Basketball was created in 1891 by James Naismith, a Canadian-born physical fitness professor at Springfield College in Massachusetts. Wanting to find a way to allow his students to exercise indoors during the cold New England winters, after coming up with a game that would involve throwing a ball into a raised goal, he looked for some boxes for goals, but only found peach baskets to nail up. Dr. Naismith's original version of the game is very different from the one played today, as he changed many of the original rules himself while testing the game with his students. Thus, "basket-ball", in its earliest recorded form, was born.

Modern basketball got its start in 1954, when Danny Biasone and Leo Ferris promoted the 24-second shot clock (technically, neither invented the shot clock, but having it be 24 seconds duration was their idea^{Why 24 seconds?}By Biasone's account, he looked at the box scores from games where there was little to no stalling, and noticed that in those games, around 120 shots were taken by both teams combined across the whole 48 minutes. Divide that all up and it comes out to a shot every 24 seconds.);^note While newspaper accounts of the day gave most of the credit to Ferris, Biasone ended up with most of the credit in later decades. Ferris left basketball for good shortly before the NBA introduced the shot clock, and fell fatally ill right at the time he was starting to get some recognition for the clock. The team in possession of the ball has twenty-four seconds to attempt a shot that at least touches the rim.^note As long as a shot leaves the shooter's hand before the clock runs out, a made shot counts, and one that hits the rim resets the clock. Currently, the shot clock resets fully after a made basket or defensive rebound, but only to 14 seconds in the NBA and 20 seconds in NCAA play on offensive rebounds. Before the shot clock, many teams would stall as long as they could, resulting in non-eventful and extremely tedious games, to the point where some quarters would be left scoreless, with one really low point involving a game with a final score of 19-18. After the National Basketball Association implemented the shot clock and overhauled the foul system—creating the fast paced game we know today—attendance at NBA games rose by 40%.

The objective of basketball is for one of two teams to have the highest point total by the end of the game. Basketball teams are made up of as many as 15 players, with five on the court at any given time, with the remaining members on the bench. Substitution is unlimited, but can only take place during a stoppage of play. Each of the five on-court players fills a certain position on the court, along with their own responsibilities. These player positions include the Point Guard (the team's best passer and ballhandler, responsible for both dribbling the ball up towards the team's side of the court, and relaying which offensive or defensive play the team will execute) the Shooting Guard (traditionally not the best ballhandler, but more than makes up for it in their ability to score and control the ball from a variety of distances), the Center (the team's Big Guy, focused less on scoring and more on gaining or regaining possession of the ball, whether on offense or defense), the Small Forward (the team's all-rounder, with particular strengths in ballhandling and opening possible scoring opportunities from within the three-point line) and the Power Forward (similar to the Center in stature and purpose, but is normally athletic enough to move with some quickness around or within the opposing team, whether on offense or defense). In play diagrams, these individuals are often designated by numbers—point guard 1, shooting guard 2, small forward 3, power forward 4, center 5. However, the boundaries between many of these positions have become increasingly blurred in recent years, and the traditional positions themselves have become more and more antiquated, especially in the NBA. Below the professional level, many teams choose to field three or even four guards, with the remaining player(s) christened with the simple title of "frontcourt" (or colloquially "bigs"). Common positional "blurs" include:

• Swingman or wing – Players capable of fulfilling both small forward and shooting guard responsibilities. More often than not will implement a mixture of the former two in their playstyle. Most NBA teams today will have two wings on the floor at any given time.
• Forward-center – Almost always someone who can play power forward or center, or, similar to the aforementioned Wing, mixes their two prime positions.
• Combo guard or lead guard – Capable of playing both guard positions. In today's NBA, many teams will have their best perimeter player as the nominal point guard, even if the same player would have been a shooting guard or small forward in an earlier time.
• Point forward – As the name implies, a small forward who possesses strong enough ballhandling skills and general knowledge of the game's fundamentals to be able to run a team's offense and defense as a point guard. (Arguably, Nikola Jokić can be termed a point center, though that concept hasn't really taken hold in the basketball community.)
• Stretch four – Combination of power forward and small forward. The concept is that of a power forward ("four") able to "stretch" the opposing team's defence by being able to shoot from outside the three-point line; all leagues award three points instead of the standard two for shots taken behind a designated line on the floor. A related and even more recent innovation is the "stretch five", a center who's a legitimate threat beyond the line.

There's a lot more to this than can be gone into depth - The Other Wiki has a long, detailed article on basketball's history, rules, regulations, controversies, conundrums, crowning moments, and players of note.

Competitively, basketball is played worldwide on near-all levels. However, it is most popular in North America, where it, over the past fifty years, has steadfastly been neck-and-neck with baseball for second place, after American Football; the Philippines, where it's by far the most popular sport; and the Baltics, with Latvia winning the first ever Eurobasket and hosting it in 2015, producing several European basketball and NBA stars like Jānis Krūmiņš, Maigonis Valdmanis, Valdis Muižnieks, Valdis Valters, Igors Miglinieks, Gundars Vētra, Andris Biedriņš, Kristaps Porziņģis and Dāvis Bertāns, and ASK Riga winning the EuroLeague three times in a row before becoming defunct, and Lithuania winning Eurobasket three times, hosting it twice, winning the EuroLeague once, earning 8 other medals in the Eurobasket, the World Championships and the Olympic Games, the men's national team having extremely high TV ratings with three quarters of the country's population watching their games live in 2014, and producing several NBA players, including the father-son pair of Arvydas and Domantas Sabonis, Šarūnas Marčiulionis, and Jonas Valančiūnas. The elder Sabonis and Marčiulionis are both in the Naismith Hall of Fame. Quite close behind are the Balkans, in particular Serbia, where the sport goes neck to neck with football; some of the more notable Serbian (or of Serbian origin but living elsewhere) players include Vlade Divac, Pe(d)ja Stojaković, Nikola Jokić and Luka Dončić.

International basketball is governed by FIBA (a name taken from the French acronym for "International Basketball Federation", Fédération Internationale de Basketball; pronounced FEE-ba), a body based in Switzerland.^note FIBA originally stood for "International Amateur Basketball Federation". When the international game opened itself to professional players, the governing body dropped "Amateur" from its name, but kept the acronym because it still worked in French. Near-all leagues around the world play under FIBA's rules, with the main exceptions being those based in the US. The Philippine Basketball Association uses a mashup of FIBA and NBA rules. The Basketball Tournament (TBT), a 64-team men's event held in the US during the offseason with a $1 million winner-take-all prize, uses NCAA rules with some unique modifications. That said, the rule sets aren't all that different. The main differences in the rule sets are:

• Duration: FIBA splits its regulation games into four 10-minute quarters, as do U.S. college women's basketball and the WNBA. College men's basketball uses the originally-conceived timing structure of two 20-minute halves; the NBA and PBA use four 12-minute quarters. All of the named rule sets have 5-minute overtime periods, with the game ending only when one team has a higher score than the other at the end of an overtime period.
  • TBT uses 9-minute quarters, with a unique endgame procedure called the Elam Ending (after its inventor). For more details, see TBT's description in the "Others" folder—here, it's enough to say that it eliminates any need for overtime.
  • The NBA All-Star Game adopted the Elam Ending in 2020 but got rid of it after the 2023 edition; its method is also discussed alongside the more detailed description of TBT.
  • The NBA G League uses the NBA's timing rules with one major exception—from 2022–23, regular-season games use the aforementioned Elam Ending in overtime.
  • The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), the rule-making body for U.S. high school competition, uses 8-minute quarters with 4-minute overtimes.
• Shot clock: 24 seconds for all professional play (except TBT), 30 seconds in college (men's and women's) and TBT. NFHS rules do not specifically mandate or prohibit a shot clock; its use or non-use is up to state-level associations. Most don't use a shot clock; before 2022–23, those that did variously opted for 30 or 35 seconds. Since 2022–23, NFHS has mandated a 35-second clock for associations that use it.
• Fouling out: In the NBA, WNBA, PBA, and TBT, players are disqualified from the game on their sixth personal foul ^note the most commonly-distributed foul in the sport, usually given upon a player intentionally making bodily contact with whoever has the ball. In FIBA, U.S. colleges, and NFHS, players have to commit five (however, in college and high school [but not the NBA], technical fouls are treated as personals [so if you get a call against you that you thought was wrong, and you dispute it, that technical would foul you out]). For example, if you had three fouls, and the official called you for blocking (your fourth foul), but you claimed you had position on the floor, and you disputed that call, you would end up fouling out, because the original call was your fourth foul, and the technical against you for your dispute is treated as a personal foul, just as if you had hit or charged or otherwise contacted another player.
• Size of the court: The court used in US college play and the NBA is the largest, at 94 by 50 feet (28.7 by 15.2 m). FIBA's is slightly smaller, at 28 by 15 meters (91.9 by 49.2 ft). NFHS does not mandate a specific court size, but its "optimal" court is the same width as the college/NBA court but 10 feet (3.05 m) shorter. However, some newer high schools opt for the 94-foot NCAA court, and many older schools have courts even shorter than the optimum.
• Three-point arc: In increasing order of distance from the basket, it's NFHS, FIBA, and NBA. The PBA, WNBA, and NCAA use FIBA's arc (though in the corners, the WNBA uses the NBA arc instead of FIBA's). For most of the 2010s (and into the 2020s for women), the NCAA arc had been between the high-school and FIBA arcs. The NCAA switched to the FIBA arc in 2019–20 for Division I men's play, 2020–21 for men's play in other divisions, and 2021–22 for all women's play. Starting with the 2024–25 season, the PBA added a four-point arc, at a uniform 27 feet from the center of the basket (2 feet farther than the NBA's three-point line and slightly less than 5 feet farther than the FIBA three-point line).
• Timeout rules vary significantly between the various rule sets. The differences are too involved to list here, but some key points:
  • Players are not allowed to call timeouts under FIBA rules—only coaches can do so. The PBA follows FIBA rules on this point. All North American rule sets allow players or coaches to call timeouts.
  • The NCAA has four different timeout systems: one each for men's games that aren't broadcast, women's non-broadcast games, men's broadcast games, and women's broadcast games. Both men's and women's broadcast games provide for media timeouts—8 in the men's game (played in halves) and 6 in the women's game (one per quarter, plus the breaks after the first and third quarters).
  • The NBA has two mandatory timeouts per quarter, and has a procedure for taking timeouts and charging them to teams if coaches or players don't call them.
• The rule sets also have subtle differences that affect when teams get to shoot free throws instead of putting the ball back into play, with a new shot clock where applicable. (If a player is fouled while shooting, he or she always gets to shoot free throws—one if the basket was made, and two or three [or possibly four in the PBA] if the basket attempt was missed.) While these differences are too involved for this page, suffice it to say that they can significantly affect late-game strategies.

The NBA is so famous around the world that fans tend to forget that there are basketball leagues in other countries. Here is a list of other countries with a strong basketball presence.

