With basketball being one of my favorite sports and the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) season just wrapping up, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to write an article outlining everything you need to know about the WNBA! Hopefully, the details of this article will get you excited about the next WNBA season and help you better understand the sport.Â
History of The WNBA
Although the WNBA was not the first major women’s basketball league, it is more special because it is a direct counterpart to the NBA and was the first and only women’s league to receive full backing from the NBA. The Women’s Basketball League, or WBL, was the first. And, although the WBL began operation at the same time as the WNBA in the fall of 1996, it ceased operation in the middle of its 1998-99 season, giving way for the WNBA to grow.
What made the WNBA so special is that it paralleled the NBA. For example, the official logo is the same as the NBA, but with a woman instead of a man. Along with the end of the WBL, the U.S. women’s basketball team had just won gold at the Summer Olympics further catapulting the success of the WNBA and drawing a larger fanbase to women’s basketball and sports in general.Â
WNBA’s Season
The WNBA season runs from May to September and every team plays 44 games, culminating in the WNBA finals in October. The top eight teams across all the conferences qualify for the playoffs. There is also an All-Star game, an exhibition game where the top 12 players from the Western Conference and the top 12 players from the Eastern Conference play each other. In the past, this game has been played every year except for the years with a Summer Olympics. However, in 2024 the game was still played and A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces was picked (unanimously!).
Differences Between the NBA and WNBA
Although the WNBA is modeled after the NBA and shares a lot of the same traditions and branding, there are still quite a few differences. Starting with some of the differences you may have already noticed in the past two paragraphs, the WNBA season runs from May to September while the NBA season runs from October to April. The NBA also has 30 teams while the WNBA only has 12.
Moving on to some of the more technical and game differences, the WNBA uses a size 6, 20 ounce ball, noticeably smaller than the NBA size 7, 22 ounce ball. WNBA games are played in 4, 10 minute quarters while NBA games are played in 4, 12 minute quarters. Along with having longer games, NBA players are salaried at about 50% of revenue, meanwhile WNBA players are salaried at about 20% of revenue.
Finally, the NBA obviously receives a lot more attention and viewership from fans with the 2023 NBA finals averaging 11.6 million viewers and the 2023 WNBA finals averaging 728,000 viewers, which is a huge increase from the 505,000 viewers the WNBA received in 2022. This number is only increasing, having jumped up to 1.2 million viewers in 2024. This popularity has been driven by young, talented stars like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.
Standout Players
The top three players for the 2024 season according to ESPN were A’ja Wilson (the aforementioned 2024 MVP) of the Las Vegas Aces, Breanna Stewart of the New York Liberty, and Alyssa Thomas of the Connecticut Sun. Not only was 6 feet 4 inches tall A’ja Wilson the 2024 MVP, but she was also the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year for the second year in a row! In 2024 she had scoring, rebounding, and shooting average than ever before in her WNBA career.
Breanna Stewart is the two-time WNBA MVP winning the title in both 2018 and 2023. She also carried her team to win the 2024 WNBA championship, beating the Las Vegas Aces who had won the previous two years. Last but not least, Alyssa Thomas, who achieved 28 double-doubles (when a player wins 10 points in 2 of the 5 major stat categories in one game) and 6 triple-doubles in the 2023 season alone. Although she had the most first-place votes of any candidate, Thomas fell just short of reaching the MVP status, but she’ll likely achieve it in the future.Â
Aside from the ESPN rankings, there are many prolific young stars in women’s basketball who have brought a lot of attention to the WNBA. Players like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese have already done a lot for the league in their one year on their respective teams, The Indiana Fever and The Chicago Sky. Clark holds the NCAA D1 all-time scoring record, with 3,685 collegiate career points. Her dominant college career playing for the Iowa Hawkeyes drew in a massive crowd before she graduated, and it followed her to the WNBA. As for Angel Reese, she led the LSU women’s basketball team to a national title her season year won Most Outstanding Player, and earned First-Team All-American Honors from the AP.Â
Who should I root for?
The three most consistently good WNBA teams are the New York Liberty, The Connecticut Sun, and The Minnesota Lynx. The New York Liberty won the WNBA title in 2024 and retained a good part of their team for the next season. As for the Connecticut Sun, they had the best defense in the league in 2024 and two of the WNBA’s best defenders, DiJonai Carrington and Alyssa Thomas. Finally, The Minnesota Lynx are tied with two other teams for the most WNBA titles, four. On top of that, they have great defense and lead the league in other stats like three-point percentage.
Picking a sports team is about more than just statistics, though. My honest recommendation is to pick a team from your hometown, state, or a place you love. Or, just start watching random games and pick a team that sticks with you.Â
The WNBA and women’s sports in general continue to get more attention year after year. It’s important to support and understand sports in order to continue this growth. Hopefully, this article gave you everything you need to start giving the WNBA the attention it deserves.