WNBA

The creation of the WNBA was officially approved by the NBA Board of Governors on April 24, 1996, and announced at a press conference with Rebecca Lobo, Lisa Leslie, and Sheryl Swoopes in attendance. The new WNBA had to compete with the recently formed American Basketball League, another professional women's league that began play in the fall of 1996, but ceased operation during its 1998–99 season.

The WNBA began with eight teams: the Charlotte Sting, Cleveland Rockers, Houston Comets, and New York Liberty in the Eastern Conference; and the Los Angeles Sparks, Phoenix Mercury, Sacramento Monarchs, and Utah Starzz in the Western Conference.

While not the first major women's professional basketball league in the United States, which was the defunct WBL, the WNBA is the only league to receive full backing of the NBA. The WNBA logo, "Logo Woman", paralleled the NBA logo and was selected out of 50 different designs.

Following a much-publicized gold medal run by the USA women's national team at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, the WNBA then began its first season on June 21, 1997. The first WNBA game featured the New York Liberty facing the Los Angeles Sparks in Los Angeles. The Liberty defeated the Sparks 67–57. A crowd of 14,284 attended the game at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, California. The game was televised nationally in the United States on the NBC television network. At the start of the 1997 season, the WNBA had television deals in with NBC (NBA rights holder), ESPN, and Lifetime. Penny Toler scored the league's first point.

The WNBA centered its marketing campaign, dubbed "We Got Next," around stars Rebecca Lobo, Lisa Leslie, and Sheryl Swoopes. In the league's first season, Leslie's Los Angeles Sparks underperformed, and Swoopes sat out much of the season due to her pregnancy. Perhaps the WNBA's first star was MVP Cynthia Cooper, Swoopes' teammate on the Houston Comets. The Comets defeated Lobo's New York Liberty in the first WNBA championship game. The initial "We Got Next" advertisement ran before each season until it was replaced with a "We Got Game" campaign.

Two teams were added in 1998 (Detroit and Washington), and two more in 1999 (Orlando and Minnesota), bringing the total number of teams in the league up to 12. The 1999 season began with a collective bargaining agreement between players and the league, marking the first collective bargaining agreement to be signed in the history of women's professional sports. That year, the WNBA also announced that it would add four more teams for the 2000 season (the Indiana Fever, the Seattle Storm, the Miami Sol, and the Portland Fire), bringing the league up to 16 teams. WNBA president Val Ackerman discussed expansion by saying, "This won't be the end of it. We expect to keep growing the league."

In 1999, the league's chief competition, the American Basketball League (ABL), declared bankruptcy. Many of the ABL's star players, including several Olympic gold medalists (such as Nikki McCray and Dawn Staley) and a number of standout college performers (including Kate Starbird and Jennifer Rizzotti), joined the rosters of WNBA teams, enhancing the overall quality of play in the league.

On May 23, 2000, the Comets became the first women’s professional team to be invited to the White House Rose Garden. At the end of the 2000 season, the Comets won their fourth championship, capturing every title since the league's inception. Led by the "Big Three" of Cooper (who won the Finals MVP for all four championships), Swoopes, and Tina Thompson, the Comets dominated every team in the league. Under head coach Van Chancellor, the team posted a 98–24 record their first four seasons (16–3 in the playoffs). After 2000, Cooper retired from the league, and the Comets' dynasty came to an end.

The Los Angeles Sparks had the best record during the 2001 WNBA season. Led by Lisa Leslie, the Sparks posted a regular-season record of 28–4 and advanced to their first WNBA Finals, sweeping the Charlotte Sting.

Looking to repeat in 2002, the Sparks again made a strong run toward the postseason, going 25–7 in the regular season under head coach Michael Cooper. Again, Leslie dominated her opponents throughout the Playoffs, leading the Sparks to a perfect 6–0 record, beating the New York Liberty in the 2002 Finals.