• Lithuania: A former Soviet Republic where basketball seems to be the only sport practiced. Some famous NBA players were born here, including LeBron's buddy Žydrūnas Ilgauskas, and the legendary Arvydas Sabonis (7'3"), who could have been the best player ever if he hadn't often been injured.^note  He still had the best stats in NBA for the minutes he was playing at age 35, after suffering a rupture of both Achilles tendons, and was then basically playing without jumping nor running. In fact, when he came to Portland in 1995, the Blazers' team doctor told the GM that Sabonis would qualify for a handicapped parking space based solely on his leg X-rays! A few other Lithuanians, among them Arvydas' son Domantas, play in the NBA; many others play in major European teams. The domestic league is usually a battle between Žalgiris, the elder Sabonis' old club from Kaunas, and Rytas, from the capital city of Vilnius.
• Spain: Won the 2006 World Championship (now World Cup), 2009, 2013, and 2022 European Championships, and 2019 World Cup. Have reached at least the semifinals in the last 11 EuroBasket editions, and lost against the U.S.A. in the 2012 and 2016 Olympic finals. Country of Pau Gasol, recently retired Catalonia-born forward with multiple NBA teams, most notably the Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Lakers; his brother, Marc Gasol, also recently-retired center of the Lakers, Grizzlies, and Toronto Raptors; 2019 World Cup MVP Ricky Rubio, now back home in Spain after a decade-plus in the NBA; and Serge Ibaka (born in the Republic of the Congo, but naturalized in Spain), shot-blocking wizard who made his name with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Spain's domestic league, Liga ACB,^note "ACB" is the Spanish initialism for "Association of Basketball Clubs" is often considered the world's top league outside the NBA, with three especially prominent teams: the basketball squads of Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, plus standalone basketball club Baskonia.
• Greece: Another major country. Two major teams (Panathinaikos and Olympiacos' basketball clubs) fight every year for the conquest of the local title (like they do in pretty much every other sport both are involved, in fact) and are top contenders on the continental level, having won nine EuroLeagues together. Greek supporters really are hot. Treated former Atlanta Hawks and current Phoenix Suns player Josh Childress as a god when he went to Greece to play for Olympiacos. Currently, the country's best-known player is the Bucks' "Greek Freak", Giannis Antetokounmpo.^note rough pronunciation: YAH-nis AH-day-toh-KOON-boh, though nowadays YAH-nis will do. He and his four brothers are children of Nigerian parents; the spelling is a romanized Greek version of the Yoruba (his father's ethnicity) "Adetokunbo".
  • Their national basketball team is no slouch, either: a Dark Horse Victory (beating both Yugoslavia and the USSR) in the 1987 European Championship, which was hosted in Greece, created a frenzy that solidified basketball as a major sport in the country. Sure enough, after one-and-a-half decades of near-misses, Greece won the European Championship again in 2005 and got the Silver medal next year in the **World** Championship, although everybody remembers the semi-final win against the US.
• Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia: Formerly known altogether as Yugoslavia, they are, along with Team USA, the most successful team in Basketball World Cups, each with 5 golds. Always have a tough national team, and they are able to beat almost anybody, even after the collapse of the original country. Home to players like Darko Miličić, Peja Stojaković, Goran Dragić, and Luka Dončić, known for their tenacity and accuracy beyond the three-point line. Slovenia won a surprise EuroBasket title in 2017 behind Dragić (who had previously announced this would be his international finale) and then-teenage sensation Dončić, and Serbia finished second at the 2023 World Cup despite three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić sitting out.
  • While they were still Yugoslavia, their team was dominated by close friends Vlade Divac (a Serb) and Dražen Petrović (a Croat) who were later both signed to the NBA, but after the split of Yugoslava and Divac throwing a Croatian flag^note Divac claimed in an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary that if the guy who approached the team on the floor was waving a Serbian flag, he would still have thrown it to the ground, because he wasn't too happy with that basketball game being politicized as it was, the two stopped talking and Divac was never able to patch up his relationship with Petrović before the latter died in a car accident in Germany.
• Italy & France: Countries with ups and downs. Italy was the silver medal winner in the 2004 Olympics, losing to Argentina in the Gold Medal game. France, the silver medalists in Tokyo 2020/21 and at home in Paris 2024, is currently the nationality second most represented in the NBA (after the USA itself). Tony Parker is also famous for his wife ex-wife, and Joakim Noah (born in New York City and mostly raised in the US) is also famous for his dad, former tennis star Yannick Noah. However, with both now retired, the current faces of French basketball are the "Stifle Tower", four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert, and rising megastar Victor Wembanyama.
• Russia/Soviet Union: As often in sport. The most famous Russian player, the now-retired Andrei Kirilenko, best known for his long tenure with the Utah Jazz, is known to love puns: he chose number 47 because of his initials.
• Angola: Angola is the dominant country in African basketball, as is...
• Puerto Rico: Puerto Rico being dominant in Central American basketball. Their greatest feat was in the 2004 Olympics where they soundly beat seemingly unbeatable Team USA in the group stage.
  • Puerto Rico is a US territory and people born there are automatically US citizens. It came as no surprise to astute observers that a Puerto Rican basketball team could go toe-to-toe with one from the rest of the US.
• Argentina: Dominates the sport in South America—or at least did until the core players from their heyday in the early 21st century got old, though they're still no pushovers, as evidenced by a silver medal at the 2019 World Cup. Was the first world champion, and grabbed the Olympic gold in Athens 2004. Were FIBA's #1 after the Beijing Olympics, but now are #4. Better known for Hall of Famer Manu Ginóbili, who won four NBA titles with the San Antonio Spurs, led the 2004 gold-medal team, and also made it into the World Championship All-Tournament team twice, in 2002 and 2006.
  • Before Argentina, there was Brazil: A potency in the 1950s and 1960s, with two World Championships and two Olympic bronzes (plus a third in 1948). In the '80s and '90s, it was the team of Oscar Schmidt, who holds the world record for points scored with 49,702^note the NBA's leader, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had 38,387, many of them thanks to his three-point shooting proficiency. But the team has struggled since Schmidt's retirement in 1996, specially because volleyball started to take basketball's popularity in Brazil. However, the country brought out some good NBA players in Nenê, Leandro Barbosa, Anderson Varejão and Tiago Splitter^note Quick bit of trivia: Schmidt himself was picked by the New Jersey Nets in the 1984 Draft, but he refused because he wanted to keep playing for the Brazilian team - at the time, since international basketball was amateur, NBA players could not represent their countries in the international arena, and they qualified for the 2012 Olympics after three non-appearances - in which Brazil nearly trumped rival Argentina in the quarterfinals.
• Germany: "Discovered" basketball with the Dallas Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki (though there was Detlef Schrempf before him, Nowitzki managed to overshadow his notability); developed into a regular team before taking a serious level in badass in the 2020s, winning the 2023 World Cup and EuroBasket 2025.
• Turkey:^note now known in international sports as Türkiye, the country's native-language name They may have only four or five notable teams found in this country (Anadolu Efes and Fenerbahçe usually being the big two, with Beşiktaş gaining some recent notice due to them grabbing big-name NBA players like Allen Iverson and Deron Williams, and Galatasaray and Karşıyaka also picking up recent titles), but they also have some good players that came from there like Hedo Türkoğlu, Mehmet Okur, Ersan İlyasova, Ömer Aşık, Semih Erden, and recent Turks Enes Kanter Freedom^*who adopted "Freedom" as his new surname upon becoming a US citizen in November 2021; see his entry in the "Real Life" folder of The Stateless for more details and Alperen Şengün. Basically, they gained interest in basketball starting in 2001 when they got a silver medal in the European Tournament and will more likely than not gain more interest with another silver medal while being the hosts for the 2010 FIBA World Championships. More recently, they narrowly lost the 2025 EuroBasket final to Germany.
• Israel: Or, should we say, Maccabi Tel Aviv. Historically the best team on the Israeli league by far (with 49 state championships!), Maccabi has 6 European championships, a highly devoted fanbase, and a reputation as "the country's team" (of course, it helps them that the Israeli national team kinda sucks). Naturally, the other teams don't like Maccabi. The first Israeli player to play in the NBA is Omri Casspi, who played for Sacramento before a last-minute (er, last-pre-lockout-day) trade forced him to move to Cleveland. The NBA's first true Israeli star, however, didn't emerge until the mid-2020s breakout of Deni Avdija.
• China: China has a few professional leagues, but the most popular is the Chinese Basketball Association^note (in fact, China's hoping to having the CBA become the second-best professional basketball league around behind the NBA). They had a few players from China's CBA playing in the NBA, such as the first Chinese NBA player Wang Zhizhi (of Bayi), first Chinese NBA starter and NBA Finals champion Mengke Bateer^note of the 2002-03 San Antonio Spurs, and Yi Jianlian (from Guangdong), but the best one to come out of there was Yao Ming, a former player and current owner of the CBA's Shanghai Sharks. The NBA gained many Chinese fans from Yao Ming playing in Houston, but when Yao announced his retirement in 2011, some of those same fans no longer bothered with that league. The best two teams from their CBA are the Bayi (Army Shanglu) Rockets and the Guangdong (Winnerway Hongyuan) Southern Tigers, the latter of which always makes it to the playoffs. Aside from the two years when Yao's Shanghai Sharks or Stephon Marbury's Beijing Ducks won it all, it's always either Bayi or the Southern Tigers that end up winning it all in that league. You could say that those two teams are like the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers of China. The CBA gained notice internationally when former NBA All-Stars — and polarizing players — Stephon Marbury, Steven Francis, Tracy McGrady, and Gilbert Arenas all went to the CBA after they were unable to find NBA teams who would hire them, joined by some NBA players who went to the CBA during the lockout. Since China knew about their situation, they installed a new rule where any (non-Chinese) NBA player who enters the CBA will stay there for the rest of their season — sometime in February or March, depending on where teams place. China's considered the best basketball country in Asia, but when the Chinese end up coming together for some FIBA World or Olympic challenges... let's just say they don't stack up all that well when compared to other countries. And at the continental level, they now have to tangle with Australia, since FIBA now holds a single regional championship for its Asia and Oceania zones. The first combined continental men's championship in 2017 was won by the Aussies.
  • A key note is that in China's state-directed sports system, athletes are chosen from a very young age and sent to sports academies—for instance, Yao Ming was selected at age nine. With very few exceptions, only the graduates of the sports academies are allowed to go into professional sports in the PRC. One of the main problems with this vis-a-vis basketball is that the Chinese academies seem to think that "tall=good at basketball", meaning that many talented players never get a chance to play simply because they aren't flat-out giants. Jeremy Lin, at 6'3", would never have been considered if he had been born in, say, Zhejiang (where his maternal grandmother was born) rather than Los Angeles.^note We are aware that Lin is Taiwanese; however, this was a common point raised in the commentary during the aforementioned "Linsanity". On the flip side, some people get picked for the academies who just aren't cut out to play pro basketball; even some who would be qualified can't handle the pressure of the academy system and burn out before they hit the big time. Between these two factors, Chinese basketball suffers greatly.
• Australia: Basketball gained considerable popularity in the early '90s, with Michael Jordan being named as young Australians' favourite sportsman (to the alarm of some people who didn't like the fact that an American got top spot) and the local National Basketball League airing on prime-time TV. After Jordan's retirement, it declined in popularity, with several NBL teams merging or folding, including the Sydney Kings and Brisbane Bullets, which left the league without teams in two of the country's three largest cities (although the Kings eventually made a comeback). It remains popular at grass-roots level, though. Notable Australian basketballers include former stars Luc Longley, Andrew Gaze, and Andrew Bogut (who briefly returned to the NBA to close out the 2018–19 season after being named NBL MVP), and present stars Patty Mills (the first Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander^note (Aboriginal mother, Torres Strait Islander father) to win an NBA championship), Joe Ingles, Ben Simmons, Josh Giddey, and Dyson Daniels. Also, the Australia squad for the 2014 FIBA World Cup featured five players who were either already in the NBA or signed with a team for the following season. Kyrie Irving was born in Australia while his father was playing in the NBL, but his parents (both Americans) returned stateside when he was two years old, and he's playing international ball for Team USA. Notably, the Australian men's basketball system is surprisingly well-integrated with that of the US—several of the Aussies named in this section played college ball in the States, and Simmons and Daniels are Australia-born sons of American players.
  • National team-wise, the male "Boomers" have nothing on the female "Opals". The Australian women – which have included past WNBA stars Lauren Jackson, Penny Taylor, and Sandy Brondello (later the Opals' head coach and now HC of the W's Toronto Tempo) and recent W star Liz Cambage – won medals in all Olympics from 1996 to 2012 and again in 2024, and the 2006 World Championship.
• Philippines: the Philippines is a basketball-mad country, owing largely to it being a former colony of the United States. You can find a basketball court just about anywhere, and basketball at the college and high school levels have the same fervor one can find with the US NCAA. The Philippines prides itself with having Asia's first professional basketball league — the Philippine Basketball Association, which is the second oldest pro league after the NBA. The PBA is composed entirely of corporate teams: i.e., instead of the team name being based on their home city like NBA clubs, PBA clubs have team names such as Toyota (the auto maker) or San Miguel (beer and food). The country also has the semipro Philippine Basketball League (PBL) and the PBA's own in-house D-League, as well as now-defunct leagues that either preceded the PBA, or were competing against it.
  • The Philippines is a major power within Southeast Asia (ASEAN), having won the gold medal in almost every Southeast Asian regional meet. They were also a major player in the much wider Asian basketball tournaments in the 1960s to early 1970s, though they were gradually overtaken by China and other nations. The Philippine national team has finally managed to climb back to its former position as a major power when they were able to end the country's Asian medal drought with a silver medal finish at the 2013 FIBA Asian Championship.
    • The following year, they kept up with four of the best national teams in the world before winning their first Basketball World Cup game in 40 years, all in underdog fashion, and the "Most Valuable Fans" Award for their incredible devotion of Filipino fans to basketball and to their national team.
  • Suffering a major setback because of level of play, Filipino-Americans who can't crack the NBA or even the NBA G League go to the PBA to continue playing, and those same players are being used to compete internationally.
• Also of note is the EuroLeague, basketball's equivalent to the UEFA Champions League. Although it began under the control of FIBA's European section, it's been operated by the big European clubs throughout this century. The competition involves 20 teams, 13 of which are shareholders in the competition's governing body, Euroleague Basketball (not in camel case); those numbers had been 16 and 11 before 2021–22, and 18 and 13 before 2025–26. The other seven consist of six invited teams, (usually) based on performance in domestic leagues,^note The main exception is Dubai Basketball, a club created as part of a huge sponsorship deal with the UAE that kicked in for 2025–26. That club is assured a place through 2029–30. plus the winner of the previous season of Euroleague Basketball's second-tier EuroCup (analogous to football's Europa League). Since the 2016–17 edition, these teams play a full home-and-away league, with the top four teams advancing to the Final Four, run in the same manner as the NCAA version except that the EuroLeague still plays a third-place game. The 13 long-term licensees are:
  • France: ASVEL (from Lyon); added in 2021–22
  • Germany: Bayern Munich, also added in 2021–22
  • Greece: Olympiacos, Panathinaikos
  • Israel: Maccabi Tel Aviv
  • Italy: Olimpia Milano
  • Lithuania: Žalgiris
  • Russia: CSKA Moscow (currently banned from play due to the country's 2022 invasion of Ukraine)
  • Spain: Baskonia, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid
  • Turkey: Anadolu Efes, Fenerbahçe

The main national championships are the FIBA Basketball World Cup (renamed from "World Championship" after the 2010 edition) for men, the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup (renamed from "World Championship for Women" after the 2014 edition), and the Summer Olympics for both sexes. All but one of the most recent editions of each championship were won by Team USA—the 2022 Women's World Cup in Australia and both competitions at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Germany won the 2023 men's World Cup, held mainly in the Philippines with matches also in Indonesia and Japan; Team USA finished fourth after enough NBA superstars to fill a squad passed on the event. (The US was only concerned about securing its Olympic berth, which it obviously did.) The next Summer Olympics will be in 2028 in Los Angeles; the next Women's World Cup in 2026 will be hosted by Germany, with all matches in Berlin; and the next men's World Cup will be in Qatar in 2027.

Like American football, basketball took shape in colleges and universities, and as such, was once the biggest draw until the pro game took over, with the college game still having an appeal unique to the pros. From the huge arena to the small gymnasium, fans cheer for their teams, the school bands play music, and mascots do their thing. Experiences vary per institution attended.

Games are divided into two 20-minute halves (men only), the shot clock was shortened from 35 seconds to 30 for the 2015–16 season^note not added until 1985, an originally 45 seconds; the change to 30 seconds brought the men's game in line with the women's (hence the relatively low scoring), and each team is given four timeouts in a game^note down from five prior to 2015–16. Since the 2020–21 season, all of college men's basketball has used the FIBA three-point line (in 2019–20, only NCAA Division I men used FIBA's arc). The women's arc remained shorter than the FIBA or NBA arcs until 2021–22, when the FIBA arc was adopted. The style of play and the overall feeling of watching a game are refreshingly different.

Most American players in the NBA, along with some foreigners, played in college before going pro. In the late '90s and early '00s, however, there was a trend for many players to declare for the draft right after high school. To prevent this, the NBA made a rule in 2005 that all players must be 19 or older during the calendar year of the draft, and additionally players (of any nationality) who complete high school in the U.S., or enroll in a U.S. college or university, must be one year out of high school before entering the draft. It's debatable whether this is for better or for worse.

There are 1,400-or-so four-year colleges in the United States^note Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, just outside Vancouver, is the NCAA's sole non-American school, but plans to leave the NCAA in 2027 and rejoin Canada's governing body of U Sports. The University of the Bahamas is reportedly seeking NAIA membership, and the Mexican school CETYS is reportedly seeking NCAA membership. who field varsity basketball teams. Around 1,100 of them are members of the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association), which splits its membership into three divisions. Most of the rest belong to the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics). About 360 schools' teams make up NCAA Division I, the top level of college basketball.^note As of the upcoming 2026–27 college season, 365 on the men's side, and 363 women's teams: Virginia Military Institute and The Citadel, being predominantly male military academies, don't have women's teams. Both totals are unchanged from 2025–26; Saint Francis (a tiny Catholic school in western Pennsylvania) is starting a transition from Division I to Division III, while West Florida (a mid-sized public school in Pensacola) is starting a transition from D-II to D-I. All of them play in one of 32 conferences.^note The most recent independent, Chicago State, played two seasons as such after leaving the geographically inappropriate Western Athletic Conference in 2022 before joining a conference in which it's a slightly less egregious outlier, the NEC (formerly Northeast Conference), for 2024–25. The number of conferences is up by one from 2025–26 thanks to the resurrection of the Pac-12 Conference, which added seven new members after having lost 10 of its previous 12 members in 2024. After each team has played somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 games each season, each conference has its own tournament, and the champion of each conference tournament is assured a place in the NCAA tournament... with a major exception noted in the next paragraph. Through the 2015–16 season, the Ivy League granted its automatic bid to the team with the best record,^note though occasionally one-game playoffs were needed when there was a tie, as in 2011 and 2015 but the Ivies started holding their own conference tournament in 2016–17.

About that exception... a team must be eligible for postseason play in order to receive that automatic bid. A team can be ineligible for one of two reasons:

• First, the team is ineligible due to NCAA-imposed sanctions. That said, conferences pretty much always bar such teams from their tournaments, and even if that team is allowed in the conference tournament, the conference will have an alternate plan for the autobid (either the loser in the title game, or the regular-season champion).
• The second reason is if the team represents a school that is transitioning from a lower NCAA division (almost always Division II) to Division I. Such a transition requires three years, reduced from four in January 2025. Schools in the middle of a transition get the reduced time frame.^*St. Thomas, a Twin Cities school making an unprecedented move straight from D-III to D-I, received a five-year time frame instead of the four then used for transitions from D-II to D-I. The aforementioned January 2025 rule change reduced its transition to four years, which it completed that July. During such a transition, the school is barred from NCAA-sponsored postseason play—either the NCAA men's or women's tournament, the men's NIT, or the recently launched (women's) WBIT. This issue has arisen four times so far in the 2020s, twice for each sex:
  • First, in 2021, California Baptist, in its third transitional season, went unbeaten in the regular season, claiming the WAC women's regular-season and tournament titles. The NCAA autobid went to Utah Valley, which finished second in the WAC regular season. The Lancers ended up in the Women's NIT (which, unlike the men's version, is NOT run by the NCAA), where they lost in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Rice.
  • The next season, Bellarmine, a second-year transitional school out of Louisville, won the ASUN (Atlantic Sun) men's tournament (though not unbeaten, unlike the CBU women in 2021). The NCAA autobid went to regular-season champ Jacksonville State. The Knights petitioned the NCAA for a waiver to play in the NIT, but after it was turned down, they rejected bids to two other tournaments and sat out the postseason entirely.
  • The season after that, Merrimack, a Massachusetts school in the final year of its own D-I transition, won both the regular-season and tournament championships in the Northeast Conference. The NCAA autobid went to the Warriors' opponent in the NEC title game, Fairleigh Dickinson, which would make its own tournament history (read further down the page).
  • In 2024, Southern Indiana, in the second year of its transition, won the Ohio Valley Conference's regular-season women's title by six games. The Screaming Eagles earned a bye into the tournament semifinals, and romped through the rest of the tournament, winning the semifinal by 15 and the final by 32. The NCAA autobid went to the UT Martin team that USI had wiped the floor with in the final.

The biggest part of college basketball is the special feeling that sweeps the nation for the NCAA tournament, a time and a feeling known as March Madness. Also known as The Big Dance, it is commonly considered the first major sporting even in the American sports calendar after the Super Bowl^note except by NASCAR fans, who would say "after the Daytona 500" and sometimes winds up being even more of a party since the tournament is spread across three weeks. As is the case with other sports postseasons, this is when teams get by far the most attention they will get all year. Since 1987, the championship game even has its own television closing theme song, "One Shining Moment" which accompanies a montage of memorable events across the tournament as the credits roll.

