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 New York Liberty are 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 Brooklyn Nets. The team's home games are played at Barclays Center.
The National Basketball Association All-Star Game is a basketball exhibition game hosted every February by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and showcases 24 of the league's star players. Since 2022, it was held on the third Sunday of February, the same day that the Daytona 500 was held, and one week after the Super Bowl. It is the featured event of NBA All-Star Weekend, a three-day event which goes from Friday to Sunday. The All-Star Game was first played at the Boston Garden on March 2, 1951.
The WNBA draft is an annual draft held by the WNBA through which WNBA teams can select new players from a talent pool of college and professional women's basketball players. The first WNBA draft was held in 1997.
Derrick Allen Mahorn is an American former professional basketball player who played power forward and center for the Washington Bullets, Detroit Pistons, Philadelphia 76ers, and the New Jersey Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is currently a radio analyst for the Detroit Pistons, works as a co-host/analyst on SiriusXM NBA Radio, and during the summer is the head coach of the Aliens of the BIG3.
Janel McCarville is a retired American professional basketball player from Custer, Wisconsin who is currently a high school basketball coach.
An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also hope that the expansion of their competition will grow the popularity of the sport generally. The term is most commonly used in reference to the North American major professional sports leagues but is applied to sports leagues in other countries with a closed franchise system of league membership. The term refers to the expansion of the sport into new areas. The addition of an expansion team sometimes results in the payment of an expansion fee to the league by the new team and an expansion draft to populate the new roster.
The Chicago Sky are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Sky compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference. The franchise was founded prior to the 2006 season. The Sky experienced a period of success from 2013 to 2016, making four playoff appearances and playing in the 2014 WNBA Finals. They experienced a second period of success from 2019 to 2022 and won their first championship in the 2021 WNBA Finals.
Kristin Lynne Haynie is an American former basketball player in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and current head coach for the Central Michigan women's team.
Kristen Cherie Mann is an American former professional basketball player who played for the Minnesota Lynx, Atlanta Dream, Indiana Fever, and Washington Mystics of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She played college basketball for the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos.
Megan Duffy is an American women's basketball coach, currently the head coach at Virginia Tech. Previously, she had been the head coach with Marquette, before that the Miami RedHawks women's basketball team, an associate head coach with the Michigan Wolverines women's basketball team, George Washington Colonials women's basketball team, an assistant coach with St. John's Red Storm women's basketball team, and a professional basketball player in the WNBA, most recently playing for the New York Liberty.
Lindsey Marcie Harding is an American professional basketball coach and former player. She serves as the head coach of the Stockton Kings. Throughout her playing career, Harding played for the Minnesota Lynx, Washington Mystics, Atlanta Dream, Los Angeles Sparks, New York Liberty and Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and has played overseas in Turkey and Russia. She was previously a scout and a player development coach for the Philadelphia 76ers. She was born in Mobile, Alabama, but grew up in Houston, Texas and also holds a Belarusian passport.
The 2017 NHL expansion draft was an expansion draft conducted by the National Hockey League on June 18–20, 2017 to fill the roster of the league's expansion team for the 2017–18 season, the Vegas Golden Knights. The team's selections were announced on June 21 during the NHL Awards ceremony at T-Mobile Arena.
Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) is an American professional field lacrosse league composed of 8 teams. The league's inaugural season debuted on June 1, 2019, and included a 14-week tour-based schedule taking place in 12 major-market cities. The league was founded by the American professional lacrosse player Paul Rabil and his brother Mike Rabil. Investors include The Chernin Group, The Raine Group and Joe Tsai.
Crystal Simone Dangerfield is an American basketball player for the Atlanta Dream of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). After a high school career that made her the nation's top-ranked point guard, she played college basketball for the UConn Huskies. Dangerfield was drafted in the second round of the 2020 WNBA draft by Minnesota, where she was named WNBA Rookie of the Year after leading the team in scoring. At 5'5", for the 2023 season, she is the shortest player in the WNBA.
Michaela Nne Onyenwere is a Nigerian-American basketball player for the Chicago Sky of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and for the Uni Girona CB of the Liga Femenina de Baloncesto. She played college basketball with the UCLA Bruins of the Pac-12 Conference.
Jade Melbourne is an Australian professional basketball player for the Washington Mystics of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She plays for the Australian national team.
The 2023 WNBA Draft, the WNBA's draft for the 2023 WNBA season and 28th draft in WNBA history, was held following the 2022–23 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The 2023 draft took place at Spring Studios New York on April 10, 2023. It was exclusively televised on ESPN in the United States and on TSN3/5 in Canada at 7:00 p.m. EDT.
The Golden State Valkyries are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco, California, United States. The team is scheduled to begin play in 2025 as a member of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team will play its home games at the Chase Center in San Francisco, while being headquartered in Oakland.
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