Teams and the league were collectively owned by the NBA until the end of 2002, when the NBA sold WNBA teams either to their NBA counterparts in the same city or to a third party as a result of the dot-com bubble. This led to two teams moving: Utah moved to San Antonio, and Orlando moved to Connecticut and became the first WNBA team to be owned by a third party instead of an NBA franchise. This sale of teams also led to two teams folding, the Miami Sol and Portland Fire, because new owners could not be found.

The Women's National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) threatened to strike in 2003 if a new deal was not worked out between players and the league. The result was a delay in the start of the 2003 preseason and the 2003 WNBA draft. As a result of the strike, the league received negative publicity.

Bill Laimbeer took over the Detroit Shock in 2002 as head coach and general manager. He had high hopes for the Shock, despite the team having gone just 9–23 its previous season. Three Shock members made it to the 2003 All-Star Game (Swin Cash, Cheryl Ford, and Deanna Nolan) and Laimbeer orchestrated a worst-to-first turnaround with the Shock finishing the season 25–9 and in first place in the Eastern Conference. In the 2003 Finals, the Shock defeated the Los Angeles Sparks 2–1, winning game three in front of a league-record crowd of 22,076.

After the 2003 season, the Cleveland Rockers, one of the league's original eight teams, folded because its owners were unwilling to continue operating the franchise.

The Seattle Storm had consecutive first-overall draft picks in 2001 and 2002, selecting Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird. The Storm's young core broke through in 2004, finishing second in the Western Conference and advancing to the Finals. In a battle of two first-time finalists, the Storm defeated the Connecticut Sun 2–1 and won their first WNBA title. Anne Donovan became the first female coach to guide a team to a WNBA championship.

Val Ackerman, the first WNBA president, resigned effective February 1, 2005, citing the desire to spend more time with her family. Ackerman later became president of USA Basketball. On February 15, 2005, NBA commissioner David Stern announced that Donna Orender, who had been serving as the senior vice president of the PGA Tour and who had played for several teams in the now-defunct Women's Pro Basketball League, would be Ackerman's successor as of April 2005.

The WNBA awarded an expansion team to Chicago (later named the Chicago Sky) in February 2005. In the off-season, a set of rule changes was approved that made the WNBA more like the NBA.

The 2005 Finals was the first one played in a best-of-five format. In another matchup between two teams seeking their first championship, the Sun came up short for the second consecutive year, falling in four games to the Sacramento Monarchs led by Yolanda Griffith.

In 2006, the league reached a milestone as the first team-oriented women's professional sports league to exist for ten consecutive seasons. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary, the WNBA released its All-Decade Team, comprising the ten WNBA players who had contributed, through on-court play and off-court activities, the most to women's basketball during the league's existence.

The Shock bounced back in 2006 behind newly acquired Katie Smith, along with six remaining members from their 2003 championship run. The Shock finished second in the Eastern Conference and knocked out first-seeded Connecticut in the second round of the Playoffs. In the Finals, they faced reigning champion Sacramento, winning in Game Five on their home floor.

In December 2006, the Charlotte Bobcats organization announced it would no longer operate the Charlotte Sting. Soon after, the WNBA announced that the Sting would not operate for 2007. A dispersal draft was held on January 8, 2007. Teams selected in inverse order of their 2006 records with the Chicago Sky receiving the first pick.

The Phoenix Mercury hired coach Paul Westhead before the 2006 season. His up-tempo style of play was perfect for the team, especially after the league shortened the shot clock from 30 seconds to 24 seconds in 2006. Led by their "Big Three" of Cappie Pondexter, Diana Taurasi, and Penny Taylor, the Mercury averaged a league-record 89.0 points per game in 2007, far surpassing the previous record, and were propelled into first place in the Western Conference. Facing the reigning champions, the Detroit Shock, in the 2007 Finals, the Mercury beat Detroit on their home floor in front of 22,076 fans in game five to claim their first-ever WNBA title.