Throughout The '60s and The '70s the NCAA tournament was only open to conference champions and a few highly-ranked independent schools, with a total field of around two dozen teams. Eventually everyone recognized that this restriction was leaving a lot of good teams out of the tournament. In particular, the plights of USC in 1971 (the Trojans finished 24–2 and were clearly the second best team in the country, but UCLA's dynasty was in full gear and they took the Pac-8 title) and Maryland in 1974 (ranked #4 in the country, the Terrapins had nowhere to go after a crushing overtime loss in the ACC tournament title game against NC State) helped spur the NCAA to start handing out at-large bids. 1975 saw the NCAA field expand to 32 teams, a move that solidified it as the premier postseason tournament, demoting the NIT (see below) to also-ran status. Since 2011, the base of the tournament structure has involved up to 76 teams^note starting with 32 teams, in 1979 it was expanded to 48 teams and then to 64 in 1984, 65 in 2001, 68 in 2011, and most recently to 76 starting in 2027 divided into four groups and seeded within each group. Number 1 plays number 16, 2 plays 15, and so on. The tournament added a play-in game, in which two small schools play for a 16th seed, in 2001. From 2011 to 2026, there was a new series of four games, the First Four, held in Dayton, Ohio (except for the first post-COVID tournament in 2021, when the NCAA moved the entire tournament to Indiana).^note The VCU Rams made history in the very first year of the First Four's existence, going all the way from the First Four to the Final Four. The UCLA Bruins matched that feat in 2021. Two of the games featured the four lowest-ranked conference champions playing for #16 seeds. The other two involved the four lowest-ranked at-large entries; they most often play for #11 seeds (22 times through 2026), though they have played for #10 (twice, both in 2024), #12 (four times), #13 (once), and #14 seeds (once). Starting with the 2027 tournament, the First Four has been replaced by the Opening Round, a two-day affair involving 24 teams. Dayton will host three Opening Round games each day, with the other games to be played in a city to be announced. Confused yet here?

After 76 teams are chosen to play selected and seeded, the announcement of the field is made one Sunday in mid-March on CBS, it's time for people from across America from all walks of life—up to and including a certain former president^note Not terribly surprising, given that he's a former college basketball player himself (University of Hawaii) who's been known to play basketball to blow off steam—often against his Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who led the Harvard Crimson in the late '80s and played pro ball in Australia for four years—to pick the teams they think will win each game by "filling out the bracket." This is done for fun, but some play betting games and hold office pools, which the NCAA (officially) looks down on. The study of the bracket is often referred to as "bracketology".

The first two numbered rounds (which were called the second and third rounds from 2011–2015) are hosted by eight different cities, including some with NBA teams, in traditional arenas. Four more cities host "regionals", consisting of the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight, and one more hosts the Final Four, which consists of the semifinals and the championship game.^note Again, 2021 was an exception; Bloomington and West Lafayette (respectively home to Indiana and Purdue) hosted the First Four and some first-round games, with the rest of the tournament being played in Indianapolis. Nowadays, the Final Four is always hosted by a city with an indoor football stadium converted to host a basketball game with 70,000+ seats. During the first decade or so of the 21st century, there was a trend toward also holding at least one regional at such a stadium. However, the trend now is to hold the regionals in traditional arenas; the only regionals to have been held at football stadiums since 2016 were two of the 2021 regionals, which were moved to the Indianapolis Colts' Lucas Oil Stadium amid COVID-19. And even then, all four of the 2021 regionals were originally planned for traditional arenas. The only post-2016 regional originally scheduled for a football stadium was one in the 2020 tournament that was canceled due to COVID. From 1946 to 1981, there was also a third-place game, and until 1975 each regional also had a third-place game.

While the NCAA tournament is the sport's official championship, there are some other postseason events. Most notable among these is the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), which is actually one year older than the NCAA tournament (the first NIT was 1938, the first NCAA was 1939^*Though that 1939 tournament was actually organized by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, the trade association for college men's coaches, the NCAA took it over the next year, and recognizes the 1939 NABC event as its own.). It had been run outside of NCAA control until the NCAA bought it in 2006. For the first part of its history, all NIT games were played at Madison Square Garden in New York City, which gave schools important media exposure in the era before widespread television coverage of sports. Up until the end of The '50s, the NIT was considered the equal of the NCAA tournament, but as the NCAA tournament started expanding, the NIT's importance gradually faded, and it became a tournament for teams not quite good enough to make the Big Dance. The NIT is pretty much college basketball's equivalent to those otherwise non-important bowl games whose only purpose are to give ESPN something to do in mid-December. The majority of fans never take them seriously, and teams turn down those bids regularly,^note In an embarrassment for the NCAA, no fewer than six power-conference teams (two from the ACC, one each from the Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, and SEC) turned down NIT bids in 2024—even with the NCAA changing the selection process to heavily favor those leagues. with the NIT champ often derisively called the "69th best team in the country". Regardless, the NIT started expanding as well, finally settling on 32 teams, with early rounds played at home arenas while the semifinals and championship game were still at Madison Square Garden until 2021, where COVID opened the door for it to begin moving to smaller cities. The 2024 edition saw a major change to the NIT selection process—the NCAA scrapped its recent practice of giving an automatic NIT invite to any conference champion that fails to win its conference tournament and doesn't make the NCAA field. Instead, the consensus top six conferences in men's basketball (the then-Power Five conferences plus the Big East) receive two autobids each, which go to the top two teams from each league that don't make the NCAA tournament (as determined by the computer ranking the NCAA uses as its primary tournament selection tool)... regardless of regular-season record.^note This change was made in what proved a futile attempt to preempt Fox Sports' reported plan for a future tournament involving the top 16 teams from the Big East, Big Ten, and Big 12 that didn't make the NCAA tournament. The remaining 20 teams are selected on a purely at-large basis, with deference given to NCAA's official "first four out" (i.e., the four teams that were atop the selection committee's ranking of teams that didn't get in the Big Dance). The 12 automatic qualifiers, plus the top four teams from the remaining 20 entrants, host first-round games.

There are more tournaments even lower than the NIT that are looked upon even more derisively. There's also the College Basketball Invitational, featuring 16 teams with all games at a single venue; that event invites members of power conferences sometimes, but in the past few years none of them have shown up. The CollegeInsiider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) was revived in 2024 after a five-season absence; it had featured as many as 32 teams before COVID, and planned to relaunch with 16 teams, but only 9 ended up playing. During its history, the CIT has made a point of not even inviting teams from major conferences. Another tournament, The Basketball Classic, briefly served as an effective rebranding of the CIT during its hiatus, but TBC wasn't renewed after its 2022 edition. The Vegas 16 (which had an 8-team field but was aiming for 16), tried to revive the old NIT format of all games at a single venue, but folded after only one edition in 2016. However, while the Vegas 16 fizzled out, its concept returned in 2024–25 with the creation of the College Basketball Crown, a Fox Sports-sponsored event that originally brought 16 teams to Vegas but was cut to 8 after one edition. The Crown has two autobids each for the Big East, Big Ten, and Big 12 (obviously, from teams that don't make the Big Dance).

D-I women have two alternate tournaments. In 2023, the NCAA finally launched a direct counterpart to the men's NIT in the form of the Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT), whose first edition was held in 2024. Like the men's NIT, the WBIT features 32 teams and is directly run by the NCAA. It gives an automatic invitation to any conference regular-season champion that fails to make the NCAA tournament (unless ineligible, like Southern Indiana in 2024), a practice the NCAA abandoned for the men's NIT in 2023–24. The Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) had been the acknowledged second-tier women's postseason event before the launch of the WBIT. With the WBIT now getting first dibs of teams that didn't make the Big Dance, the WNIT dropped from 64 teams to 48 in 2024. Unlike the men's NIT, the WNIT, established in 1998, has never been run by the NCAA. Before the reduction to a 48-team field, the WNIT had a slightly different structure from the men's equivalent, with all 32 Division I conferences having at least one guaranteed bid to the tournament, plus 32 at-large bids. In 2024, the WNIT organizers awarded automatic bids to 11 mid- to low-major conferences, and filled most of its other slots with teams outside the power conferences. A third tournament run outside of direct NCAA control was the Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI), launched in 2010 and featuring 8 teams, but it held its last edition in 2023, shutting down once the WBIT was announced.

NCAA Divisions II and III also have 64-team championship tournaments for both men and women (though the 2020 editions were also canceled due to COVID-19; in 2021, the D-III tournaments were canceled and the D-II events dropped to 48 teams). Division II's is divided into 8 regional sections hosted by the top team in the region, and the 8 winners go to a neutral site for the final rounds. Division III does geographically-based early rounds, with a neutral-site Final Four. NAIA basketball was divided into two divisions from 1992 to 2020, with each holding a 32-team tournament with all games hosted at a single site. Kansas City has hosted the NAIA Division I men's tournament every year since 1937, except two with no tournament (1944 during World War II and 2020 due to COVID-19) and eight years (1994-2001) in Tulsa, Oklahoma. To fit 8 games into a single day for the first round of the NAIA tournament, the first game tipped off at 9:00 A.M., while the last game started after 10:00 P.M.! However, beginning in 2021, the NAIA returned to a single division, with a 64-team tournament, and only the final 16 teams get a chance to play in Kansas City. The NAIA women's tournament was first held in 1981, a year before the first NCAA tournament. It started out with 8 teams, expanding to 16 and 32 before going to the two-division model at the same time the men did. The NAIA's 2021 change to a single-division model was also applied to the women, with the same 64-team bracket. Unlike the men, the women have not had a single permanent site, though the D-I tournament did spend nearly 20 years in Jackson, Mississippi (1992–2011) and the D-II event was in Sioux City, Iowa from 1998 until the return to a single division. The reunified women's tournament now ends with the final 16 playing in Sioux City.

Prominent programs in the NCAA historically include, but are not limited to, these teams. These are the nine men's teams who have (officially) won at least three NCAA tournaments. (The Louisville Cardinals had also won three but were stripped of their 2013 title after the NCAA found that a program staffer had paid a local madam thousands of dollars to provide strippers and prostitutes to players and recruits over a four-year period that included the championship team.) However, the current champ is none of these teams, but instead the Michigan Wolverines, who claimed their second title in 2026.

• Duke Blue Devils — UNC's most geographically direct and most vehemently hated rivals, they were coached from 1980 to 2022 by Mike Krzyzewski ("shi-shef-skee"^note only a very loose approximation of the actual Polish pronunciation), often referred to as Coach K.^note He also coached the US national men's basketball team in various positions from 1979 to 2016, including being an assistant coach at the 1992 Olympic Games (the Dream Team) and head coach from 2006 through 2016 (including the 2008 Olympic Redeem Team and 2012 Olympic Small-Ball Dream Team) In 2015, Coach K became the first men's head coach with 1,000 career NCAA Division I wins.^note Not the first NCAA Division I coach with 1,000 wins—we'll get to the first later. He is the D-I men's coach with the most wins at one school—but only because the NCAA ordered more than 100 of Jim Boeheim's wins at Syracuse vacated; Coach K began his coaching career at Army. With just four Final Four appearances before Coach K came to Durham, they made it 13 times during his tenure, including five national championships... though his final game was a loss to North Carolina in the 2022 Final Four.^note Which, by the way, was the first time the arch-rivals had ever played one another in the NCAA tournament. Duke players (Christian Laettner of the Dream Team, Elton Brand, Shane Battier, Jason Williams, JJ Redick) aren't superstars in the NBA, though, with the notable exceptions of Mr. Nice Guy Grant Hill, Kyrie Irving (who only spent one year at the school),^note  He actually only played 11 games for the team due to spending most of the season sidelined with a toe injury. and Zion Williamson. Former Duke player Jon Scheyer, who had been Coach K's top assistant, is now trying to continue the tradition Coach K built, and given that the Blue Devils have since made two Elite Eight appearances and one Final Four run, Scheyer appears to be doing just that.
• Florida Gators — Long in the shadow of Kentucky in the SEC, the Gators didn't begin to emerge from that shadow until the 1980s, making the NCAA tournament for the first time in 1987—though that appearance would be stripped from the record books due to massive rules violations. They came back from that setback to make their first Final Four in 1994, but didn't truly establish themselves until future Hall of Fame coach Billy Donovan built the Gators into a legitimate power at the turn of the current century, losing in the national title game in 2000 (featuring eventual NBA long-runner Udonis Haslem) before breaking through with back-to-back natties in 2006 and 2007. While this was far from the first time a team had repeated, it was the first in which the starting lineup (including future NBA stars Al Horford and Joakim Noah) didn't change. The second title came on the heels of the Gators' 2006 football natty, making Florida the first and only school to win football and men's basketball titles in the same academic year. They had another strong run in the first part of the Tens, with three regional finals and a Final Four berth from 2011–14, before fading again. This downturn didn't last, and they broke through with their third natty in 2025 with a comeback win over Houston, continuing the Cougars' agonizing wait for a title.^note Houston's seven Final Four appearances are the most of any men's program without a natty.
• Indiana Hoosiers — Five-time national champions, they are famous for having been coached from 1972 to 2000 by Bob Knight, who coached them to three of those titles. The first of Knight's title teams, that of 1976, is also the most recent D-I men's team to complete an unbeaten season. Knight is as well-known for getting his charges through school as well as his Hair-Trigger Temper. Indiana's trophy winners at the college level included Scott May and Calbert Cheaney. IU hasn't done a lot in women's basketball, but the Hoosier women have one very notable alum—Tara VanDerveer, who retired in 2024 after nearly 40 years as HC of women's powerhouse Stanford.
• Kansas Jayhawks — Arguably the team most intimately connected with the sport's history. The team's very first coach was James Naismith... yes, the very same James Naismith mentioned at the top of this page. Ironically, he was the only Jayhawks head coach to finish his Kansas career with a losing record. Four of their head coaches are in the Hall of Fame in that role—Phog Allen (the namesake of their arena), Larry Brown, former North Carolina coach Roy Williams, and current Jayhawks head coach Bill Self. (Naismith is in the Hall as a contributor.) Players? Just to name a few: Clyde Lovellette, Wilt Chamberlain, Jo Jo White, and Paul Pierce are in the Hall, and other past Jayhawks stars include Danny Manning and Joel Embiid. And that doesn't even get into players who went on to make their mark in coaching, with Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith (whom we'll get to soon) being the most notable. Besides their four NCAA championship titles ('52, '88, '08, '22), here are just some of the program's records at the end of the 2024–25 season:
  • Longest streak of NCAA Tournament appearances: 36 (on the court) or 28 (by NCAA count)^note The NCAA forced KU to vacate its participation in the 2018 tournament. The on-court streak continues.
    • The COVID-19-induced cancellation of the 2020 NCAA Tournament interrupted, but didn't end, the longer of the two streaks. The Jayhawks would likely have been the #1 overall seed had the tournament been played.
  • Most winning seasons in Division I history: 102 (also the most seasons at .500 or better, with 104)
  • Most regular-season conference championships in Division I history: 64
  • Most consecutive regular-season conference championships in Division I (men's) history: 14 (2005–18)
  • Most consecutive weeks ranked in the AP Poll: 231 (February 2, 2009–February 1, 2021)
  • Before being forced to vacate 15 wins from the 2017–18 season due to fielding an ineligible player, it had the most wins, with 2,385 at the end of 2022–23. (Counting the reduction, they're now at 2,393.) The Jayhawks are now second to the next team on our list...
• Kentucky Wildcats — Coached by the great Adolph Rupp, aka "The Baron of the Bluegrass", from 1931–72. Won eight NCAA tournaments, including four under Rupp, and have appeared in more NCAA tournaments than any other program. Three of those titles came in just four seasons (1948–51). Two years after the third, the team was forced to suspend operations for a full year due to several of its players being implicated in the CCNY point shaving scandal; while the other six programs punished by this scandal never fully recovered from the NCAA's "death penalty", Kentucky was almost unfazed. The Wildcats are the only program to have won national titles under five different coaches—Rupp, his successor Joe B. Hall, Rick Pitino, Tubby Smith, and John Calipari. They were the program that lost the 1966 final to the considerably less prestigious Texas Western (now Texas-El Paso, or UTEP), and that's the story in the movie Glory Road. Before being passed by Kansas during the 2022 NCAA tournament, they were the all-time winningest team in college basketball, but reclaimed that distinction after KU was forced to vacate most of its 2017–18 wins. The Cats have also won more Southeastern Conference titles than any of the other teams... combined. The Kentucky women's team had been making some strides as well, briefly interrupted by off-court turmoil in 2015–16, though they've so far had a bad case of Every Year They Fizzle Out. The Kentucky women however did manage to achieve an incredible feat when they upset top-ranked (and eventual national champ) South Carolina in the 2022 SEC Women's Basketball Tournament Final by the score of 64–62.^note Though it was the tournament championship game, South Carolina had already won the official SEC title. That conference determines its men's and women's basketball champions solely by regular-season conference record. The tournaments only determine the SEC's autobids to the men's and women's NCAA tournaments.
• North Carolina Tar Heels — First and foremost, famous for being Michael Jordan's alma mater. The Tar Heels are six-time NCAA champions; Dean Smith, their coach from 1962–97, coached them to two of those, and Roy Williams, their coach from 2003–21, led them to three. The Heels had the longest streak ever of consecutive NCAA tournament appearances at 27, making every tournament from 1975-2001, before Kansas passed them in 2017. In 2022, under first-year coach (and former Heels player) Hubert Davis, Carolina not only ended Coach K's career in the NCAA tournament, but also spoiled his final home game at Duke. The Carolina women have one national title to their credit (1994).
• UCLA Bruins — In their prime, Lew Alcindor (later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) or Bill Walton was playing. The late, great John Wooden coached this team from 1949 to 1975. The Bruins hold the (men's) record for longest winning streak: 88 games from 1971 to 1974, with Walton among them. They had a couple of long winning streaks in the future Kareem's time there, too. But more importantly, they have eleven NCAA championships, ten of which were won in Wooden's last twelve seasons as coach. UCLA became the most recent D-I member with men's and women's natties when the women broke through in 2026.
• UConn Huskies — Six-time NCAA champions, most recently back-to-back in 2023 and 2024, and also reaching the championship game in 2026, losing at that stage for the first time. Representing the University of Connecticut, the Huskies men were a regional power in New England for many decades, and the school was also a founding member of the original Big East Conference in 1979. However, UConn didn't become a national name until the 1990s under coach Jim Calhoun. After falling short of the Final Four throughout that decade, they broke through in 1999 and claimed the national title. They went on to win two more titles in '04 and '11 under Calhoun. After he retired in 2012, he was replaced by his top assistant (and former UConn player) Kevin Ollie. After being barred from the '13 tournament for academic reasons and being left behind in the conference realignment shuffle of the early 2010s,^note Unlike NJIT, whose conference imploded around it and couldn't find a home, UConn was instead stuck in the American Athletic Conference, the football rump of the former Big East. they picked up a fourth national title in '14 before falling into a dry spell, leading to Ollie's replacement by Dan Hurley, a member of a prominent coaching family. The Huskies revived their (men's) fortunes with a move to the reconfigured Big East in 2020, followed by consecutive natties in '23 and '24. Among their star players are Ray Allen and Richard "Rip" Hamilton (the latter a star on the first championship team). As strong as UConn is in men's basketball, it's even stronger in women's basketball. Led by coach Geno Auriemma, the women have won 12 national titles.^note UConn is the only Division I school to have won the men's and women's NCAA titles in the same season—and the Huskies have done it twice. The only other NCAA schools to match the feat are Division II Central Missouri and Minnesota State, and Northwestern College of Iowa is the only NAIA school to do it. This makes UConn the only school whose men's and women's teams have both won multiple D-I national titles. Among their rivals in both versions of the Big East are the...
• Villanova Wildcats — One of Philadelphia's "Big Five" basketball programs,^note The other traditional members are La Salle, Pennsylvania, Saint Joseph's, and Temple. Drexel was officially added to the rivalry in 2023–24, but the group is still the "Big Five" (partially at Drexel's insistence). Nova has been a power in the region for decades, regularly making NCAA appearances, but made their first major splash in 1971, losing in the championship game to UCLA... though that result would be wiped from the record books when it came out that their biggest star had signed a pro contract during that season. The Wildcats' first championship in 1985 was one of the biggest shocks in NCAA tournament history this side of UMBC over Virginia or Fairleigh Dickinson over Purdue (see below), with Nova stunning heavily favored Big East rival Georgetown thanks to shooting nearly 80% from the field in the final. Nova reached new heights in this century under HC Jay Wright, winning its second national title in 2016 over North Carolina on a buzzer-beating three-pointer and its third in 2018 in dominant fashion, winning all of their tournament games by double digits. However, in a far more stunning move than that of Coach K, Wright retired to the broadcast booth after the 2021–22 season.^note Stunning in that Coach K was 75 at the time of his final game, while Wright was "just" 60.

