The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a professional basketball league in the United States. It is currently composed of twelve teams. The league was founded on April 22, 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. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, plans to hold a midseason tournament, the Commissioner's Cup, starting in the 2020 season were placed on hold. Initially, regular-season Cup games were to be played through early July, followed by a final match in August. The pandemic also led to the entire 2020 season being held without fans at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.
Manon Rhéaume is a retired Canadian ice hockey goaltender. An Olympic silver medalist, she achieved a number of historic firsts during her career, including becoming the first woman to play in any of the major North American pro-sports leagues.
Lindsay Marie Whalen is the head coach of the University of Minnesota's women's basketball team.
William J. Laimbeer Jr. is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the Las Vegas Aces of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).
Diana Lorena Taurasi is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She was drafted by Phoenix first overall in the 2004 WNBA draft. Taurasi has won the WNBA Rookie of the Year Award (2004), three WNBA championships, one WNBA Most Valuable Player Award (2009), two WNBA Finals MVP Awards, a historic five Olympic gold medals,, five scoring titles, and three FIBA World Cups. She has also been selected to nine WNBA All-Star teams and ten All-WNBA teams. In 2011, she was voted by fans as one of the WNBA's Top 15 Players of All Time. On June 18, 2017, Taurasi became the WNBA all-time leading scorer and on June 27, 2021, became the first player to surpass 9000 points.
An exhibition game is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or the team's rankings is either zero or otherwise greatly reduced. In team sports, matches of this type are often used to help coaches and managers select and condition players for the competitive matches of a league season or tournament. If the players usually play in different teams in other leagues, exhibition games offer an opportunity for the players to learn to work with each other. The games can be held between separate teams or between parts of the same team.
World TeamTennis (WTT) is a mixed-gender professional tennis league played with a team format in the United States, which was founded in 1973.
Orleans Arena is a 9,500-seat multi-purpose arena in Paradise, Nevada, in the Las Vegas Valley. It is located at the Orleans Hotel and Casino and is operated by Coast Casinos, a subsidiary of Boyd Gaming Corporation.
Penelope Jane Taylor is an Australian retired professional basketball player and assistant coach. During her 19-year career, Taylor spent the most time with the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA, where she won three championships. She also won the WNBL with her first club, the Australian Institute of Sport, and played in China, Italy, Turkey and Russia. As part of the Australian woman's national team, Taylor won two Olympic medals and led the Australian Opals to a gold medal at the World Championships, winning tournament MVP honours ahead of teammate Lauren Jackson.
The Las Vegas metropolitan area is home to many sports, most of which take place in the unincorporated communities around Las Vegas rather than in the city itself. The Las Vegas Valley has three major league professional teams: the Vegas Golden Knights of the National Hockey League (NHL), which began play in 2017 as the region's first major pro team, the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL) which began play in 2020 after relocating from Oakland, California, and the Las Vegas Aces of the WNBA. Las Vegas is home to three minor league sports teams: the Las Vegas Aviators of the Triple-A West, the Las Vegas Lights FC of the USL Championship, the league at the second level of the U.S. men's soccer league system, and the Henderson Silver Knights of the American Hockey League, the league at the second level of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Las Vegas Lights are currently the only team playing in the City of Las Vegas, at the city-owned Cashman Field.
Rebekkah Brunson is an American basketball coach, currently an assistant coach with the Minnesota Lynx of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Brunson is a former forward for the Lynx and is the only player to win 5 WNBA championships. She held the WNBA record for rebounding, which she ceded to Lynx's center Sylvia Fowles in 2020.
The Liberty Flames and Lady Flames are the athletics teams of Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. They are a member of the NCAA Division I level in 20 sports. LU is a member of the ASUN Conference for most sports. Two sports that are not sponsored by the ASUN are housed elsewhere. Women's swimming competes in the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association. The field hockey team was a member of the Northern Pacific Field Hockey Conference before that league's demise after the 2014 season. After playing the 2015 season as an independent, the team joined the Big East Conference in 2016. In football, Liberty participates in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision as an independent. The mascot, Sparky, is frequently seen at events. Liberty University is the second youngest school in NCAA Division I, founded in 1971. As a member of the Big South Conference, Liberty regularly competed for the Sasser Cup, which is the trophy for the university which has the best sports program among the member institutions. Liberty won the Sasser Cup 10 times, the most in Big South Conference history.
Sports in Atlanta has a rich history, including the oldest on-campus NCAA Division I football stadium, Bobby Dodd Stadium, built in 1913 by the students of Georgia Tech. Atlanta also played host to the second intercollegiate football game in the South, played between the A&M College of Alabama and the University of Georgia in Piedmont Park in 1892; this game is now called the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry. The city hosts college football's annual Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and the Peachtree Road Race, the world's largest 10 km race. Atlanta was the host city for the Centennial 1996 Summer Olympics, and Downtown Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park was built for and commemorates the games.
The Women's Basketball Development Association (WBDA) is a professional development female basketball league.
T-Mobile Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States, and is the home venue for the National Hockey League's Vegas Golden Knights, who began play in 2017.
Kayla McBride is an American professional basketball player for the Minnesota Lynx of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She was drafted 3rd overall by the San Antonio Stars in the 2014 WNBA draft. McBride played shooting guard for Notre Dame, where she led the Fighting Irish to four consecutive Final Fours and three NCAA championship appearances.
Emma Meesseman is a Belgian professional basketball player for UMMC Ekaterinburg. After playing basketball in Belgium, Meesseman was drafted by the Mystics with the 19th overall pick in the second round of the 2013 WNBA draft. She was the 2011 FIBA Europe Young Women's Player of the Year, and the 2019 WNBA Finals MVP.
A’ja Riyadh Wilson is an American professional basketball player for the Las Vegas Aces of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Wilson played for the South Carolina Gamecocks in college, and helped lead the Gamecocks to their first NCAA Women's Basketball Championship in 2017, and won the NCAA Basketball Tournament Most Outstanding Player award. In 2018, she won a record 3rd straight SEC Player of the Year award, led South Carolina to a record 4th straight SEC Tournament Championship, became the all-time leading scorer in South Carolina women's basketball history, and was a consensus first-team All-American for the 3rd consecutive season. Wilson swept all National Player of the Year awards as the best player in Women's College basketball for 2018. In the 2018 WNBA draft, she was drafted first overall by the Aces. Wilson won WNBA MVP in 2020, and she won her first Olympic Gold medal in the 2020 Summer Olympics.
The Las Vegas Aces are an American professional basketball team based in Las Vegas metropolitan area. The Aces compete in the Western Conference of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), and play their home games at Michelob Ultra Arena in the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
