On the heels of a much-publicized gold medal run by the 1996 USA Basketball Women's National Team at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, the WNBA began its first season on June 21, 1997 to little fanfare.

By the 2000 season, the WNBA had doubled in size from its initial season.

The WNBA awarded its first real expansion team to Chicago ( later named the Sky ) in February 2006.

On the occasion of the tenth anniversary, the WNBA released its All-Decade Team, comprising the ten WNBA players deemed to have contributed, through on-court play and off-court activities, the most to women's basketball during the period of the league's existence.

On October 20, 2009 the WNBA announced that the Detroit Shock would relocate to Tulsa, Oklahoma ; the team is called the Tulsa Shock On November 20, 2009, the WNBA announced that the Sacramento Monarchs had folded due to lack of support from its current owners, the Maloof family, also the owners of the Sacramento Kings.

The Mercury has qualified for the WNBA Playoffs in six of its fourteen years in Phoenix.

Ultimately, they recovered to gain the third seed in the 2011 WNBA Playoffs, and upset the Seattle Storm in the opening round, closing an 18-point deficit to win on Seattle's home floor, allowing the Mercury to reach its third straight conference finals.

The Liberty has qualified for the WNBA Playoffs in ten of its fourteen years in New York.

However, in 2005, the team brought Sacramento its third championship in a professional sport ( The Sacramento Knights won an indoor soccer Championship in 1999 and the Sacramento Surge won the WLAF World Bowl in 1992 ), winning the WNBA Finals for the first and only time.

The Monarchs won their first ever WNBA Finals by defeating the Connecticut Sun, three games to one in a best-of-five playoff series, which brought the city of Sacramento its second major championship in a professional sport.

Capitalizing on the popularity of women's basketball in the state as a result of the success of the UConn Huskies, the Sun also held the distinction of being the only WNBA franchise not to share its market with an NBA team from 2003 until the Seattle Supersonics relocated, leaving the Storm as an independent team in Seattle, Washington.

The Sun has qualified for the WNBA Playoffs in seven of its nine years in Connecticut.

The Sun is one of few WNBA teams that plays in a venue truly suited to its product, and is often cited for boasting the most honest attendance figures in the league.

In 2011, Target Center played host to its first championship event, the 2011 WNBA Finals.

The Mystics have qualified for the WNBA Playoffs in only six of its thirteen years in Washington.

When the NBA divested itself of all of its WNBA franchises at the end of the 2002 season, the Utah Jazz ownership did not wish to retain ownership of the Starzz.

The Storm has qualified for the WNBA Playoffs in eight of its eleven years in Seattle.

The Fever has qualified for the WNBA Playoffs in seven of its eleven years in Indiana.

In its short, three-year history, the Portland Fire franchise held some of the more dubious distinctions among WNBA franchises.

In 2004, the game was not played in its usual format due to the WNBA players competing in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

In 1997, the WNBA formed its inaugural season and Lobo was assigned to the New York Liberty during the league's first player allocations on January 22, 1997.

Since its opening day, it has hosted seven NBA Finals series with the Lakers, three WNBA Finals, the 2000 Democratic National Convention, the 2002 U. S. Figure Skating Championships, the 52nd NHL All-Star game, two NBA All-Star Games ( in 2004 and 2011 ), the Pacific-10 Conference Men's Basketball Tournament, since 2002, the WTA Tour Championships, from 2002 – 2005, UFC 60 in 2006, UFC 104 in 2009, the inaugural Latin Grammy Awards in 2000, the annual Grammy Awards, since 2000, with the exception of 2003, the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships, the Summer X Games indoor competitions, since 2003, as well as numerous concerts and HBO Championship Boxing matches.

The initial " We Got Next " advertisement ran before each WNBA season until it was replaced with the " We Got Game " campaign.

On March 11, 2008, Sales noted that she would not participate in the 2008 WNBA campaign due to nagging injuries.

The song, " We Got Hoops ", only appeared in three telecasts, though it was used throughout both the NBA and WNBA seasons during promotions for both leagues.

Nancy Elizabeth Lieberman ( born July 1, 1958 ), nicknamed " Lady Magic ", is a former professional basketball player who played and coached in the WNBA.

Chantelle Denise Anderson, pronounced " shawn-tell ", ( born January 22, 1981 in Loma Linda, California ) is a retired collegiate and professional basketball player who has played in the Women's National Basketball Association ( WNBA ) and overseas.

He continued to perform standup comedy around Chicago and worked two seasons with the WNBA as the arena host for the Chicago Sky.

Since 2001, the NWBL Pro League has played host to such WNBA stars as Sheryl Swoopes, Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings and Becky Hammon.

Many NFL, NBA, and WNBA stars have appeared on the show during their high school days.

Officially approved by the NBA Board of Governors on April 24, 1996, the creation of the WNBA was announced at a press conference with Rebecca Lobo, Lisa Leslie, and Sheryl Swoopes in attendance.

* Rebecca Lobo, television basketball analyst and former player in the professional Women's National Basketball Association ( WNBA )

When the WNBA opened in 1997, the Liberty was one of the first teams to choose a player, and they signed college superstar Rebecca Lobo ( University of Connecticut ) to a contract.

Rebecca Rose Lobo-Rushin ( born October 6, 1973 ) is an American television basketball analyst and former women's basketball player in the Women's National Basketball Association ( WNBA ) from 1997 to 2003.

Today, Lobo is seen as a reporter and color analyst for ESPN with a focus on women's college basketball and WNBA games.

* WNBA on ESPN-Rebecca Lobo

* Lisa Leslie: retired WNBA Center for the Los Angeles Sparks

The day after the sale was announced, team star Lisa Leslie announced that she was pregnant and would not play in the WNBA in the 2007 season despite Michael Cooper's return to the team as head coach.

Athletes who have earned degrees from the university include four-time NBA Championship-winner Shaquille O ’ Neal (' 05 ) and three-time WNBA MVP Lisa Leslie.

With the formation of the WNBA, Lisa Leslie established herself as the premier center, and the league's most popular player.

In 2002, Lisa Leslie of the Los Angeles Sparks becomes the first to dunk in a regular season WNBA game.

In contrast to her short tenures in the WNBA, Taylor has enjoyed far greater success in Europe and Asia, especially in the Polish Women's League where she is known by her sobriquet Lindska and has achieved a level of recognition comparable to that of Lisa Leslie in the WNBA and the Women's Chinese Basketball Association ( WCBA ).

In Game 2 of the Fever's semifinals matchup against the Shock, Tamika Whitmore set a WNBA record for points in a playoff game with 41, breaking Lisa Leslie's mark of 35.