Honorable mention goes to the Michigan State Spartans and Gonzaga Bulldogs^note unofficially known as "Zags", which, with the aforementioned Jayhawks, are in the midst of the two or three longest current March Madness appearance streaks (at 36 for the Jayhawks if you ignore the NCAA sanctions from 2018, 28 for the Spartans, and 27 for the Bulldogs).^note Michigan State and Gonzaga were also locks for the canceled 2020 NCAA Tournament, with the Zags being a near-certain #1 regional seed. Duke had a string of 24 straight appearances end in 2021. Michigan State has ten Final Fours and six Big Ten tournament championships, but have only won it all twice.^note Once in 1979, where the final against Indiana State is notable for being the first meeting between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, and once more in 2000 under coach Tom Izzo featuring star players Charlie Bell and Mateen Cleaves. In spite of this, they have done well under the leadership of coach Tom Izzo for more than 30 years and often make at least the Sweet Sixteen, and Izzo has the longest tournament appearance streak ever for any D-I men's HC.

As for Gonzaga, even though it hasn't won a national title^note (the Zags also didn't even make the Final Four until 2017), it gets special status for two reasons: First, it's a quite small Catholic school in Eastern Washington that said goodbye to the mid-major West Coast Conference.in 2026, with a move to the rebooted Pac-12 set for that July.^note Their affiliation meant that in some of those years, they wouldn't have made it to the NCAA tournament without winning the conference tournament. Second, it's done it without the benefit of any revenue from football (Gonzaga hasn't had a football team since 1941).^note Significant because football programs often subsidize other sports at a school. Although men's basketball makes money at many schools, it very often benefits from the money and exposure that the football team gets. The Zags are also the most recent D-I men's team to enter the tournament unbeaten, doing so in 2021... though they had to recover from a beatdown by Baylor in that season's title game. They got the top overall seed in 2022 anyway, but that season further cemented their recent status as a victim of Every Year They Fizzle Out, going down in the Sweet Sixteen. That said, the Zags do have the longest streak of 25-win seasons in D-I men's history at 19 (ongoing since 2007–08), and are tied for the longest streak of Sweet Sixteen appearances since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985 (9, from 2016–2024). Also, through the 2026 tournament, they've won at least one game in each of the last 17 tournaments played (dating to 2008), the longest current streak of that type in D-I men's ball. Current HC Mark Few has been on the job for all but the first year of the Zags' appearance streak (during which he was the Zags' top assistant), placing him second to Izzo among D-I men's coaches.

Another special honorable mention goes to the 1965–66 Texas Western Miners (now the University of Texas at El Paso, or UTEP) for being the first (and for more than a decade only) college men's team to ever get into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (mainly due to the fact they were the first all-black starting team to ever win the NCAA Tournament). Another such mention should go to the second college men's team to enter the Hall: the 1957–1959 Tennessee A&I Tigers (now Tennessee State University), a historically black institution in Nashville; the Tigers won NAIA titles in the listed years, becoming the first HBCU to win a national championship and the first school to win three straight national titles at any level.^note Two women's teams, both mentioned later, also got inducted: Immaculata of 1972–1974 (inducted in 2014) and Wayland Baptist of 1948–1982 (inducted alongside Tennessee A&I in 2019).

Three final special honorable mentions go out to the UMBC Retrievers^note University of Maryland, Baltimore County, the Saint Peter's Peacocks, and the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights. In 2018, UMBC became the first #16 seed ever to defeat a #1 seed in the men's tournament, dominating the Virginia Cavaliers, never trailing in the second half on their way to a 20-point win. So honorable a mention, in fact, the fine folks at The Other Wiki had a page on the game within mere hours of it ending. As for Saint Peter's, the small Catholic school out of Jersey City became the first #15 seed ever to make a regional final in 2022, notably taking down #2 seed Kentucky in the first round before running into a buzzsaw named North Carolina one step shy of a Final Four trip. The following year, FDU became the second #16 seed to take down a #1, this time Purdue (TOW also had a page on that game within hours). In some ways, FDU's win was even more of an upset: it only made the 2023 tournament because Merrimack was ineligible (see above), had to win a First Four game two nights before to earn the #16 seed, and had the shortest roster in all of Division I while Purdue was led by the consensus national player of the year in the 7'4" Zach Edey.^note Incidentally, Purdue (with Edey, who had not yet emerged as a superstar) had been taken down by the aforementioned Peacocks in the 2022 Sweet Sixteen.

Women's college basketball

Then there's the women's game. Before the WNBA, it was the premier showcase of female hoopsters outside the Olympics. The women's game really started to emerge in the '70s, and in 1982, the NCAA — hey, where are you going? Get back here! This could be useful!

While women's basketball isn't nearly as lucrative as its male counterpart, it is still quite popular. Women students have been playing ball practically from the invention of the sport itself, making basketball likely the oldest women's team sport. Basic differences between the men's game and the women's game, besides the sex of the players, include a smaller ball and (at some levels) a closer three-point arc. On the college level, teams will occasionally have "Lady" appended to the team name, sometimes to the point of absurdity (ahem, University of South Carolina "Lady Gamecocks") or a feminine form of the team name (Cowgirls instead of Cowboys). However, the clear trend in this area is for men's and women's teams to use the same nickname. In fact, the aforementioned South Carolina dropped "Lady" from its women's team names in 2008, coincidentally (or not) when Dawn Staley came in as HC.

Women's college basketball has been played with a 30-second shot clock since the early 1970s; this is shorter than the 45- and 35-second clocks formerly used in the men's game. Also, since the 2015–16 season, the women's game is played in 10-minute quarters instead of 20-minute halves. It's only been sanctioned by the NCAA since the early '80s; before that, it was sanctioned by the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, or the AIAW. Conference affiliations match those of men's college basketball described above.^note With only two exceptions—The Citadel and VMI, both military academies that were all-male until the 1990s and remain overwhelmingly male today, don't have women's basketball teams at all. Then again, being heavily male hasn't stopped Army, Navy, and Air Force, academies run directly by the U.S. military, from fielding women's teams.

Notable teams include those listed below.

• Wayland Baptist College (now "University"): The Flying Queens were the first great college team, though they predated not only NCAA sponsorship of women's sports but also college women's competition in general. The small school from the Texas Panhandle instead competed in the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), today mainly a youth sports body but then the main sponsor of amateur sports competition outside the NCAA. While some colleges competed in the AAU alongside Wayland Baptist, their main competition was well-funded business teams, which employed players in (quasi-)legitimate day jobs to get around amateurism rules. Wayland Baptist responded by being the first school to offer full-ride basketball scholarships. They also got air travel to games supplied by a wealthy local businessman, which is how they became known as the Flying Queens. They notably had a 131-game winning streak in the 1950s in AAU play (take that, UConn!), and won 10 national titles in the AAU and AIAW before stepping down in class when the NCAA took over women's sports; they're now in the NAIA. Wayland Baptist's teams from their glory years of 1948–1982 entered the Naismith Hall as a unit in 2019.
• Immaculata College (now "University"): The Mighty Macs, representing a small Catholic school in Philadelphia's Main Line suburbs, were the first great team of the early era of women's college basketball, who reigned in the early '70s. They were partly the beneficiary of a robust Catholic Youth Organization basketball program for girls in Philadelphia, which helped make the city a stronghold for women's hoops. Notable for producing three players who in turn became Women's Basketball Hall of Fame coaches: Theresa Grentz, Rene Portland, and Marianne Stanley, with Grentz and Stanley also making the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (respectively as a player and a coach). Also, the coach of the 1970s Mighty Macs, Cathy Rush, is a member of both Halls of Fame. Like Wayland Baptist, they stepped down in class when the NCAA took over women's sports (now NCAA Division III), and are now a historical footnote. Their national championship-winning teams from 1972–1974 entered the Naismith Hall as a unit in 2014. They were also the subject of the film The Mighty Macs (with Carla Gugino as Rush).
• Delta State: After the Mighty Macs came the Lady Statesmen from a small public school in the Mississippi Delta, who followed up Immaculata's three-peat with an AIAW three-peat of their own (1975–1977). Led by center Lusia Harris, a three-time All-American and member of both Halls of Fame who even went on to become a late-round NBA draft pick (the draft was a lot longer then, and she didn't bother trying out; it was later revealed that she was pregnant during the 1977 training camp), and coached by Margaret Wade, also a double Hall of Famer and namesake of the Wade Trophy, one of the three main D-I women's player of the year awards. Also a historical footnote, as like Wayland Baptist and Immaculata before them, they stepped down in class in the NCAA era; they're now NCAA Division II.
• Old Dominion: The Monarchs (known in their heyday as the Lady Monarchs) out of the Hampton Roads city of Norfolk, Virginia were a dynasty of the early '80s, coached by the aforementioned Marianne Stanley. Its stars included Anne Donovan and Nancy Lieberman, both of whom are members of the Naismith and Women's Halls. When power schools were forced to pay more attention to women's sports, their star faded, though they are still a force in their conference.
• University of Southern California: USC, or the Women of Troy. At their peak in the mid-'80s, their stars included the McGee twins, Pamela and Paula (if you're an NBA geek, you might recognize Pamela's son JaVale, and if you're a WNBA geek you may recognize Pamela's daughter Imani McGee-Stafford), Cheryl Miller (if you follow basketball at all, you probably recognize her kid brother Reggie), and Cynthia Cooper. They had a renaissance in the mid-'90s, then faded out, but young phenom JuJu Watkins has returned the Trojans to national prominence since her 2023–24 freshman season. Cooper was their head coach for four seasons until stepping down after the 2016–17 season.
• Louisiana Tech: The Lady Techsters were another superpower of the '80s, with four players who went on to the Women's Hall—Pam Kelly, Janice Lawrence Braxton, Kim Mulkey (now the head coach at LSU after spectacular success in the same role at Baylor), and Teresa Weatherspoon (see WNBA section below), with the last two also making it to the Naismith Hall (Weatherspoon as a player in 2019 and Mulkey in 2020 as a coach). They also had two Hall of Fame coaches in Sonja Hogg (Women's) and Leon Barmore (Naismith and Women's). LA Tech remained a national force into the '90s and strongly competitive into the 21st century, but faded in the later years of Weatherspoon's tenure as head coach (2009–2014). LA Tech then fired Weatherspoon and replaced her with Tyler Summitt, the then-23-year-old son of a famous coach any women's basketball fan should know. After two seasons, things only got worse for the Lady Techsters, as Summitt abruptly resigned shortly after the end of the 2015–16 season after admitting to an "inappropriate relationship".^note Said relationship was widely reported to be an extramarital affair with a player, whom he would marry a couple of years later.
• Tennessee: The Lady Vols have been a consistent powerhouse in women's basketball for thirty years and counting. Legendary head coach Pat Summitt^note yes, Tyler's mom racked up over a thousand wins, including eight titles, since taking over as a grad student in 1972 and is the first coach in the Division I college game, men's or women's, to have over 1,000 wins (since joined by Coach K, Tara VanDerveer, Sylvia Hatchell, Geno Auriemma, and C. Vivian Stringer). Known for her Death Glare. The 'Lady' is a bit of a requirement,^note enough so that the women's basketball team remained "Lady Volunteers" after all other Tennessee women's teams dropped "Lady" starting in 2015–16... though in 2017–18, UT brought back "Lady Volunteers", giving the rest of its women's teams the option to restore "Lady" or Summitt will glare at you from beyond the grave. After Summitt was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's in 2011 (which would ultimately claim her life in 2016), she coached one final season before retiring in 2012. Summitt proved to be a Tough Act to Follow; while the Lady Vols have maintained their record of appearing in every single NCAA tournament, the 2022 tournament was their first Sweet Sixteen appearance since 2016. Their 2025–26 season was one to forget; while the Lady Vols kept their NCAA tournament appearance streak alive, they lost their last eight games, their longest such modern-era streak, followed by every player with remaining eligibility hitting the transfer portal within a day of its opening.
• UConn: The most prestigious women's basketball program, and one of the most dominant programs in all of sports. They've won 12 national titles, all under current head coach Geno Auriemma; his 2016 title took him past John Wooden for the most Division I titles by a head coach in either the men's or women's game. Eight of those 12 times, the Huskies won all of their NCAA tournament games by double digits; in 2016 their closest tournament win was by 21 points. The Huskies hit the national scene like a freight train in 1995 with an undefeated season—the first of six, including three separate Division I-record winning streaks of (in chronological order) 70, 90, and 111 games, not to mention a regular-season winning streak of 126, also a record. Possibly an even more astonishing feat: the Huskies went almost 30 years (March 1993–February 2023) without losing consecutive games. Equally remarkably, the Huskies had never lost a title game until 2022 and saw a streak of 14 straight Final Four appearances end in 2023 (ironically, a year in which the Huskies men won the natty). Auriemma, the winningest D-I coach period, is basically Philadelphia distilled into a first-generation Italian-American. There have been points where roughly half of the WNBA All-Stars are UConn alums.
• Stanford: The Cardinal (yes, Cardinal, the color, not the bird) was the lone representative of high-quality women's basketball on the West Coast for a loooong time until the very recent emergence of other Pac-12 schools, such as Oregon (thanks largely to Sabrina Ionescu; see the WNBA section), Oregon State, and Arizona (whom the Cardinal narrowly defeated for the 2021 title). Three-time national champions and several more times bridesmaid, they were coached from 1985–2024 by Tara VanDerveer (except in 1995–96, when she took a break to coach Team USA at the Atlanta Olympics). She became the second D-I women's head coach with 1,000 wins in 2017, passed Pat Summitt for the most wins by a D-I women's head coach in 2020, and passed Coach K's wins total on the men's side in 2024, with Auriemma passing her early in the 2024–25 season. The Cardinal's 2021 championship ended the program's and VanDerveer's 29-year title drought—the longest gap between titles for any NCAA Division I coach in any sport, not just basketball. They ended UConn's 90-game winning streak.^note Stanford was also the last team to defeat the Huskies before they started their 111-game overall and 126-game regular-season streaks. You might not want to mention Harvard around them. ^note In 1998, Harvard upset Stanford in the first round of the NCAA Women's Tournament, making the Crimson the first No. 16 seed to win a tournament game (a feat that wasn't matched in the men's tournament until 2018). And to boot, first-round games were played on the home court of the higher seed at the time. However, VanDerveer's retirement, combined with the graduation or transfer of several key players, led to the Cardinal missing out on the 2025 tournament, which hadn't happened since 1987. They missed out again in 2026.
• Rutgers: The Scarlet Knights are best known for stifling defense, unwatchable offense, now-retired coach C. Vivian Stringer's Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness, and that incident with Don Imus that left Imus fired and the governor of New Jersey in a car accident. Stringer reached the 1,000-win mark early in the 2018–19 season. Rutgers is also a footnote in women's college basketball history—it won the last AIAW tournament in 1982.^note That is, the "large college" tournament, the AIAW's equivalent to NCAA Division I.
• Baylor: The Bears, known as "Lady Bears" before 2021–22, rose to national prominence early in the 21st century with Kim Mulkey as head coach. When she took over in 2000, Baylor was coming off a last-place Big 12 finish. She took them to the NCAA tournament the next season, and they've only missed the NCAA once since. Their first national title in 2005 saw Mulkey become the first woman to win D-I national titles as a player and coach^note Dean Smith and Bob Knight are the only men to have matched the feat., as well as the first person to win D-I natties as a player, assistant coach, and head coach, and their second championship team in 2012 was the first NCAA team of either sex to go 40–0 in a season. Baylor's WNBA alumni include Sophia Young from the first title team, Brittney Griner and Odyssey Sims from the second, and Kalani Brown, Lauren Cox, and NaLyssa Smith from the third in 2019. Also notable for the most one-sided win in D-I women's history, a 140–32 annihilation of Winthrop in 2016, not to mention ending UConn's 126-game regular-season winning streak in 2019. However, Baylor underwent a major transition in 2021, as Mulkey left to fill the (women's) head coaching vacancy at LSU, in the process returning to her home state.^*Though born in Southern California, Mulkey grew up in Louisiana, and before her arrival at Baylor had spent all of her adult life at LA Tech as a player or assistant. Mulkey went on to win a fourth national title in her second season at LSU in 2023, making her the first (and so far only) women's or men's coach to win the D-I natty at two different schools.
• Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish have emerged as a major national rival to UConn. While the Huskies have had the upper hand overall, the Irish have a 5–3 lead in their NCAA tournament matchups, and were responsible for more than half of the Huskies' losses from 2011 to 2019 (8 out of 15). National champs in 2001 and 2018, and runners-up in five other NCAA tournaments in the 2010s (to Texas A&M in '11, Baylor in '12 and '19, and UConn in '14 and '15), and alma mater of current WNBA stars Skylar Diggins, Jewell Loyd, and Arike Ogunbowale. Much has been made of the supposed Arch-Enemy relationship between now-retired Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw and UConn's Geno Auriemma, who both share Philadelphia roots and fiercely competitive personalities. The 2019–20 season, however, was definitely rebuilding time under the Golden Dome, as the Irish had lost their entire starting lineup to graduation; despite several promising recruits, they finished under .500. McGraw stepped down after that season, with Niele Ivey, a former Irish player who went on to a long tenure as an Irish assistant and a season as an NBA assistant, taking her place.
• South Carolina: The three-time national champion Gamecocks emerged in the last half of the 2010s as the new power player in women's basketball with double Hall of Fame player Dawn Staley as head coach. They've made every NCAA tournament since 2012, missing the Sweet Sixteen only once in that span, with eight Final Fours and the 2017, '22, and '24 national titles as well, becoming the only team ever to beat UConn in a national title game in 2022. Not to mention they were the top-ranked team when COVID scuttled the 2020 tournament; Carolina claims a mythical national title from that season. Current WNBA superstar A'ja Wilson was the biggest star of the first title team, with Aliyah Boston, star of the '22 team, poised to join her in WNBA superstardom as the top overall pick in the 2023 WNBA draft and that year's unanimous Rookie of the Year. Even after having to replace the entire starting lineup in 2023–24, the Gamecocks completed an unbeaten run to the natty by avenging one of their rare recent tastes of defeat (a loss to Caitlin Clark and Iowa in the 2023 semifinals) and were runners-up to UConn in '25 and UCLA in '26.

