulted in an abbreviated NBA season, the WNBA started to come into its own. Four teams had been added since the 1997 season, bringing the number of teams in the league up to 12. The drafting of University of Tennessee star Chamique Holdsclaw before the season signaled a new youth movement in a league that had traditionally been comprised of international/college veterans.
This season was also a historic one for the WNBA. Attendance at games for certain teams such as the New York Liberty had reached all-time highs. Before the season started, a collective bargaining agreement between players and the league was signed - the first collective bargaining agreement to be signed in the history of women's professional sports.
Growing pains
By the 2000 season, the WNBA had doubled in size. Two more teams had been added in 1998, two more in 1999 and four more in 2000. Up to this point, the teams and league were collectively owned by the NBA. After the 2002 season the NBA sold the WNBA teams either to their NBA counterparts in the same city or to a third party. This led to two teams moving and two teams folding before the 2003 season began. The Cleveland Rockers folded after the 2003 season.
In addition to the restructuring of teams, players would also cause changes in the league. In 2002, the WNBA players association threatened to strike the next season 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.
The 2004 season proved to be the most competitive in league history, with almost all the teams in the league vying for playoff spots. Following this, on October 21, 2004, Val Ackerman, the first WNBA president, announced her resignation, 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 once played for several teams in the now-defunct Women's Basketball League (WBL), would be named as Ackerman's successor, effective April 2005.
The WNBA awarded its first expansion franchise in several years, WNBA Chicago (later named the Chicago Sky) in February 2005.
Current organization
Conferences and schedules
The league is divided into two conferences. There are 6 teams in the Eastern Conference and 7 teams in the Western Conference. Each team plays a 34-game regular season schedule. The four teams in each conference with the best winning records go on to compete in the playoffs.
All-Star Game
In the middle of July, regular play stops and the WNBA All-Star Game is held as part of a weekend event in a selected WNBA city. The actual game is played in the native WNBA team's home arena. The All-Star Game features star players from the Western Conference facing star players from the Eastern Conference. During the season fans get to vote for the players they would like to see start the game.
Playoffs
At the end of the regular season, the top four teams in each conference are matched up in the playoffs. Each conference has two conference semi-final series, pitting the team with the best record in each conference with the team with the 4th best record in the conference. The team with the 3rd best record in each conference faces the team with the 2nd best record in the same conference. The winning teams from each of these series face each other in the conference final, with the winning team in each conference facing the other team in the WNBA Finals.
First and second round playoff games series are best-of-three playoff games series. The first game of the series is played on the home court of the team with the lower seed, while the last two games are played on the home court of the higher ranked team. The WNBA Finals is a best-of-five playoff games series.
Rules
Rules are governed by standard basketball rules as defined by the NBA, with a few notable exceptions:
- Games are played in two 20-minute halves of play, as in college basketball.
- There is a tip-off to start each half.
- The shot clock runs for 30 seconds.
- The three-point line is 20 feet and 6.25 inches (6.25 m) from the middle of the basket, shorter than the NBA distance
- The regulation WNBA ball is a minimum 28.5 inches (72.4 cm) in circumference, 1.00 inch (2.54) cm smaller than the NBA ball. This size is used for all senior-level women's competitions worldwide.
Teams
There have been a total of 17 teams in WNBA history. A total of 3 teams have folded since the league's inception: the Cleveland Rockers, the Miami Sol and the Portland Fire. Two other teams, the Utah Starzz and the Orlando Miracle moved to San Antonio and Uncasville, Connecticut respectively.
Business
The WNBA has struggled to mirror the monetary success of the NBA. Average attendance of WNBA games leaguewide is roughly one half the average attendance of NBA games. According to the WNBA league office, the maximum salary for a WNBA player in 2004 was $90,000. By comparison, $385,277 was the minimum salary of an NBA rookie. [1] Many WNBA players supplement their salaries by playing in European female basketball leagues during the WNBA off-season. As of 2005 the WNBA has yet to make a profit.
WNBA Presidents
- Val Ackerman ........... 1997-2005
- Donna Orender .......... 2005-
See also
- Players
- Post-season awards
- Other leagues
References
- "History of the WNBA." Accessed April 17, 2005.
- "Minimum NBA Salary." Accessed August 19, 2005.
- Burns, Heather: “WNBA players face year-round schedule”, The Detroit News, August 7, 2005.
- National Basketball Association (April 21, 2005). NBA Sets All-Time Attendance Records. Press Release.
- “WNBA Driving Toward Profit”, New York Post, June 7, 2005.
External links
fr:Women's National Basketball Association it:Women's National Basketball Association pl:WNBA