Women’s National Basketball Association
Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), American women’s professional basketball league that began play in 1997.
(Read James Naismith’s 1929 Britannica essay on his invention of basketball.)
The WNBA was created by the National Basketball Association (NBA) Board of Governors as a women’s analogue to the NBA. Each of the first eight WNBA franchises was located in a city that was also home to an NBA team, often with nicknames and uniform colours that were evocative of their men’s counterparts. The NBA owned each of the franchises until 2002, when it began allowing the sale of franchises to ownership groups in cities that did not have NBA teams and to groups in NBA cities that were unaffiliated with those NBA teams.
The first four WNBA titles were won by the Houston Comets, with teams that featured two of the league’s first superstars in Cynthia Cooper and Sheryl Swoopes. Helped by the dissolution of the rival American Basketball League in 1999, the WNBA grew in the early years of the 21st century to become the most successful American women’s professional sports league ever, helped along by the popularity of outstanding players such as Rebecca Lobo, Lisa Leslie, and Lauren Jackson.
The WNBA is divided into two divisions that each consist of six teams and are aligned as follows:
Winners of the WNBA championship are provided in the table.
| year | winner | runner-up | results |
|---|---|---|---|
| *Best-of-three final series until 2005; thereafter best-of-five series. | |||
| 1997 | Houston Comets | New York Liberty | 1–0 |
| 1998 | Houston Comets | Phoenix Mercury | 2–1 |
| 1999 | Houston Comets | New York Liberty | 2–1 |
| 2000 | Houston Comets | New York Liberty | 2–0 |
| 2001 | Los Angeles Sparks | Charlotte Sting | 2–0 |
| 2002 | Los Angeles Sparks | New York Liberty | 2–0 |
| 2003 | Detroit Shock | Los Angeles Sparks | 2–1 |
| 2004 | Seattle Storm | Connecticut Sun | 2–1 |
| 2005 | Sacramento Monarchs | Connecticut Sun | 3–1 |
| 2006 | Detroit Shock | Sacramento Monarchs | 3–2 |
| 2007 | Phoenix Mercury | Detroit Shock | 3–2 |
| 2008 | Detroit Shock | San Antonio Silver Stars | 3–0 |
| 2009 | Phoenix Mercury | Indiana Fever | 3–2 |
| 2010 | Seattle Storm | Atlanta Dream | 3–0 |
| 2011 | Minnesota Lynx | Atlanta Dream | 3–0 |
| 2012 | Indiana Fever | Minnesota Lynx | 3–1 |
| 2013 | Minnesota Lynx | Atlanta Dream | 3–0 |
| 2014 | Phoenix Mercury | Chicago Sky | 3–0 |
| 2015 | Minnesota Lynx | Indiana Fever | 3–2 |
| 2016 | Los Angeles Sparks | Minnesota Lynx | 3–2 |
| 2017 | Minnesota Lynx | Los Angeles Sparks | 3–2 |
| 2018 | Seattle Storm | Washington Mystics | 3–0 |
| 2019 | Washington Mystics | Connecticut Sun | 3–2 |
| 2020 | Seattle Storm | Las Vegas Aces | 3–0 |
| 2021 | Chicago Sky | Phoenix Mercury | 3–1 |
| 2022 | Las Vegas Aces | Connecticut Sun | 3–1 |
| 2023 | Las Vegas Aces | New York Liberty | 3–1 |
| 2024 | New York Liberty | Minnesota Lynx | 3–2 |