UConn and Tennessee are fiercely opposed to each other. The rivalry became an annual series, until Summitt ended it in 2007, accusing Connecticut of improper recruiting. Many attempts were made to reconcile the two sides, or at least have them meet in the NCAA tournament. It took the Naismith Hall to broker a deal to have them play again; they finally played again in 2020 and 2021, kept the series going through 2023, and played again in 2026. Neither is particularly fond of Rutgers. And the Huskies are not totally fond of Notre Dame these days (though the Irish are at worst a Sitcom Arch-Nemesis, and perhaps even Worthy Opponents).

Since 2022, the women's NCAA tournament has featured the same number of teams as the men's tournament—68 from 2022–26, and 76 from 2027 on. During the 68-team era, the women had their own First Four conducted under almost the same conditions as the one on the men's side; it will be replaced by the new Opening Round. Previously, the women's tournament had 64 teams, much as the men did before the play-in game was added in 2001. One huge difference between the tournaments is that the top four seeds in each regional get to host the first two rounds.^note One recent exception was in 2019, when South Carolina earned a top-four seed but had to play the first two rounds in Charlotte because its arena was booked for the first two rounds of the men's tournament. Another was in the COVID-affected 2021 event, when the NCAA moved the entire tournament to San Antonio and its general region. During the women's First Four era, four of the 16 subregional hosts got to host First Four games, instead of having the First Four at a neutral site as the men do. The women's Opening Round games will be hosted by 12 of the 16 subregional hosts. Another significant difference is that the women's Final Four is almost always held in a traditional arena.^note The 2021 Final Four was held at the Alamodome in San Antonio, which also hosted in 2010; all other Final Four venues during that period were traditional arenas. The 2026, 2027, 2030, and 2031 editions will be held at traditional arenas. The Alamodome hosts again in 2029. The 2028 edition was originally set for the Indiana Pacers' home arena, but was switched to the Colts' Lucas Oil Stadium, which hosts the men's Final Four when it's in Indy. The 2023 tournament ushered in a significant format change—the four regional sites have been collapsed to two, although the size of the tournament remains the same, and each site advances two teams to the Final Four from separate brackets.

Before the 2018 men's tournament, if you wanted to stump your friends, you could have asked them the only time a #16 seed had ever beaten a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament. When they looked at you and say "Never", you'd have told them you didn't specify gender and Harvard beat Stanford in 1998. (If you're unfortunate enough to have a Stanford fan in the group who will haughtily inform you that Harvard had the nation's leading scorer and Stanford had lost their two top players to knee injuries in the two weeks before the tournament... run.) That won't work any longer, now that UMBC took down Virginia in the 2018 men's tournament and Fairleigh Dickinson did the same to Purdue in the 2023 edition.

As with all sports, college basketball hands out a boatload of postseason awards, both at the conference and national levels, to both players and coaches. Because of the sheer number of awards, we can't list them all here, but we're including several of the more prominent national awards. Winners are indicated with the year in which the award was presented.

Players

• While there are many national player of the year awards, these are generally seen as the most prestigious:
  • Naismith Trophy: Named after the inventor of basketball and presented by the Atlanta Tipoff Club, with the voting body consisting of head coaches, administrators, and media members, plus fan voting once the finalists are chosen. First presented for men in 1969 and women in 1983.
    • Most recent winners (2026): Cameron Boozer, PF, freshman,^*US college students in general are classified in order of the number of years of attendance. In ascending order: freshman, sophomore, junior, senior. Duke (men);^note The son of former NBA player Carlos Boozer, Cameron became the breakout star of one of the deepest freshman classes ever, averaging over 22 points and 10 rebounds, as well as leading the Blue Devils in assists. Sarah Strong, PF, sophomore, UConn (women)^note The daughter of former WNBA player Allison Feaster, she led the Huskies in scoring, rebounds, blocks, and steals while they went into the Final Four unbeaten (only to get spanked by South Carolina in the semis).
  • Wooden Award: Named after the aforementioned John Wooden and presented by the Los Angeles Athletic Club. The club has an advisory panel that picks the initial nominees, with the winners determined by voting by a large body of media members. First presented for men in 1977 and women in 2004.
    • Most recent winners (2026): Boozer (men); Strong (women)
  • Wade Trophy: A women's-only award, presented by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, which is mainly the trade association for women's basketball coaches but has a much larger membership base. Only the coaching section of the WBCA votes on it, however. Named for the aforementioned Margaret Wade, it's the oldest women's player of the year award, first being presented in 1978. Notably, unlike the Naismith and Wooden awards, freshmen are ineligible.^note This was relevant in 2021, with UConn freshman Paige Bueckers winning both the Naismith and Wooden but locked out of the Wade (won by Baylor's NaLyssa Smith).
    • Most recent winner (2026): Strong
• The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame is at least partly responsible for presenting parallel suites of men's and women's awards that it calls the "Naismith Starting Five", handed out to the top players at each of the traditional basketball positions.
  • Bob Cousy Award: Presented since 2004 to the top men's point guard. The award honors the Boston Celtics legend, and the HOF partners with Cousy's alma mater of Holy Cross in its presentation.
    • Most recent winner (2026): Darius Acuff Jr., freshman, Arkansas^note Led the entire SEC in scoring and assists.
  • Jerry West Award: The first of four positional awards introduced by the HOF in 2015. Presented to the top men's shooting guard; named after the Los Angeles Lakers great.
    • Most recent winner (2026): Keaton Wagler, freshman, Illinois^note Greatly outplayed his 3-star (out of 5) recruiting ranking, leading the Illini in scoring, assists, threes, and steals on the way to a Final Four berth.
  • Julius Erving Award: Presented since 2015 to the top men's small forward. Named after the ABA and NBA great who was most famous for his time with the Philadelphia 76ers.
    • Most recent winner (2026): AJ Dybantsa, freshman, BYU^note Led the NCAA in scoring the year after a surprise signing with the smaller BYU program as the number one high school recruit in the nation.
  • Karl Malone Award: Presented since 2015 to the top men's power forward, and named for the Utah Jazz great.
    • Most recent winner (2026): Boozer
  • Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award: Presented since 2015 to the top men's center; named for the UCLA, Milwaukee Bucks, and Lakers legend.
    • Most recent winner (2026): Zuby Ejiofor, senior, St. John's^note The Big East POY, DPOY, and men's basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year, who also led the Red Storm in scoring, rebounds, assists, and blocks.
  • Nancy Lieberman Award: Presented since 2000 to the top women's point guard, honoring the double Hall of Famer. Originally presented by the Rotary Club of Detroit; taken over by the HOF in 2014, followed by the HOF partnering with the WBCA in 2018.
    • Most recent winner (2026): Hannah Hidalgo, junior, Notre Dame^note Set the NCAA record (both genders) for single-game and single-season steals while still being a prolific scorer, setting a host of eye-popping statlines never before seen at any level of basketball.
  • Ann Meyers Drysdale Award: The first of four positional awards introduced by the HOF and WBCA in 2018. Presented to the top women's shooting guard; named after the UCLA and Team USA legend.
    • Most recent winner (2026): Mikayla Blakes, sophomore, Vanderbilt^note Led the nation in scoring and took the Commodores to the best season in program history.
  • Cheryl Miller Award: Presented since 2018 to the top women's small forward. Named after the USC and Team USA legend.
    • Most recent winner (2026): Madison Booker, junior, Texas^note Third straight award.
  • Katrina McClain Award: Presented since 2018 to the top women's power forward, and named for the Georgia and Team USA great.
    • Most recent winner (2026): Strong
  • Lisa Leslie Award: Presented since 2018 to the top women's center; named for the USC, Team USA, and Los Angeles Sparks great.
    • Most recent winner (2026): Lauren Betts, senior, UCLA^note Repeated from 2025; led the Bruins to the best season in women's program history even before winning the natty.
• While there are several awards for the top freshmen of the year, the most prominent are those presented by the United States Basketball Writers Association, the trade association for college basketball writers.
  • Wayman Tisdale Award: The men's version, first presented in 1989 as the "USBWA National Freshman of the Year". In 2010, the award was renamed after Tisdale, who had been a first-team All-American as a freshman at Oklahoma in 1983, and went on to a decent NBA career and a successful second career as a jazz bass guitarist until his death from cancer in 2009.^note Country fans: If you remember Toby Keith's "Cryin' for Me (Wayman's Song)"... yes, that Wayman.
    • Most recent winner (2026): Boozer
  • Tamika Catchings Award: The women's version, first presented in 2003. Renamed after the former Tennessee, Team USA, and Indiana Fever great in 2019; unlike Tisdale, she was alive to enjoy this honor.
    • Most recent winner (2026): Jazzy Davidson, G, USC^note The only D-I woman to lead her team outright in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks, and the only one to average at least 2 per game in both blocks and steals.
• Academic All-America Team Member of the Year: The sport's Badass Bookworm award, presented by College Sports Communicators^note  (known before 2022–23 as the College Sports Information Directors of America) since 1988 for both men and women. CSC names "Academic All-Americans" in five men's and five women's sports, as well as "at-large" men's and women's teams covering all other NCAA championship sports, based both on academic accomplishment and excellence of play (but greatly emphasizing the academic side). CSC names separate teams for all three NCAA divisions, plus the NAIA. In basketball, three levels of Academic All-Americans are recognized, with one player from each sex at each level of play recognized as the Team Member of the Year.
  • Most recent Division I winners (2026): Tamin Lipsey, Iowa State (men); Azzi Fudd, UConn (women)^note Fudd's win is especially notable in that she was the top pick in that year's WNBA draft.]