In October 2007, the WNBA awarded another expansion franchise to Atlanta. Atlanta businessman Ron Terwilliger was the original owner of the new team. Citizens of Atlanta voted on the new team's nickname and colors, selecting the name Atlanta Dream.

During the 2008 regular season, the first-ever outdoor professional basketball game in North America, the Liberty Outdoor Classic, was played at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City. The Indiana Fever defeated the New York Liberty 71–55 in front of over 19,000 fans. In the 2008 Finals, the Shock swept the first-time finalists, the San Antonio Silver Stars, winning their third championship in six years under coach Bill Laimbeer. The victory effectively marked the end of the Shock dynasty, as Laimbeer resigned early in the 2009 season, with the team relocating shortly thereafter.

Late in 2008, the WNBA took over ownership of one of the league's original franchises, the Houston Comets. The Comets ceased operations on December 1, 2008, after no owners for the franchise could be found. A dispersal draft took place on December 8, 2008, with the first pick, Sancho Lyttle, taken by the Atlanta Dream.

Westhead left the Mercury following the 2007 title, and the team faltered in 2008, becoming the first defending champion in league history to miss the playoffs. New head coach Corey Gaines implemented Westhead's style of play, and in the 2009, the Mercury once again broke their own record, averaging 92.8 points per game in the regular season. Helped by the return of Taylor, who missed the 2008 season and a large part of the 2009 season, the Mercury clinched first place in the Western Conference and advanced to the 2009 Finals. The championship series was a battle of contrasting styles as the Mercury, number one league offense, had to face the Indiana Fever, number three league defense. Phoenix won Game One in overtime, 120–116, the highest scoring game in WNBA playoffs history, and defeated the Fever in five games, capturing their second WNBA championship.

Not only did Paul Westhead's system influence his Mercury team, but it created a domino effect throughout the league. Young athletic players were capable of scoring more and playing at a faster pace. As a league, the 2010 average of 80.35 points per game was the best, far surpassing the 69.2 average in the league's inaugural season.

On October 20, 2009, the WNBA announced that the Detroit Shock would relocate to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to become 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, who were also the owners of the Sacramento Kings at the time. The league announced it would seek new owners to relocate the team to the San Francisco Bay Area; however, no ownership was found and a dispersal draft was held on December 14, 2009. The folding of the Monarchs left the WNBA with twelve teams, a number that remained unchanged for the next fifteen seasons.

The 2010 season saw a tight race in the East, which held a .681 winning percentage over the West, its highest ever. However, it was a Western team, the Seattle Storm, who ultimately dominated the league. Led once again by the duo of Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson, the only players remaining from the 2004 championship team, the Storm finished 28–6 in the regular season and a perfect 7–0 in the playoffs. Although the Storm swept the Atlanta Dream, the 2010 Finals were a close affair, with Seattle winning the three games by a combined eight points. The Dream, who had finished their inaugural 2008 season 4–30, made a quick turnaround behind the 2009 first-overall pick Angel McCoughtry and advanced to the Finals in only their third year.

After the 2010 season, President Orender announced she would be resigning from her position as of December 31. On April 21, 2011, NBA commissioner David Stern announced that former Girl Scouts of the USA Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Laurel J. Richie, would assume duties as president on May 16, 2011.

In their first eleven seasons in the league, the Minnesota Lynx saw little success, winning only one playoff game in total. Before the 2010 season, Cheryl Reeve took over as head coach, and the team added Rebekkah Brunson and Lindsay Whalen to support 2006 first-overall pick Seimone Augustus. The Lynx failed to make the playoffs once again in Reeve's first season, but were able to select Maya Moore with the first pick in the 2011 draft. The core of Augustus, Brunson, Moore, and Whalen would go on to make six Finals appearances and win four championships over the next seven years. Their first title came immediately in 2011, with the Lynx dominating the regular season and dropping only one game throughout their playoff run. In the 2011 Finals, the Dream were swept for the second straight year despite more heroics from McCoughtry, who set still-standing league records for most points in a playoff game (42) and in a Finals game (38) during the Dream's consecutive Finals appearances.

