WNBA Basketball History
History - Facts - Conferences - Winners - Glossary - Schedule
The WNBA or Women’s National Basketball Association was first established in 1996 but its first regular season began one year later in 1997. The early days were very difficult as the NBA league had been the leader in the sport of basketball.
Some of the pioneer basketball stars who helped catapult the sport were Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, Cynthia Cooper and Rebecca Lobo.
The final results of all the constant efforts concluded in a league expansion by the year 2000. Right now the WNBA has a total number of 14 teams competing in the regular season.
Most of the WNBA teams were founded no more than 11 years ago and there are two conferences the Eastern and the Western which have seven teams each. Only two teams from the Eastern conference (the Atlanta Dream and Chicago Sky) were recently established in 2008 and 2006 respectively.
Two of the most successful WNBA teams have been the Houston Comets that have won the series in four different occasions while the Los Angeles Sparks have been crowned champions two times.
The WNBA season has also incorporated as the NBA an All-Star Game during mid July where Eastern conference stars played against the Western conference players. During the 2008 the All-Star weekend will be canceled due to the Beijing Olympic Games but it will resume again during the 2009 campaign.
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