Coaches

• The most prominent awards for college coaches include the following:
  • Naismith College Coach of the Year: Part of the Naismith Trophy program; introduced in 1987 for both men and women. Note that all major coaching awards are bifurcated by the sex/gender of the team, not the recipient.
    • Most recent winners (2026): Tommy Lloyd, Arizona (men);^note Led the Wildcats to a program record in wins, the Big 12 regular-season and tournament titles, and eventually a Final Four place. Shea Ralph, Vanderbilt (women)^note Despite returning only one starter from 2024–25 (the aforementioned Mikayla Blakes), led the Commodores to their best-ever regular-season record and joint-best SEC finish.
  • Associated Press Coach of the Year: Presented by the American press agency since 1967 for men and 1995 for women. More prestigious than the AP's player of the year awards.
    • Most recent winners (2026): Fred Hoiberg, Nebraska (men);^note Led the Cornhuskers to their best-ever season, setting a program record for wins and eventually a Sweet Sixteen place. Ralph (women)
  • Henry Iba Award: Presented by the USBWA since 1959 to the top men's coach, originally as "USBWA National Coach of the Year" but later renamed after the longtime Oklahoma State coach.
    • Most recent winner (2026): Dusty May, Michigan^note Led the Wolverines to the best regular-season record in program history and a #1 regional seed in the NCAA tournament (and eventually the natty).
  • Geno Auriemma Award: The women's counterpart to the Iba Award; presented since 1990. Through the 2023–24 season, it was the last USBWA national award without an individual namesake. It now bears the name of the UConn coaching legend who's won it six times.
    • Most recent winner (2026): Ralph
  • Maggie Dixon Award: A women's award with no men's counterpart, this has been presented since 2007 by the WBCA to the top first-year Division I head coach. The award's namesake died in the 2006 offseason from an undiagnosed heart defect after her first season as head coach at Army. As with most-all coaching awards, the recipient's sex is irrelevant.
    • Most recent winner (2026): Katie Kuester, Army^note Led the award namesake's former program to a 25-win season, its most successful in years.

The WNBA, often called just "the W", started up in 1997. There were women's leagues before, but none of them lasted long (the longest was the WBL, which had three seasons in the late '70s/early '80s); the WNBA, on the other hand, has been one of the most stable and lucrative women's team sports leagues in the US, though still nowhere near as profitable as the NBA.

Differences to note: the ball is smaller (by 1 inch/2.54 cm in circumference) and lighter (by 2 ounces/57 g) and has oatmeal and orange panels (except in the Commissioner's Cup, where the panels are black and white).^note The size and weight are the same used for all women's full-court play at high school level and above, but the colors are unique to the W. the three-point arc is closer than in the NBA (the FIBA arc except in the corners, which are NBA distance), quarters are 10 minutes each (the same as NCAA women's basketball).

That said, arguably the biggest difference is the season structure. The WNBA's season is out of phase with basketball in the rest of the world—it's held during the northern hemisphere summer, when other basketball leagues (even those south of the equator) are in their offseason. The league was started, and is still majority-owned, by the NBA, although it's had its own chief executive throughout its history (titled "President" until 2019, now "Commissioner"). Originally, all WNBA teams were owned by the league. The summer season was established for several reasons. The first was TV windows. While the current end of the season does conflict with college football and the NFL, as well as MLB's postseason, the competition for TV times is much lower than during the NBA and NHL seasons. The second is venue availability—with a summer season, arena dates were much more available than during the NBA, NHL, and college basketball seasons. This also meant that team owners in other leagues, especially the NBA, could fill more arena dates. After the 2002 season, the league sold the teams; eight were purchased by their then-current NBA counterparts, one was bought by an NBA team in a different city,^note the Utah Starzz, which then became the San Antonio Silver Stars, still later the San Antonio Stars, and are now the Las Vegas Aces another was bought by an outside party,^note the Orlando Miracle, which became the Connecticut Sun and two^note Miami Sol, original Portland Fire folded when new owners weren't found. The regular season normally starts in late May and ends in September, with playoffs running into October. However, in Olympic years, the league takes a break to allow players to represent their national teams, while the league (for now) compresses its schedule in FIBA World Cup years to allow an earlier season end. (FIBA has since changed the scheduling of the women's World Cup; starting with the 2030 edition, it will be held in November and December.) Also, the start of the 2020 season was delayed due to COVID-19, and the abbreviated season was played entirely at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

Another difference is that since the 2021 season, the WNBA has held a mid-season tournament, a rare feature in major US team sports.^note Unheard of in football, baseball, hockey, or for the longest time the NBA. Long before MLS or even the original NASL, men's soccer has had the U.S. Open Cup, analogous to England's FA Cup. The National Women's Soccer League has the NWSL Challenge Cup, but it changed its format in 2024 to a single match pitting the most recent league champion and the team with the best record in the previous regular season. In its original format (2020–2023), which featured all NWSL teams, it wasn't an exact equivalent to the U.S. Open Cup. Regardless of format, the Challenge Cup has always been open only to NWSL teams, respectively making the original and current formats loose parallels to the EFL Cup and FA Community Shield. In 2023, the Leagues Cup, previously a low-profile invitational tournament involving select teams from MLS and Mexico's Liga MX, expanded to include all teams from the two leagues. The NBA added a mid-season tournament in 2023–24, conducted in a slightly different format from the Commissioner's Cup. All games in both the NBA and WNBA tournaments, except the championship finals, count as regular-season games. Through 2023, the Commissioner's Cup started with 10 regular-season games for each team, specifically the first home and away games against each other team in its conference. In 2024, this was reduced to 5 games, one against each in-conference team (with two or three at home), all in the first half of June. With the Western Conference adding another team in 2025, that conference had 6 Cup games that season, and in 2026, with each conference adding a team, the East will have 6 Cup games and the West 7. After all teams play their Cup games, the teams that top each conference in the Cup standings advance to a one-off Cup final. The Cup was planned to debut in 2020 before COVID got in the way.

Because the league started with all teams owned by NBA franchises, most teams have names similar to their NBA counterparts. There have been exceptions, and teams not owned by NBA owners have more independent names, even if they're in NBA cities.

Eastern Conference

• Atlanta Dream: Founded in 2008, and was the last new team established during the W's early turbulent years of expansion and contraction. Named for Atlanta-native Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. They had very early success, making the Finals thrice in their first six seasons, but they were swept in each series and have yet to return to those heights. While the Dream shared State Farm Arena with the Hawks from 2008-16 and again in 2019^note 2017 and 2018 were played at Georgia Tech's McCamish Pavilion due to renovations taking place at State Farm Arena during the Hawks' off-seasons those two years, the Hawks never held any ownership stake in its WNBA counterpart. In 2021, the Dream moved from downtown Atlanta to the smaller Gateway Center Arena in College Park, sharing the venue with the Hawks' G League affiliate, the College Park Skyhawks. Also in 2021, the former ownership group sold out after extreme pressure from players, largely driven by the presence of Kelly Loeffler, former Republican Senator for Georgia who had disparaged the Black Lives Matter Movement.^note The entire Dream roster wore warmup shirts supporting Loeffler's main Democratic opponent, Raphael Warnock, who subsequently defeated Loeffler in the January 2021 runoff election. The new ownership group includes Renee Montgomery, who had retired from the league months earlier; she's the first WNBA alum to have invested in a team and taken an active executive role (other alums have filled one of the roles, but not both). Most recently, Brittney Griner joined the Dream in free agency in 2025, contributing to a major team improvement.
• Chicago Sky: Founded in 2006, notable for being the first franchise made without NBA ties. Named for the Chicago skyline. They failed to ever make a playoff appearance until picking up superstar Elena Delle Donne in 2013. During EDD's time in Chicago, their flameouts came in the playoffs, only getting as far as a Finals appearance in 2014. They slid back to mediocrity after EDD's departure to Washington, but rebounded once Courtney Vandersloot made a habit of setting new assist records. The arrival of area native Candace Parker in 2021 was followed by their first-ever title (won as a massive underdog, with the Sky having posted a .500 regular season record and entering the playoffs as the sixth seed). However, the Sky lost most of those stars soon after and fell back to mediocrity and worse, though they have remained one of the league's highest-profile franchises due to drafting both of Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark's biggest college rivals, Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso—matchups between the Midwestern teams have resulted in some of the biggest ratings and ticket sales in W history (though tensions between Reese and the rest of the team and management led to her being traded in 2026).
• Connecticut Sun: Founded in 1999 as the Orlando Miracle (tied to the Orlando Magic), moved to Connecticut in 2003 to become the Sun (named for the Mohegan Sun casino where they play). The Sun was the first WNBA team to be owned independently of an NBA team (specifically by the Mohegan Native American tribe) and the first profitable team in league history. This is potentially because of their location: the Sun are the only WNBA team to not share a market with another "Big Four" professional sports team, and said market has been especially crazy for women's basketball since UConn's meteoric ascent in the '90s. The team is even called USunn due to the plethora of UConn alumnae on the roster (though that's true for many teams across the league). They have generally been quite successful but have never won a championship in spite of four Finals appearances ('04, '05, '19, '22). The face of the team from 2014–24 was triple-double threat Alyssa Thomas before she was traded to Phoenix, seemingly kicking off a rebuild. With other W teams investing in state-of-the-art team facilities, and the Mohegan tribe apparently unwilling to do so (due in large part to massive debt from a downturn in its casino business), the team was sold to Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta just before the 2026 season, and will be moved to Houston in 2027 as a revival of the Comets.^note The sale itself was highly contentious, as the league was accused of steering the team away from not just Connecticut, but New England as a whole, in favor of Houston; New England-based bids intended to relocate the team to either Boston or Hartford were blocked on the grounds that Houston had first dibs on a team because they applied for expansion, which was criticized as flimsy, especially since Hartford is generally considered to be in the same market as Uncasville.
• Indiana Fever: Founded in 2000, named for Indiana's well-known basketball obsession. Saved from potential folding with a run to the 2009 Finals, and then won the 2012 championship. Led throughout this run by the great Tamika Catchings, the team made its first projected profit in 2013 and remained competitive until the end of the 2010s, with another Finals appearance in '15. In the late 2010s, the Fever entered a long lean period, posting a seven-year playoff drought (tied for the longest ever in a league where most teams make the playoffs) and a record streak of 189 games during which the team never had a season record of .500 or better. Those streaks ended in 2024 when all-time Division I career scoring leader and #1 draft pick Caitlin Clark joined 2023 #1 draft pick and ROY Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell on the roster. Besides breaking the long drought, Clark's arrival to the Fever almost guaranteed that they will be the most profitable team in the history of the league, with excitement to see the phenom leading to massive ticket sales (setting new single-season W records for per-game and total home attendance, which only lasted a year), multiple national TV timeslots, and several of their opponents upgrading to NBA arenas just for the Fever's visits to their cities. In 2026, the Fever will become the first W team ever to have all of its regular-season games nationally televised. The team shares the Indiana Pacers' home of Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis (though renovations displaced them for part of the early 2020s).
• New York Liberty: The last inaugural franchise left in the East, founded in 1997 and named for the big green statue in the harbor (which stretches to their distinctive seafoam color scheme). This is the team that went the longest without a WNBA title, but not for lack of trying—they've made six Finals appearances, the second-most of any franchise, and fell short the first five times. Nicknamed the Libs, Libbies, and/or Libkids, the franchise won the Eastern Conference in four of the league's first six seasons but ran into the buzzsaw of the Comets and Sparks in the Finals each time. They stayed fairly competitive through the 2000s but took a downturn in the 2010s. And then the Libs' owner James Dolan, also owner of the New York Knicks, tried to bring in Isiah Thomas to run the team... the same Isiah Thomas who had proved to be as epic a failure as an executive with the Knicks as he was great as a player and that had just lost a sexual harassment lawsuit. In 2019, the Liberty was acquired by Joseph Tsai, owner of the Brooklyn Nets, and moved into the Nets' home of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn once the WNBA returned to home arenas in 2021. The "Libkids" name came back in 2020—they had three first-round picks (including #1 pick superstar Sabrina Ionescu) in the 2020 draft and ended up with seven rookies on their opening-night roster of 12, with no player even 30 years old and only one over 26. They subsequently went all-in for a title run in 2023, picking up Courtney Vandersloot and former MVP Breanna Stewart in free agency and trading for former MVP Jonquel Jones. This superteam became one of the most dominant squads in the W: after winning the '23 Commissioner's Cup but losing the Finals to the Aces, they got their revenge in the next year's playoffs and finally brought home their first championship. Shortly after the start of the 2025 season, the Liberty sold a minority stake in the team to fund the construction of a dedicated practice facility, with the sale valuing the franchise at $450 million—then the highest valuation for a women's sports team, though the Golden State Valkyries have blown past that value, as well as a more recent Liberty valuation at $600 million.
• Toronto Tempo: The first of two new teams for 2026, and the W's first Canadian franchise. The Tempo's principal owner Larry Tanenbaum has said that occasional home games will be taken to other Canadian markets, with two home games in Vancouver and two in Montreal for the inaugural 2026 season. While Tanenbaum is the chairman and minority owner of the Raptors' parent company Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, he owns the Tempo independent of MLSE. Geoff Molson, owner of the NHL's Montreal Canadiens, also holds a minority share in the Tempo.
• Washington Mystics: Founded in 1998, named for the Washington Wizards; they share ownership with the Wizards and the NHL's Washington Capitals. The Fan Nickname "Mystakes" became known for their incredible knack for screwing things up. Home of a very Broken Base, though Elena Delle Donne's arrival plus other roster upgrades in 2017 turned things around, with a 2018 Finals appearance and their first-ever title in 2019. They moved out of the Wizards and Caps' home of Capital One Arena after 2018 to a new arena in southeast DC that only seats 4,200; the Mystics share the venue with the Wizards' G League affiliate, the Capital City Go-Go, though the team has occasionally played games back in Capital One (notably, they set a ton of attendance records, including the all-time record for a regular-season game, when Caitlin Clark came to town).

Western Conference

• Dallas Wings: Founded in 1998 as the Detroit Shock (as in the car part, to reflect the Detroit Pistons), where they won three championships in '03, '06, and '08 (and another Finals appearance in '07) while being coached by former Pistons great Bill Laimbeer. Despite their success, the devastating economic impact of the Great Recession on Detroit led to the sale of the team in 2010. New ownership moved the team to Tulsa, believing the lack of nearby competition for sports would help them succeed in the small market. It didn't work — the Shock was the league's Butt-Monkey for virtually all of its time in Oklahoma. In 2011, they set a new league record for futility with a 3–31 skid. In 2013, things finally looked hopeful when they gained charismatic Notre Dame superstar Skylar Diggins. The Shock finally made their first playoff appearance since the move in 2015... right after the team announced it would move to Dallas for 2016 and drop the Shock name. Their current stars are Arike Ogunbowale and Paige Bueckers, though neither has managed to return the franchise to the success it had experienced in Detroit; the team currently has the worst all-time win percentage among active franchises. The Wings have played in Arlington since their move to DFW, but are moving to Dallas proper in 2027 (delayed from 2026). Initially, they were to play in a renovated arena at the downtown convention center, but with the W's growth in popularity, they'll instead play in the Mavericks' arena.
• Golden State Valkyries: Started play in 2025 as the directly owned sister team of the Golden State Warriors, playing in the Warriors' San Francisco arena. The Valkyries very quickly set a number of W attendance records, selling out their large venue for every home game with a team with relatively few big names that performed well for a first-year expansion team; this immediate financial success likely played a big role in the W's continued aggressive expansion. Going into the 2026 season, the Valkyries are the world's most valuable women's sports team, with valuation estimates at a minimum of $850 million and as high as $1 billion.
• Las Vegas Aces: Three-time and reigning champions, founded in 1997 as the Utah Starzz (named for their Spear Counterpart, the Utah Jazz, and the Jazz's precursor, the ABA's Utah Stars), moved to San Antonio in 2003 as the Silver Stars and brought into the fold of the San Antonio Spurs. Started off lousy, but they got better in San Antonio, turning a profit in 2011. In 2017, the Spurs sold the Stars to MGM Resorts, who moved the team to Vegas and rebranded them as the Aces. MGM Resorts sold out in January 2021 to Mark Davis, de facto owner of the NFL's Las Vegas Raiders, for a relative pittance. Becky Hammon, a former franchise star from the San Antonio era, was brought in as HC in 2022 and immediately led the Aces to back-to-back titles with another "superteam" style roster led by superstar A'ja Wilson and supplemented by Kelsey Plum, Jackie Young, and Chelsea Gray; their 34 wins in '23 remains the league record. In a three-way trade in the 2024–25 offseason, Plum went to the Sparks, the Aces picked up Jewell Loyd as a replacement, and won another title in '25, with Wilson establishing a claim to the greatest individual player in league history. With the growth of women's basketball in the early 2020s, the value and profile for the franchise have grown dramatically; in 2023, Tom Brady became one of several notable minority investors.
• Los Angeles Sparks: One of the inaugural franchises, founded in 1997. The only one with a Non-Indicative Name of any kind (as there's not really a feminine equivalent to "Lakers"), their name came from a secretary watching a welder. Sometimes called Sporks or Sharks by opposing fans. Three-time champions, first with back-to-back titles in 2001-02 led by the legendary Lisa Leslie, who made WNBA history in 2011 by becoming the first alumna to become part owner of a team (though she and her group sold out two years later to a group led by Magic Johnson), and then in 2016 led by Nneka Ogwumike and Candace Parker; both those runs were followed up by one more trip back to the Finals that ultimately fell short, tying the Wings and Mercury for second-most titles. The team has not returned to the playoffs since Parker's departure in 2021 and set a W record for most single-season losses in '24 (32), though it still has the best all-time win percentage among active franchises.
• Minnesota Lynx: Founded in 1999, named as a counterpart to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Survived several rough seasons to stockpile a metric crapton of young talent that has paid dividends since 2011. Once they picked up collegiate superstars Maya Moore, Seimone Augustus, Sylvia Fowles, and hometown hero Lindsay Whalen, momentum immediately began to shift in their direction. Under head coach Cheryl Reeve, they made six Finals appearances and won titles in 2011, '13, '15, and '17, tying the Comets and Storm for most championships. After a brief rebuild period, the Lynx have jumped back into contention, still under the coaching of Reeve and now featuring star player Napheesa Collier, winning the '24 Commissioner's Cup before returning to their record seventh Finals, coming up short against the Liberty. While they still sit just behind the Sparks in regular season wins, their playoff win percentage sits over .600, far beyond any other franchise.
• Phoenix Mercury: Founded in 1997, named as a counterpart to the Phoenix Suns. Sometimes called "the Merc", while multiple players at once are "Mercs". Three-time champions in '07, '09, and '14, all under Diana Taurasi, often considered the greatest player in WNBA history; they also had trips to the Finals in '98 without her and '21 with her, tying them with the Sparks and Wings for second most titles and Sparks and Liberty for second most Finals visits. For their first two titles, Taurasi's main co-star was Cappie Pondexter; immediately after her departure in 2010, the team beat their own WNBA record for offensive production, which they still hold today. When the franchise missed the playoffs for the first time since Taurasi's arrival in 2012, they landed the #1 overall pick for generational talent Brittney Griner, who helped keep the team consistent winners for another decade. The team had an extremely successful rebuild after Taurasi's retirement and Griner's departure in 2024, returning back to the Finals immediately after picking up Alyssa Thomas and a host of other veterans. They share the venue now known as Mortgage Matchup Center with the Suns.
• Portland Fire: The other new entry for 2026, resurrecting the name but not the history of a team that played in the W from 2000–02. Like the original Fire, the new team is sharing Moda Center with the Trail Blazers, although the new Fire is owned by the owners of NWSL side Portland Thorns FC. The new logo depicts a rose on fire, in reference to Portland's nickname of the Rose City.
• Seattle Storm: Founded in 2000, named for Seattle's notorious weather. Have won four titles, ('04, '10, '18, '20), tied with the Comets and Lynx for most of any franchise, all under the leadership of the legendary Sue Bird. The team usually boasts lots of star power, from Lauren Jackson in the early Bird era to Breanna Stewart in the late Bird era, and they formed a "superteam" style roster with Jewell Loyd and veterans Skylar Diggins and Nneka Ogwumike in the early 2020s before issues between the players and coaching staff (most notably Loyd) broke that apart. The Storm is now Seattle's main basketball team because of the loss of the Sonics, attracting plenty of fans in the process. With the Seattle Center Arena having been rebuilt for the NHL's Seattle Kraken (and renamed Climate Pledge Arena), the Storm returned to their permanent home effective in 2022. Due in part to their monopoly on pro basketball in the region, the Storm are considered one of the most valuable women's pro sports franchises in the world, now standing at around $450 million going into the 2026 season.