The Lynx made it back to the 2012 Finals but fell in four games to the Indiana Fever, led by Tamika Catchings. In what was far from a smooth ride, the Fever had to stave off elimination in both of the first two rounds and lost their second-leading scorer, Katie Douglas, to injury along the way before ultimately capturing their first WNBA championship.

The much-publicized 2013 WNBA draft produced Baylor center Brittney Griner, Delaware forward Elena Delle Donne, and Notre Dame guard Skylar Diggins as the top three picks. It was the first WNBA draft televised in prime time on ESPN after the league extended its TV deal with the network through 2022. Griner, Delle Donne, and Diggins were thus labeled "The Three To See". The retirement of legends Ticha Penicheiro, Katie Smith, Sheryl Swoopes, and Tina Thompson coupled with the arrival of highly touted rookies and new rule changes effectively marked the end of an era for the WNBA and the ushering of another. The promotion of "The Three To See" helped boost television ratings for the league by 28 percent, and half of the teams ended the 2013 season profitable. The improved health of the league was on display after the season, when the Los Angeles Sparks' ownership group folded; it took the league only a few weeks to line up Guggenheim Partners to purchase the team, and the franchise also garnered interest from the ownership of the Golden State Warriors. On the court, the Minnesota Lynx won their second title in three years, sweeping the Atlanta Dream in the 2013 Finals.

This narrative was reinforced by the 2014 Finals, which featured a matchup between the Phoenix Mercury (led by Griner and Diana Taurasi) and the Chicago Sky (led by Delle Donne and Sylvia Fowles) and became the most-watched series since 2003. The Mercury swept the first-time finalist Sky to cap a dominant season: they went 29–5 in the regular season, the best winning percentage since the 2001 Sparks.

However, the 2015 season began without several stars of the previous Finals. Taurasi was paid by her Russian club, where she played during the WNBA offseason, to sit out the season, while Fowles refused to play for Chicago before she was traded to the Lynx in July. That proved enough to swing the balance, as the Lynx returned to the top by defeating the Indiana Fever in five games in the 2015 Finals. Fowles was named Finals MVP, helping the Lynx avenge their 2012 defeat. After the 2015 season, the Tulsa Shock moved to the Dallas–Fort Worth region and were renamed the Dallas Wings. The league also saw another change in leadership, as president Laurel J. Richie left her position in November 2015 and was succeeded by Lisa Borders in February 2016.

Beginning in 2016, the league abolished conference-based playoff seeding: the top eight teams by record, regardless of conference, advanced to the postseason, with the top two regular-season teams receiving byes directly to the semifinals. Coincidentally, the next two seasons were marked by a clear separation between two Western teams, the Lynx and the Los Angeles Sparks, and the rest of the league, culminating in back-to-back five-game Finals matchups. In the 2016 Finals, the Sparks, led by Candace Parker and Nneka Ogwumike, won their first championship since 2002, taking Game Five in Minnesota on a game-winning Ogwumike basket with 3.1 seconds left. The Lynx earned their revenge in the 2017 Finals, defeating the Sparks in five games. It marked Minnesota’s fourth title in seven years and the final chapter of the franchise’s dynasty, as after an unsuccessful 2018 season, Brunson, Moore, and Whalen all effectively retired from the league.

Following the 2017 season the San Antonio Stars moved to Nevada, becoming the Las Vegas Aces. In October 2018, Borders stepped down as president. Mark Tatum served as interim president until May 2019, when Cathy Engelbert was named WNBA commissioner, a role that replaced the league’s president title.

After their 2010 championship, the Seattle Storm posted only one winning season in the next seven years. However, that put them in position to draft back-to-back No. 1 overall picks for the second time in franchise history: Jewell Loyd in 2015 and Breanna Stewart in 2016. Alongside the ageless Sue Bird, they returned the Storm to the top in 2018. Their toughest playoff test came in a five-game semifinal series against the Mercury. In the Finals, Seattle swept the first-time finalist Washington Mystics, led by Delle Donne, who had been traded to Washington a year earlier.

