The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a women's professional basketball league based in the United States. It is composed of 12 teams. The league was founded on April 24, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the National Basketball Association (NBA), and league play started in 1997. The regular season is played from May to September, with the All-Star game being played midway through the season in July and the WNBA Finals at the end of September until the beginning of October.
The Phoenix Mercury are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). One of eight original franchises, it was founded before the league's inaugural 1997 season began.
The Houston Comets were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Houston. Formed in 1997, the team was one of the original eight WNBA teams and won the first four championships of the league's existence. They are one of two teams in the WNBA that are undefeated in the WNBA Finals; the Seattle Storm are the other. The Comets were the first dynasty of the WNBA and are tied with the Minnesota Lynx and Seattle Storm for the most championships of any WNBA franchise. Despite all of their success, the team was folded and disbanded by the league in 2008 during the height of the Great Recession because new ownership could not be found.
The New York Liberty is an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The Liberty compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as part of the league's Eastern Conference. The team was founded in 1997 and is one of the eight original franchises of the league. The team is owned by Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai, the majority owners of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets. The team's home games are played at Barclays Center.
Rebecca Rose Lobo-Rushin is an American television basketball analyst and former women's basketball player in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 1997 to 2003. Lobo, at 6'4", played the center position for much of her career. She played college basketball at the University of Connecticut, where she was a member of the team that won the 1995 national championship, going 35–0 on the season in the process. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. In April 2017, she was one of the members of the 2017 class of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, alongside Tracy McGrady and Muffet McGraw.
The WNBA Finals are the championship series of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the conclusion of the league's postseason each fall. The series was named the WNBA Championship until 2002. Since 2016, Verizon is the official sponsor.
Elena Viktorovna Baranova is a Russian former professional basketball player. She is a former Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) player, where she became the first player from Europe in 1997 WNBA inaugural season, the first All-Star from Russia in 2001 and played for the New York Liberty until the 2005 season.
Janel McCarville is a retired American professional basketball player from Custer, Wisconsin who is currently a high school basketball coach.
Katie Smith is the lead assistant coach for the Minnesota Lynx of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She is the former head coach of the New York Liberty.
Ann Hilde Willy Wauters is a Belgian former professional basketball player and coach, most recently serving as an assistant coach for the Chicago Sky in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She played for numerous American and European professional teams, including the Cleveland Rockers, US Valenciennes Olympic, and the San Antonio Silver Stars. She won four EuroLeague championships and one WNBA Finals during her career. Her primary position was center.
Sophia L. Witherspoon is a former American college and professional basketball player who was a guard for seven seasons in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Witherspoon played college basketball for the University of Florida, and was selected in the second round of the 1997 WNBA draft. She played professionally for the New York Liberty, Portland Fire and Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA.
The Eastern Conference is one of two conferences that make up the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), the other being the Western Conference. Both conferences consist of 6 teams.
The 1997 WNBA Championship was the championship game of the 1997 WNBA season, and the conclusion of the season's playoffs. The Houston Comets, top-seeded team of the league, defeated the New York Liberty, second-seeded team, 65-51 to win the league's inaugural championship.
The WNBA on NBC is the branding used for presentations of Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) games produced by NBC Sports and broadcast on the NBC television network in the United States.
The 1999 WNBA Championship was the championship series of the 1999 WNBA season, and the conclusion of the season's playoffs. The Houston Comets, top-seeded champions of the Western Conference, defeated the New York Liberty, top-seeded champions of the Eastern Conference, two games to one in a best-of-three series. This was Houston's third title.
Kym Hampton is a retired professional basketball player. A 6'2" center, Hampton was drafted as the number four pick in the 1997 WNBA Elite draft and played three seasons for the New York Liberty (1997–1999). Following a 12-year professional stint in Europe along with her three years in the WNBA, Hampton retired from basketball in 2000, due to worn cartilage in her right knee.
Alessandra Santos de Oliveira is a Brazilian former basketball player who spent 17 years in the national team, winning the 1994 FIBA World Championship for Women and two Olympic medals, silver in Atlanta 1996, and bronze in Sydney 2000, along with a fourth place in the 2004 Summer Olympics and the 1998 and 2006 World Championships. She has also competed in 10 different countries, including three WNBA teams - Washington Mystics (1998–99), Indiana Fever (2000) and Seattle Storm (2001).
Rhonda Blades Brown is a former professional basketball player. She was the first pick in the 1998 WNBA expansion draft and was selected by the New York Liberty. Blades was a 4-year starting point guard and captain at Vanderbilt University and played 6 years professionally including the WNBA and abroad.
Megan Kayla Walker is an American professional basketball player. She played college basketball for the UConn Huskies. Walker was selected to the first team All-American by the Associated Press (AP) and by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) in 2020.
Olaf Lange is an assistant coach for New York Liberty in the WNBA and for the Australian Opals National Team.
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