Women's National Basketball Association
The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a women's professional basketball league 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 (except in Olympic years) and the WNBA Finals at the end of September until the beginning of October.
| Founded | April 22, 1996 |
|---|---|
| First season | 1997 |
| Country | United States |
| Federation | FIBA Americas (Americas) |
| Number of teams | 12 (13 in 2025) |
| Domestic cup(s) | Commissioner's Cup |
| Current champions | Las Vegas Aces (2nd title) |
| Most championships | Houston Comets Minnesota Lynx Seattle Storm (4 titles each) |
| Commissioner | Cathy Engelbert |
| TV partners | |
| Website | WNBA.com |
| 2024 WNBA season | |
Five WNBA teams have direct NBA counterparts and normally play in the same arena: Indiana Fever, Los Angeles Sparks, Minnesota Lynx, New York Liberty, and Phoenix Mercury. The Atlanta Dream, Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, Dallas Wings, Las Vegas Aces, Seattle Storm, and Washington Mystics do not share an arena with a direct NBA counterpart, although four of the seven (the Dream, the Sky, the Wings, and the Mystics) share a market with an NBA counterpart, two (Mystics and Dream) play in NBA G League arenas, while the Storm shared an arena and market with an NBA team, the SuperSonics, at the time of its founding. The Dream, Sky, Sun, Wings, Aces, Sparks, and Storm are all independently owned.