With Stewart and Bird missing the 2019 season due to injuries, the Mystics dominated the regular season behind Delle Donne's MVP campaign and the first 50-40-90 season in WNBA history. Led by Mike Thibault, the winningest coach in WNBA history, the Mystics ran the best offense in league history, and returned to the Finals for a second straight year. There, they faced the Connecticut Sun, who reached the Finals for the first time since 2005—coincidentally, then coached by Thibault. The Mystics prevailed in five games to win the first championship in franchise history, as well as the first for Delle Donne and Thibault.

During the 2018 season, the WNBA players' union opted out of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the league, which ended after the 2019 season. In January 2020, the league and union announced that they had reached an agreement on a new CBA to take effect with the 2020 season and running through 2027. Among the features of the new agreement were:

• Total player compensation increased by slightly more than 50%. While most of this increase went to star players, all players benefited to some degree, and both sides were interested mainly in limiting, if not eliminating, overseas play by the league's top players.
• Players were able to reach unrestricted free agency a year earlier than before. The previous CBA allowed a team to designate a player as "core"—similar to the NFL's franchise tag—four times. This dropped to three in 2020 and dropped further to two in 2022.
• All player air travel to regular-season games would be, at a minimum, premium economy class. Also, each player would have her own hotel room for road games.
• Players would receive their full salary while on maternity leave. Additionally, an annual childcare stipend of $5,000 per player would be provided; teams would make apartments of at least two bedrooms available to players with children, and add facilities for nursing mothers; and the league would offer family planning benefits that would allow up to a $60,000 reimbursement for veteran players for expenses related to adoption, surrogacy, embryo preservation, or infertility treatment.
• The CBA would begin penalizing veteran players for late arrival at WNBA training camps. By the sixth year of the CBA, players with more than 2 years of service who missed the start of training camp would be suspended for the season. Exceptions included serious injury, national team commitments for non-US players, college graduations, and other significant life events.
• The CBA also addressed the issue of players serving on NBA coaching staffs during the traditional basketball season. This came to a head during the 2019 offseason when the Washington Wizards, owned by the same company that owns the WNBA's Mystics, hired Mystics player Kristi Toliver as an assistant. Under the previous CBA, teams were allowed to allocate only $50,000 per year to players as an enticement to not play overseas. Because of the Mystics' and Wizards' shared ownership, the Wizards could only pay Toliver from the Mystics' $50,000 allocation—most of which had already been committed to Elena Delle Donne, who normally did not go overseas. With the new CBA, veteran players could work as coaches in the NBA without a salary limit, regardless of the team's ownership structure.

Also in January 2020, the WNBA announced a new in-season tournament, the Commissioner's Cup, which would begin with the 2020 season. Each team was scheduled to play 10 Cup games during the season—specifically, the first home and road games against each team in its conference. The final Cup games were to be played in July, with the top team in the Cup standings from each conference advancing to a one-off Cup final in August.

The 2020 WNBA schedule originally included a month-long break in July and August to allow players to participate in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The 2020 games were postponed until 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, rendering the break unnecessary. On April 3, 2020, the WNBA announced that the beginning of its own schedule would be postponed. The 2020 entry draft took place as originally scheduled on April 17, although it was done remotely. No details of the revised schedule were announced as of the time of the draft, and the Commissioner's Cup was ultimately not held in 2020.

In June 2020, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced plans for the league to have a 22-game regular season, and a traditional playoff format, to be held exclusively at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. The players were housed at the Bradenton complex, and all games and practices took place there. Players had until June 25 to let their teams know whether they planned to participate.

On March 15, 2021, an announcement was made that the WNBA would introduce a ceremonial logo, basketball, and uniforms as part of its 25th anniversary celebratory campaign called "Count It". As part of the campaign, the league unveiled The W25, a list of 25 players determined to be the league's greatest and most influential, as chosen by a panel of media and pioneering women's players.