Defunct teams

• Charlotte Sting: Founded in 1997, folded in 2007. Originally tied to the Charlotte Hornets, later tied to the Charlotte Bobcats. The shift in ownership after the Hornets moved to New Orleans signaled the beginning of the end for this once proud franchise, which had made a Finals appearance in 2001 under the leadership of Dawn Staley.
• Cleveland Rockers: Founded in 1997, folded in 2004. Named for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Left a LOT of bitterness behind, due to the perception of former owner (and Cavaliers owner at the time) Gordon Gund blocking alternate ownership, which resulted in a Harsher in Hindsight moment when Gund recorded a macular degeneration PSA with the tagline "How would you feel if you couldn't see your favorite team?" ("Like a Rockers fan, jerk.") In February 2025, it was reported that current Cavs owner Dan Gilbert was on the verge of getting a future Cleveland franchise, and he got that franchise a few months later. The new team will start play in 2028, but whether it will revive the Rockers name remains to be seen.
• Houston Comets: The league's first dynasty, winning its first four championships and posting the best regular season by win percentage in league history in 1998 (going 27-3). Their name kept up the space Theme Naming for many of Houston's sports teams. If you're referring to the Big Three in a women's basketball context, you're referring to Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes, and Tina Thompson, or you have just made a lot of people very angry. Despite all their early success, they folded in 2008 after failing to find a buyer, easily the most disturbing collapse in the league's late 2000s. Fans have frequently requested the league revive it with an expansion team, to no avail; however, Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta is buying the Connecticut Sun, relocating them to Houston in 2027, and reviving the name of a franchise that won over 60% of its games (though it's yet to be seen if it will officially keep this history or that of the Suns in its record books).
• Miami Sol: Founded in 2000, folded in 2003. WMG suggests that this was the team meant to move to Connecticut, as the Sun's original color scheme closely matched the Sol's, and it would have made the name change a bit more understandable.
• Portland Fire: Founded in 2000, folded in 2003. Their name is a play off Blazers. A new franchise returned to the market in 2026, reviving the name for the new Portland team. Much like the NHL's Winnipeg Jets, the new Fire team is not sharing the old team's records, likely because the old Fire had the worst win record of any franchise in league history and never even made the playoffs.
• Sacramento Monarchs: Founded in 1997, folded in 2009. Though their name was related to the Sacramento Kings, they also played with the Monarch butterfly theme. They featured a number of All-Stars and were the WNBA champions in 2005 (and returned to the Finals the following year), but playing in a small market and being partnered with an NBA team that itself struggled to continue operating ultimately doomed the franchise.

Future teams

Three teams are set to join the W by 2030.

• Cleveland expansion team: Slated to join in 2028. It remains to be seen whether they will revive the old Rockers name and history.
• Detroit expansion team: Slated to join in 2029. The former Shock franchise is still active as the Dallas Wings. Whether Detroit will seek to revive their former team name/history is yet to be seen.
• Philadelphia expansion team: Slated to join in 2030. Unlike the other expansion franchises, which plan on playing in their cities' existing NBA arenas, this team aims to play in its own dedicated venue (though it may start play in the Sixers' arena if the new venue isn't ready in time).
• Other potential expansion/relocation: The W is likely not done with expansion. Besides the above-mentioned potential revival of the Comets in Houston, other cities viewed as leaders for future franchises are Boston, Nashville, and Miami. Before the Rockets' owners emerged as buyers for the Connecticut Sun, Boston was seen as a potential destination for that franchise, which has played games in Boston. For Nashville, its prospective ownership group, fronted by Nashville Predators owner Bill Haslam with additional backing from University of Tennessee athletics alumni Candace Parker and Peyton Manning as well as country superstars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, has a team name ready if awarded an expansion franchise — the Tennessee Summitt, named in honor of legendary Lady Vols head coach Pat Summitt.

WNBA Finals champions by year

Note: The first year of the WNBA had only one championship game, where winner takes all. After that, the WNBA had a best-of-three series until 2005, when the championship series became best-of-five. The Finals stayed that way until expanding to best-of-seven in 2025. Also, keep in mind that the WNBA begins its season in the middle of the year. Also, since 2016, the league has not used conference affiliation to determine playoff spots; the top eight teams in the regular season, regardless of conference, make the playoffs. (Since then, five finals matchups have been East vs. West, namely 2018 and 2021–2024.)

• 1997: The Houston Comets won over the New York Liberty with the final score of 65-61.
• 1998: The Houston Comets won over the Phoenix Mercury 2-1.
• 1999: The Houston Comets won over the New York Liberty 2-1.
• 2000: The Houston Comets swept the New York Liberty 2-0.
• 2001: The Los Angeles Sparks swept the Charlotte Sting 2-0.
• 2002: The Los Angeles Sparks swept the New York Liberty 2-0.
• 2003: The Detroit Shock won over the Los Angeles Sparks 2-1.
• 2004: The Seattle Storm won over the Connecticut Sun 2-1.
• 2005: The Sacramento Monarchs won over the Connecticut Sun 3-1.
• 2006: The Detroit Shock won over the Sacramento Monarchs 3-2.
• 2007: The Phoenix Mercury won over the Detroit Shock 3-2.
• 2008: The Detroit Shock swept the San Antonio Silver Stars 3-0.
• 2009: The Phoenix Mercury won over the Indiana Fever 3-2.
• 2010: The Seattle Storm swept the Atlanta Dream 3-0.
• 2011: The Minnesota Lynx swept the Atlanta Dream 3-0.
• 2012: The Indiana Fever won over the Minnesota Lynx 3-1.
• 2013: The Minnesota Lynx swept the Atlanta Dream 3-0.
• 2014: The Phoenix Mercury swept the Chicago Sky 3-0.
• 2015: The Minnesota Lynx beat the Indiana Fever 3-2.
• 2016: The Los Angeles Sparks beat the Minnesota Lynx 3-2.
• 2017: The Minnesota Lynx beat the Los Angeles Sparks 3-2.
• 2018: The Seattle Storm swept the Washington Mystics 3-0.
• 2019: The Washington Mystics beat the Connecticut Sun 3-2.
• 2020: The Seattle Storm swept the Las Vegas Aces 3-0.
• 2021: The Chicago Sky beat the Phoenix Mercury 3-1.
• 2022: The Las Vegas Aces beat the Connecticut Sun 3–1.
• 2023: The Las Vegas Aces beat the New York Liberty 3–1.
• 2024: The New York Liberty beat the Minnesota Lynx 3–2.
• 2025: The Las Vegas Aces swept the Phoenix Mercury 4–0.

WNBA Commissioner's Cup winners

As noted previously, the Commissioner's Cup was originally scheduled to start in 2020, but was delayed to 2021 due to COVID-19. The 2021 final was the league's first game after its Olympic break. The 2022 and 2023 finals took place at roughly the season midpoint; from 2024 on, the final is either in late June or early July, depending on the calendar.

• 2021: The Seattle Storm beat the Connecticut Sun 79–57 in Phoenix.
• 2022: The Las Vegas Aces beat the Chicago Sky 93–83 in Chicago.
• 2023: The New York Liberty beat the Las Vegas Aces 82–63 in Las Vegas.
• 2024: The Minnesota Lynx beat the New York Liberty 94–89 in Elmont, New York.^note The Cup final was moved to UBS Arena, home to the NHL's New York Islanders, after the NBA booked the Liberty's normal home of Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the first night of its 2024 draft. Since the draft would take place the night after the Cup final, a one-day turnaround from a standard basketball setup to the special draft setup was basically impossible.
• 2025: The Indiana Fever beat the Minnesota Lynx 74–59 in Minneapolis.^note A major surprise, especially given that the Fever was without Caitlin Clark, out with the second of three leg injuries that effectively scuttled her 2025 season.

As with the NBA and college basketball, the WNBA presents a boatload of awards at the end of the season. The specific awards are as follows. The "most recent winners" are those from 2025. Team affiliations reflect those in the season for which the award was presented. Except as indicated, all awards have been presented since the league's first season in 1997, and the voting body for all awards consists of media members.

• The Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) is given to the player who is considered to have been the top performer of the regular season. There are no restrictions on who can be named MVP, but it almost always goes to a player from a team that made the playoffs. That said, guards have historically gotten no love in MVP voting—after Cynthia Cooper won the first two awards in 1997 and 1998, the only guard to win was Diana Taurasi in 2009. Reigning MVP A'ja Wilson has the most MVP awards with four; Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, and Lauren Jackson trail with three. Elena Delle Donne and Breanna Stewart are the only players to win this award with two different franchises (EDD: Sky and Mystics, Stewie: Storm and Liberty).
  • Most Recent Winner: A'ja Wilson, F, Las Vegas Aces^note Her record fourth win, having led the league in points, blocks, and (total) rebounds and helped carry the Aces on a record win streak that turned around their season after a slow start.
• The Rookie of the Year Award is given to the rookie who is considered to have had the best season. Though a rookie is generally defined as a first-year player, she doesn't necessarily have to be. As long as the player enters the current season without having played in the WNBA, she is considered to be in her rookie season. Experience in leagues outside the WNBA is not counted against a player; unlike baseball, which has experienced controversy due to Japanese-born players winning that sport's award despite having prior professional experience in Japanese baseball, there has been little if any controversy over eligibility of former foreign professionals. However, no player with previous pro experience has won this award.
  • Most Recent Winner: Paige Bueckers, G, Dallas Wings^note The #1 overall pick saw little team success but posted an overall excellent statistical performance, including setting the single-game rookie scoring record.
• The Defensive Player of the Year Award is just that. That said, it's often one of the more controversial awards, because defense (1) can't always be quantified and (2) can differ dramatically based on position. Tamika Catchings has the most awards with five.
  • Most Recent Winners: A tie between Wilson and Alanna Smith, F, Minnesota Lynx^note Wilson led the league in blocks and most advanced defensive statistics, while Smith was the defensive leader on the league's top team defense.
• The Most Improved Player of the Year Award is also exactly that. There are no specific guidelines on who can win, except that the ballot stipulates that the award "is not intended to be given to a player who has made a comeback."^note This was an issue in 2022, when some in the media felt that Sabrina Ionescu deserved the award after her first two seasons in 2020 and 2021 were hampered by a severe ankle sprain she suffered early in 2020. The WNBA doesn't have a Comeback Player of the Year Award (the NBA doesn't either), but the Associated Press does; the AP gave that honor in 2022 to Sun wing Alyssa Thomas, who was the Eastern Conference Player of the Month twice after having missed almost all of the 2021 season with a torn Achilles. It usually goes to a player who takes a sudden jump from "who the heck is she?" to "she's actually pretty good". Leilani Mitchell is the only player to have won this award twice (2010 and 2019).
  • Most Recent Winner: Veronica Burton, G, Golden State Valkyries^note Posted massive career highs in every category while leading the expansion Valkyries to the playoffs in their very first season.
• The Sixth Player of the Year Award^note The award was titled "Sixth Woman" through the 2020 season, with "Woman" replaced by "Player" in 2021. goes to the best bench player of the regular season. Players who started in more games than they played strictly as a substitute are ineligible, making this the only W award with a strict eligibility criterion. DeWanna Bonner has the most awards with three (won consecutively in her first three years in the W). Jonquel Jones is the only player to have won this award and later be named MVP (Sixth Player, 2018; MVP, 2021).
  • Most Recent Winner: Naz Hillmon, F, Atlanta Dream^note Had career highs in per-game scoring, rebounds, and assists, and also made 53 threes after going into the season with ONE career three. All that helped the Dream to a tie for the second-best regular-season record and a franchise record for wins.
• The Coach of the Year Award goes to the top head coach of the regular season. There are no specific guidelines for who can win, but the award typically goes to the manager of a team who achieved surprising success, usually a team that was expected to finish low in the standings but ended up competing for a title. The record for most wins is four, held by Cheryl Reeve of the Minnesota Lynx, the winningest coach in W history. Mike Thibault, Dan Hughes, and Bill Laimbeer have won with two different franchises.
  • Most Recent Winner: Natalie Nakase, Valkyries^note Led the new expansion franchise to the playoffs in its first ever season with a roster boasting few notable stars.
• The Executive of the Year Award, first presented in 2017, goes to the season's top general manager. Unlike the other season awards, media members play no role in the voting; the league's GMs vote instead. There are no specific guidelines for who can win, but the award typically goes to the GM of a contending team. Dan Padover is the only three-time winner, and also the only person to have won the award with two franchises.
  • Most Recent Winner: Dan Padover, Dream^note The 2020 and 2021 winner with the Aces, he made several moves that led to doubling the Dream's win total from 2024—most notably hiring HC Karl Smesko from the college ranks and signing multi-time All-Stars Brittney Griner and Brionna Jones in free agency.
• The Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award, the Distaff Counterpart of the NBA Sportsmanship Award, goes to the player viewed as the league's most sportsmanlike. Similar to the Lady Byng Award in the NHL, although unlike that award it does not demand excellence of play. Each WNBA team nominates a player, with media members then voting for the recipient. Named after Kim Perrot, who helped lead the Houston Comets to the first two league championships in 1997 and 1998 before being diagnosed with the lung cancer that ended her career and life in 1999. Nneka Ogwumike has the most awards with four, three of them consecutive.
  • Most Recent Winner: Nneka Ogwumike, F, Seattle Storm^note The first four-time winner.
• WNBA Peak Performers: Statistically based awards honoring the regular season's top performers in several categories. In 1997, awards were presented to "shooting champions" in each conference. From 1998 to 2001, the awards changed to honor the leaders in field-goal and free-throw percentage. In 2002, they changed again to honor the league's per-game scoring and rebounding leaders, with the assists leader added in 2007. Courtney Vandersloot has the most awards, with seven for assists.
  • Most Recent Winners: Scoring – Wilson; rebounding – Angel Reese, F, Chicago Sky; assists – Alyssa Thomas, F, Phoenix Mercury

Three other awards are based on performance in a specific league event:

• The WNBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player is just that. Like the seasonal playing awards, voted on by the media, in this case immediately after the game so that the trophy can be handed out in the postgame festivities. Unlike the NBA's ASG, which is held every season, the WNBA version hasn't been held in every season. From 2004 through 2020, no game was held in any Olympic year. In 2010, the ASG was replaced by a game between Team USA and a WNBA all-star team; that game is not considered an official ASG. The same format was followed in 2021 and 2024, respectively serving as warm-ups for Team USA prior to the (delayed) Tokyo and Paris Olympics; unlike the 2010 game, both were official ASGs. Lisa Leslie and Maya Moore have the most awards, each with three.
  • Most Recent Winner: Napheesa Collier, F, Lynx
• The WNBA Commissioner's Cup Most Valuable Player Award, introduced with the Cup in 2021, honors the best performer in the Cup final. All awards to date have gone to a player on the winning team.
  • Most Recent Winner: Natasha Howard, F, Indiana Fever
• The WNBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award honors the best performer in the WNBA Finals. Every award to date has gone to a player on the championship team. Cynthia Cooper, who won the first four awards (1997–2000), still has sole possession of the record for most awards.
  • Most Recent Winner: Wilson^note Capped off her MVP season with an even more dominant stretch in the Finals, leading the Aces to a series sweep.

