A few determined women in the United States had founded a professional basketball team, named it the WNBA or the National Association for Women’s Basketball. Presently the association has twelve teams from different provinces. The league was first envisioned on the 24th of April in the year 1996. The League began in the year 1997. The normal or basic play season runs from May to August while the playoffs are held in September.

Some important rarely disclosed facts about WNBA are:

Sheryl Swoopes signed up for the WNBA, becoming the first ever player to do. In addition, Cynthia Cooper had been the most significant player in the league. The very first president of WNBA was Val Ackerman. Lisa Leslie was the very first player of WNBA to bag all the three MVP awards in just one season.

The official WNBA logo- Logo Woman is a mixture of blue, white and red. It has been carefully chosen from among 50 designs. Finally the league decided on different team names once the logo was selected. Before the official uniform was introduced on May 21, 1997, the league went through several designs. At the end they came up with three jerseys and a couple of silhouettes.

It was decided that the WNBA matches would always be played in the summer as the sports calendar remained relatively stress free at the time, which meant easier and hassle free broadcasting of the matches on live television.

There were more than 50 channels present during the inauguration of the WNBA among which NBC, ESPN2 and ESPN were some of the acclaimed ones. The splendid ceremony was one of its kind and served as an inspirational event in itself.

Several WNBA teams are a part of the NBA and practice in the same location.

Presently the most distinguished teams playing in WNBA are the Seattle Storm, The Tulsa Shock and The Connecticut Sun, all of whom have strong NBA associations.

The independently owned teams are the Los Angeles Sparks, Atlanta Dream and Washington Mystics in addition to Chicago Sky. There was a time when almost each and every team of WNBA was owned by the NBA.

During the Eastern Conference, the teams present were Charlotte String, Houston Comets, New York Liberty and Cleveland Rockers while the ones at the Western Conference were Phoenix Mercury, Los Angeles Sparks, Utah Starzz and Sacramento Monarchs.

The WNBA had around 8 teams in its first season but now it comprises of 16 teams. The Washington Mystics and the Detroit Shock joined in the year 1998. The Orlando Miracles and Minnesota Lynx joined in the year 1999.

The league declared its very first collective bargain agreement on April 29, 1999. The WNBA could take up the challenge ever since its rapid growth. The tie up with the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) was another first.

The WNBA held its Inaugural WNBA All-Star Game on July 14, 1999 at the Madison Square Garden, New York. It was telecasted live on ESPN as well. There was an appealing crowd of around 18,650 people. This was a huge success and went miles with regard to popularizing the WNBA.