The delayed launch of the Commissioner's Cup was officially announced on May 12, 2021, two days before the start of the regular season. The originally planned schedule, with the first home game and first road game of each team against each of its fellow conference members doubling as Cup games, was maintained. All Cup games within each conference were played before the league took its Olympic break after July 11. The Cup final, officially termed the Commissioner's Cup Championship Game, involves the conference leaders in the Cup standings; its first edition was held on August 12 as the league's first game after the Olympic break, and was streamed via Amazon Prime Video. A prize pool of $500,000 is provided for the Cup, with players on the winning team guaranteed a minimum bonus of $30,000 and those of the losing team guaranteed $10,000, with the championship game MVP receiving an extra $5,000.

In February 2022, the league raised $75 million in capital, on terms valuing the league at $475 million. Under the deal, investors received 16 percent of the league's equity. In mid-2022, Cathy Engelbert said that the WNBA hoped to identify one or two cities for expansion either by the start of that year's playoffs or by the end of the year, with the teams starting play as early as the 2024 season. The WNBA narrowed its list of potential cities from 100 to 20 to 10. The league would evaluate each city based on 25 metrics in the categories of viewership, fan data, psychographics, sports benchmarks, and demographics. There were constant demands for expansion as Engelbert was commissioner with lottery picks cut during their first season and long-time veterans cut during training camp due to the limited number of roster spots in the league.

On September 26, 2023, The Athletic reported that the co-owners of the Golden State Warriors, Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, were finalizing an agreement to start an expansion team in San Francisco. On October 5, 2023, the agreement was formally announced. The Valkyries, which began playing in 2025 at the Chase Center, are headquartered in Oakland, and were the league's first expansion team since the Atlanta Dream in 2008. There was an expansion draft in December 2024. It was reported that the expansion fee for the team was $50 million over ten years. On the same date, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said that she expected the WNBA to add a fourteenth team by 2025, and mentioned that there were groups expressing serious interest in a franchise in Denver, Philadelphia, Portland, Sacramento, and Toronto. On May 23, 2024, it was officially announced that the Kilmer Group had acquired a franchise based in Toronto that will debut in 2026. On August 31, 2024, it was reported that the Bhathal family, owners of the Portland Thorns of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), was in negotiations to acquire a franchise based in Portland. The new Portland expansion team was officially announced on September 18, 2024, and will also debut in 2026.

On June 30, 2025, the WNBA announced expansion teams in Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia. The Cleveland team is scheduled to begin play in 2028, followed by Detroit in 2029, and Philadelphia in 2030.

In July 2025, during the WNBA All-Star Weekend, the WNBA players union and the league officials had a meeting regarding a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The current CBA, which was signed in 2020, was set to expire in 2027, but in October 2024 the WNBPA exercised its right to opt out of the agreement, effective on October 31, 2025. More than 40 players were present at the meeting, which they described as a "missed opportunity", as both sides did not get any closer to a new deal. Meanwhile, Engelbert painted the conversation as "very constructive". Players have said that revenue sharing, salary structure, and prioritization are some of the key issues that they do not agree on. On July 19, before the All-Star Game, all players wore "Pay Us What You Owe Us" T-shirts during warmups and fans chanted "pay them!" in support after the game. In August, representatives of the WNBA and the WNBPA had another meeting in New York to continue the negotiations. On October 30, the WNBA and the WNBPA agreed to an extension, pushing the deadline for the CBA expiration for 30 days, until November 30. On November 30, the WNBA and the WNBPA agreed to a second extension, pushing expiration deadline until January 9, 2026. On December 18, the WNBPA announced that the union had authorized the executive committee to "call a strike when necessary" as players continued negotiations with the league over a new CBA. If both sides don't reach an agreement, the league could experience a lockout, which has never happened in its history.