The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) - colloquially known as "The W" - is the premier women's professional basketball league. It is composed of 12 teams, all based in the United States. 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.
The NBA on NBC is the branding used for presentations of National Basketball Association (NBA) games produced by the NBC television network in the United States. NBC held broadcast rights from 1954 to 1962 and again from 1990 to 2002. During NBC's partnership with the NBA in the 1990s, the league rose to unprecedented popularity, with ratings surpassing the days of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird in the mid-1980s. Although the main NBC network no longer airs NBA broadcasts, NBA games currently air on the NBC Sports Regional Networks in the form of game telecasts that air on a regional basis, featuring local NBA teams that each of the regional networks have respective broadcast rights to air in their designated market.
Nationally television broadcasts of National Basketball Association (NBA) games first aired on ABC from 1965 to 1973. In 2002, NBA games returned to ABC as part of a contract signed with the league, along with cable sister network ESPN. After the ABC Sports division was merged into ESPN Inc. by parent company Disney in 2006, broadcasts have since been produced by ESPN, and have primarily used the NBA on ESPN branding and graphics instead of the NBA on ABC branding.
Cheryl D. Miller is an American former basketball player. She was formerly a sideline reporter for NBA games on TNT Sports and also works for NBA TV as a reporter and analyst, having worked previously as a sportscaster for ABC Sports, TBS Sports, and ESPN. She was also head coach and general manager of the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury.
Kara Marie Lawson is the head coach of the Duke Blue Devils women's basketball team. She is a former American professional women's basketball player in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and a basketball television analyst for ESPN and the Washington Wizards. Lawson primarily played as a shooting guard. She won a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China, a championship with the Sacramento Monarchs in the 2005 WNBA Finals, and coached the United States women's national 3x3 team to gold in the 2020 Summer Olympics. Lawson retired from the WNBA in 2015 to focus on her broadcasting career. She began her coaching career as an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics of the NBA in 2019.
Kayte Lauren Christensen is an American color commentator for the Sacramento Kings and former professional basketball player in the Women's National Basketball Association.
Elena Delle Donne is an American professional basketball player for the Washington Mystics of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Delle Donne played college basketball for the Delaware Blue Hens from 2009 to 2013. She was drafted by the Chicago Sky with the second overall pick of the 2013 WNBA draft, and led the Sky to the 2014 WNBA Finals, where they were defeated by the Phoenix Mercury. Delle Donne was traded to the Washington Mystics in 2017 and led them to their first WNBA championship in 2019.
NBA on TNT is an American presentation of National Basketball Association (NBA) games, produced by TNT Sports. In the United States, the TNT cable network has held the rights to broadcast NBA games since 1989, and its telecasts have been streamed on its Max platform since 2023. TNT's NBA coverage includes the Inside the NBA studio show, weekly doubleheaders throughout the regular season on Tuesdays and Thursdays, a majority of games during the first two rounds of the playoffs, and one conference finals series.
NBA Countdown, branded for sponsorship purposes as NBA Countdown Presented by DraftKings Sportsbook for ESPN editions and NBA Countdown Delivered by Papa John's for ABC editions respectively, is a pregame television show airing prior to National Basketball Association (NBA) telecasts on ABC and ESPN. The networks have aired NBA games since 2002. Typically, the program airs 30 or 60 minutes prior to the game. ESPN2 or another ESPN network may also be used as an overflow channel for the show.
Doris Burke is an American sports announcer and analyst for NBA on ESPN, NBA on ABC, College Basketball on ESPN, and College Basketball on ABC games. She formerly worked as an analyst for WNBA games on MSG and has worked on New York Knicks games. Burke was the first female commentator to call a New York Knicks game on radio and television.
The NBA on ESPN is the branding used for the presentation of National Basketball Association (NBA) games on the ESPN family of networks. The ESPN cable network first televised NBA games from 1982 until 1984, and has been airing games currently since the 2002–03 NBA season. ESPN2 began airing a limited schedule of NBA games in 2002. ABC began televising NBA games under full ESPN production in 2006. On October 6, 2014, ESPN and the NBA renewed their agreement through 2025.
Heather Cox is an American sportscaster who is a sports reporter for NBC. As Heather Schoeny, she played college volleyball at University of the Pacific.
Stephanie Ready is an American broadcaster for NBA on TNT and was formerly a broadcaster for the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Charlotte Hornets. Prior to her broadcasting career, she was a basketball coach and gained recognition as the first female coach of a men's professional league team in 2001. After a stint as a head coach at the NBA Development League, she was a part of Hornets’ broadcasts for over a decade, including a stint as the first full-time female NBA game analyst.
Thousand Islands Secondary School (TISS) is a public high school in the city of Brockville, Ontario and one of the most populous high school managed by the Upper Canada District School Board. Built in 1965, the school has been a part of the Brockville community for over 50 years
Chinenye "Chiney" Ogwumike is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). In 2020, she became the first Black woman and the first WNBA player to host a national radio show for ESPN. She was one of the first and youngest commentators ever to be named an NBA analyst for the network covering the NBA, WNBA, and variety of sports, while simultaneously playing in the WNBA. Chiney is a graduate of Stanford University, where she majored in International relations. She played in three Final Fours and finished as the conference leader in scoring and rebounding as of January 3, 2014. As of 2016, Ogwumike was elected Vice-President of the WNBA Players Association, and signed an endorsement deal with Adidas. In May 2018, Ogwumike signed a multi-year contract with ESPN to become a full-time basketball analyst.
Rosalyn Fatima Gold-Onwude is an American-Nigerian sports broadcaster. A native of New York City, Gold-Onwude played college basketball at Stanford and played on the Nigeria national team.
Suzette Maria Taylor is an American sportscaster for NBC Sports. She has worked for ESPN and the SEC Network. She has covered college football, college volleyball, National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), and men's and women's college basketball.
As the national broadcaster of the NBA, CBS aired NBA games from the 1973–74 until the 1989–90 season, during which the early 1980s is notoriously known as the tape delay playoff era.
