Most Americans follow male sports teams but know little about their female counterparts.
This article will tell you a bit about the Women's National Basketball Association, the WNBA.
The WNBA comprises of 12 teams.
They play in 2 divisions, the Eastern and Western Conference.
The Eastern Conference teams are: Atlanta Dream, Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, Indiana Fever, NY Liberty and Washington Mystics.
The Western Conference teams are the Los Angeles Sparks, Minnesota Lynx, Phoenix Mercury, San Antonio Silver Stars, Seattle Storm, and Tulsa Shock.
The NBA was founded in 1946 and the WNBA 50 years later, in 1996.
The rules of the game are identical, but the seasons run at different times.
The WNBA season is from May-August, with playoffs held in September.
The WNBA, though not as popularly watched by Americans as other female sports, has had a lot of firsts for women's professional competition: they were the first women's league to sign a collective bargaining agreement, the first to get television rights fees, the first to be invited by the president to the White House, and they are the first women's team league to be successful for over a decade.
The New York Liberty-Indiana Fever game was the first ever outdoor game in all of professional basketball history.
In 2009 the championship game was more watched than any in years past.
That teamed with their move from NBC to ABC signals growth for the still developing league.
At this point 8 of the 12 teams are independently owned, though when the league was formed all teams were owned by the NBA - just another signal of the WNBA's growth.
With all these firsts under their belt, it's hard to believe the WNBA was not the first women's league.
There was another league, now defunct, called the Women's Basketball League.
They played from 1978-1981.
This article will tell you a bit about the Women's National Basketball Association, the WNBA.
The WNBA comprises of 12 teams.
They play in 2 divisions, the Eastern and Western Conference.
The Eastern Conference teams are: Atlanta Dream, Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, Indiana Fever, NY Liberty and Washington Mystics.
The Western Conference teams are the Los Angeles Sparks, Minnesota Lynx, Phoenix Mercury, San Antonio Silver Stars, Seattle Storm, and Tulsa Shock.
The NBA was founded in 1946 and the WNBA 50 years later, in 1996.
The rules of the game are identical, but the seasons run at different times.
The WNBA season is from May-August, with playoffs held in September.
The WNBA, though not as popularly watched by Americans as other female sports, has had a lot of firsts for women's professional competition: they were the first women's league to sign a collective bargaining agreement, the first to get television rights fees, the first to be invited by the president to the White House, and they are the first women's team league to be successful for over a decade.
The New York Liberty-Indiana Fever game was the first ever outdoor game in all of professional basketball history.
In 2009 the championship game was more watched than any in years past.
That teamed with their move from NBC to ABC signals growth for the still developing league.
At this point 8 of the 12 teams are independently owned, though when the league was formed all teams were owned by the NBA - just another signal of the WNBA's growth.
With all these firsts under their belt, it's hard to believe the WNBA was not the first women's league.
There was another league, now defunct, called the Women's Basketball League.
They played from 1978-1981.