Also after the regular season, all-league teams are chosen honoring the best players in three different categories. Recipients listed are from 2025.

All-WNBA Team

The best players in the league. The honor dates back to the league's first season in 1997. Unlike the All-NBA Team, in which the number of players honored has varied over time, the WNBA's version has always honored 10 players. Through the 2021 season, the WNBA and NBA versions were similar in that each team included one center, two forwards, and two guards, but the WNBA announced late in the 2022 season that future All-WNBA Teams would be selected without regard to position. (The NBA followed suit in 2023–24.)

Players are listed in order of points received in voting; this applies to all teams below. Ties are sorted by family name, except that the top individual honoree (MVP here; DPOY and ROY for the other teams) is always first.

A team may be expanded in the case of ties in voting; this applies to the other honors listed below.

• First Team: A'ja Wilson, F/C, Aces; Napheesa Collier, F, Lynx; Alyssa Thomas, F, Mercury; Allisha Gray, G, Dream; Kelsey Mitchell, G, Fever
• Second Team: Nneka Ogwumike, F, Storm; Jackie Young, G, Aces; Sabrina Ionescu, G, Liberty; Aliyah Boston, C, Fever; Paige Bueckers, G, Wings

All-Defensive Team

First presented in 2005, with the league's head coaches voting; coaches cannot vote for players on their own teams. Throughout the history of the award, 10 players have been chosen, divided into two teams. Before the 2023 season, each level of All-Defensive Team consisted of one center, two forwards, and two guards. From 2023, team composition no longer takes position into account. Also, the voting for the All-Defensive Team is completely separate from that of DPOY.

• First Team: Wilson; Alanna Smith, F, Lynx; Thomas; Gabby Williams, F, Storm; Collier
• Second Team: Boston; Veronica Burton, G, Valkyries; Rhyne Howard, G, Dream; Ezi Magbegor, F/C, Storm; Stewart

All-Rookie Team

First presented in 2005. The league's head coaches have been the voting body throughout the history of the award. Coaches cannot vote for their own players. Throughout the history of the award, 5 players have been chosen without regard to position.

• All-Rookie Team: Bueckers; Sonia Citron, G, Mystics; Kiki Iriafen, F, Mystics; Dominique Malonga, C, Storm; Janelle Salaün, F, Valkyries

These are players who have, or have had, pop culture currency; if you want to make a women's basketball reference, you'll probably use one of these players.

Former Players

• Seimone Augustus: Hall of Fame forward who spent all but the last of her 16 WNBA seasons with the Minnesota Lynx, where she holds franchise records in points and minutes. She was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated for women in high school, promoting her as the possible female Michael Jordan. Her success continued during her college years at LSU where she won many national awards and led her team to three Final Four appearances; LSU put a statue of her up in front of its arena in 2023. Augustus was drafted #1 overall by the Lynx in 2006, where she quickly made her presence known by winning Rookie of the Year and setting the current scoring record for a "true" rookie (21.9; Cynthia Cooper did slightly better per game in the league's inaugural season, but she was 34 years old, and Caitlin Clark later surpassed the overall mark thanks to a few extra games). In 2011, when another promising rookie named Maya Moore joined the team, she led the Lynx to their first WNBA title and won Finals MVP; the eight-time All-Star contributed to three more titles in Minnesota over the following decade. She initially planned to retire after 2019 but lost most of that season to injury and ultimately left for the Sparks as a free agent, spending the 2020 season in the "Wubble" in Bradenton before entering coaching. The Lynx retired her #33.
• Alana Beard: A wing out of Duke drafted #2 overall in 2004 by the Washington Mystics, she earned four All-Star nods with the team over the next six seasons while setting current franchise career records in points and steals. After sitting out two full years from separate injuries, she signed with the Los Angeles Sparks and hit an excellent second wind, shifting her game to focus on defense. She won a ring in 2016 and followed that up with back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year wins in '17 and '18. The nine-time All-Defensive Teamer called it a career after 2019.
• Sue Bird: Hall of Fame point guard for the Seattle Storm from her 2002 selection out of UConn (where she won two national titles) as the #1 overall pick until her retirement in 2022, six weeks before her 42nd birthday. The quintessential Girl Next Door — if the girl next door could find you blind on the fast break or drain a dagger three in your face. Bird is the WNBA's all-time leader in seasons played, games played, All-Star selections (13), and total assists (leading the league in the category in three seasons), holds the Storm's franchise record for points, three-pointers, and steals, and won four championships with the Storm across three different decades.^note She also won five EuroLeague titles. However, she doesn't have the per-game assists record (see Courtney Vandersloot below) and also never won a regular season or Finals MVP. She and fellow UConn alum Diana Taurasi (below) are the only two basketball players with five or more Olympic gold medals, and they subsequently adorned the WNBA variant cover of NBA 2K 23. Bird herself is the only player, male or female, with four golds and five total medals in the FIBA World Cup. Her #10 is retired by the Storm, and she was the first W player to receive a statue outside of her team's home arena. She was also half of one of American sports' most prominent power couples, as the decade-long partner/fiancée of US women's soccer star Megan Rapinoe. In 2025, she became the first-ever managing director for the USA women's national team (a role the men have had since early in the current century).
• Debbie Black: One of the shortest players ever in the WNBA at just 5'2", the point guard graduated from Saint Joseph's in Philly in the late '80s and played in several pro leagues for a decade before being drafted in the second round in 1999 by the Utah Starzz (who paired her with the W's tallest-ever player, Margo Dydek). The next season, Black moved to the Miami Sol, where she won Defensive Player of the Year in 2001 after leading the league in steals at 35 years old. She retired in 2004 after two years with the Sun and went into coaching.
• Rebekkah Brunson: A forward who holds the record for most WNBA championships by a player at five. Originally drafted #10 overall in 2004 out of Georgetown by the Sacramento Monarchs, she picked up her first chip in her second season in Sacto. When the Monarchs suspended operations after 2009, Brunson was picked up in the dispersal draft by the Minnesota Lynx and played a critical supporting role in their four-title dynasty run. The five-time All-Star and seven-time All-Defensive Teamer retired in 2018 as the W's all-time leader in career rebounds; while she's since been surpassed, she remains the leader in offensive boards. She has since become an assistant coach for the Lynx, which retired her #32.
• Liz Cambage: A highly skilled center out of Australia and one of the more enigmatic players in WNBA history. Cambage was drafted #2 overall in 2011 by the Tulsa Shock after winning WNBL MVP at just 19 years old. While she went to the States that year and was named an All-Star as a rookie, Cambage made very clear that she had no interest in playing in Tulsa; she didn't play in the U.S. the following year while she competed in the Olympics (winning bronze), played one more season in the WNBA, and didn't play outside the Eastern Hemisphere for five years besides when she competed in the next Olympics, where she led all competition in scoring. When she did eventually return to the U.S. in 2018, the Shock had become the Dallas Wings; she made a huge splash, leading the W in scoring and setting the record for most points scored in a single game (53), but the Wings as a whole struggled. Cambage pushed for a trade to the Las Vegas Aces the following year and remained an All-Star despite missing 2020 due to COVID, but trouble on and off the court (including a bizarre incident in an Olympic training scrim that forced her to step down from the national team) led to her being cut after 2021, right before the Aces dynasty took off. She briefly played for the Sparks before announcing her intention to step away from the WNBA, though she has continued to play internationally.
• Swin Cash: A Hall of Fame forward and a leader of the Detroit Shock dynasty of the 2000s, Cash was drafted #2 overall in 2002 out of UConn, where she helped win two national titles. After helping to lead Detroit to two championships, she was traded to the Seattle Storm in 2008, going on to win another ring with the team in 2010. She was traded again to the Sky in 2012, played a short stint with the Dream in 2014, and wound down her career with the Liberty before retiring in 2016. Cash also won two Olympic gold medals.
• Tamika Catchings: A Hall of Fame forward who spent her entire 15-season career with the Indiana Fever, Catchings was drafted #3 overall in 2001 out of Tennessee after winning a national title and numerous awards (and that coming after a high school career where she became the first known player to manage a quintuple-double). The daughter of NBA journeyman Harvey Catchings, she's one of the league's most decorated players—Rookie of the Year in 2002 (she missed '01 with a torn ACL but bounced back to set the all-time true rookie record for steals and player efficiency), MVP in '11, ten All-Star appearances, five-time Defensive Player of the Year (easily the most of any WNBA player), 11-time All-Defensive Teamer (also a record), and Finals MVP in 2012 after helping win the Fever's only championship. Despite only going all the way on one playoff run, Catchings also holds career playoff records in points, rebounds, and steals. Catchings ended her career in 2016 holding every major statistical record in Fever history (some since passed) and as the league's all-time leader in rebounds and steals (the rebound record has since fallen three times, with Tina Charles as the current leader) and #2 scorer. Her steals record might just be locked up for the foreseeable future; she led the WNBA in the category in eight seasons and is over 250 ahead of the nearest runner-up. She was widely beloved and respected by her peers, thrice winning the league's Sportsmanship award and serving as the president of the players' union late in her career. The Fever retired her #24 (the only jersey retired by the franchise), and she later briefly served as the team's GM.
• Tina Charles: A center drafted #1 overall in 2010, staying in-state with the Connecticut Sun after helping to lead UConn to back-to-back undefeated national titles. Charles won Rookie of the Year while leading the league in rebounds (the first of four such rebound titles), setting the current rookie record. She continued to up her game in the following seasons, winning league MVP in 2012; however, when the Sun fell short in the Conference Finals that season and collapsed the following year, they traded Charles to the New York Liberty in 2014 for a haul of draft picks. She continued to play extremely well in New York, leading the W in scoring in '16 and setting franchise records in total points and rebounds, but the team still struggled in the playoffs. Charles was traded to the Mystics in 2020, as she was unable to play that year due to concerns about contracting COVID with her asthma; while she led the league in scoring again the next year, the Mystics didn't even make the playoffs. The three-time Olympic gold medalist and eight-time All-Star later signed with the Mercury, Storm, and Dream, desperate to avert the distinction of being the best WNBA player ever to never play in the Finals, let alone win a championship, but to no avail; the W's #2 all-time scorer, #1 all-time rebounder, and leader in career double-doubles retired after spending '25 back with the Sun.
• Layshia Clarendon: Drafted #9 overall in 2013 out of Cal by the Fever, Clarendon bounced around to six different WNBA teams in her career and was most recently with the Sparks before retiring at the end of the 2024 season. While they only picked up a single All-Star nod, the shooting guard is notable as the first openly transgender and non-binary player in the WNBA and the first to have top surgery, making them one of the most notable and high-profile transgender athletes in all of sports.
• Charli Collier: The #1 overall pick in 2021 and the face of what is likely the worst WNBA draft class in the league's history. The center out of Texas struggled mightily right out the gate after being taken by the in-state Dallas Wings, posting some of the worst numbers ever for a #1 pick in her rookie year, averaging 3.4 points per game. She somehow got even worse the following year, was waived by the Wings, and has yet to even receive a camp invite from another W team; absent of a potential future comeback, this gave her easily the shortest career of any #1 pick and making her likely the only one since Lindsey Harding in 2007 to not become an All-Star. Collier would almost certainly go down as one of the biggest draft busts ever in the W were it not for the fact that not a single player from her draft class has been named an All-Star and fewer than ten managed to even outlast her time in the league. Most have attributed this to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupting the prior two collegiate seasons.
• Cynthia Cooper: The league's first (and second) MVP and a member of both the Naismith and Women's Halls of Fame. A sixth woman at USC, she honed her skills in Italy before being assigned to the newly formed Houston Comets. Despite (or perhaps because of) being in her thirties, Cooper proceeded to heck everyone's garbage up, leading the league in scoring in her first three seasons and claiming a championship in each of her four seasons (earning a record four Finals MVPs in the process) before retiring in 2000; her single-game scoring record (44) in the inaugural season stood for ten years, and she still holds the league's career records in points per game and player efficiency rating. After serving as head coach of the Mercury for just over a year, Cooper played four more games with the Comets in '03 at age 40 before fully committing to college coaching, with two stints at Texas Southern (retiring from the last of these in 2022) sandwiching a few years at her alma mater of USC.
• Elena Delle Donne:^*Her family name is "Delle Donne", pronounced "DEL-uh DON". Perhaps the most positionally versatile player ever in the women's game, this Hall of Famer was drafted #2 overall in 2013. She spent her first four WNBA seasons with the Chicago Sky before being dealt to the Washington Mystics in the 2017 offseason. Throughout her career, she was listed as a guard and forward—despite being the size of most WNBA centers (6'5"/1.96 m). Center, power forward, small forward, shooting guard, point guard, wing, stretch four, point forward, combo guard... you name it, EDD could play it. With her arrival, the Sky quickly took multiple levels in badass and became legitimate title contenders; EDD was the first rookie ever to be the top vote-getter for the All-Star Game and was also the unanimous choice for Rookie of the Year. In 2014, she took the Sky to a Finals appearance; in 2015, she led the league in scoring and free throw percentage (unheard of for center-sized players) and was named league MVP. In 2017, she forced a trade to the Mystics, the closest team to her Delaware home (significance noted below) and led the team to its first-ever Finals berth in '18 and first title in '19. She also won league MVP in the latter season on the strength of the first 50–40–90 campaign^note shooting at least 50% from the field, 40% on three-pointers, and 90% on free throws in league history, becoming the first W player named MVP for two different teams. She is also the current career free-throw percentage leader in league history (and has a better percentage than anyone in NBA history by a fairly wide margin).^note The margin between EDD and current NBA leader Steph Curry is larger than the difference between Curry and 18th place in the all-time NBA list. She sat out 2020 due to COVID and back problems mostly scuttled her 2021 season, but she came back strong in 2022 with her minutes carefully managed. EDD chose not to play in 2024, and the seven-time All-Star ultimately retired, citing her recurring back issues. Later that year, she became the first-ever managing director for the USA women's 3x3 national team, and she will enter the Naismith Hall in 2026.
  • For the first few years of her WNBA career, EDD was one of the very few high-profile WNBA players who never played overseas. (She has publicly stated that she normally stays in the States to help care for her disabled older sister; her family ties were a big reason she played her college ball at the smaller Delaware program rather than UConn and was a big part in her desire to move to Washington.) She did go to Rio for the 2016 Olympics and joined a Chinese team for that country's 2017 playoffs, but a flareup of post-Lyme disease syndrome^note in 2008, she contracted the disease, which was initially misdiagnosed; she's dealt with the aftereffects ever since forced her to return prematurely to the States. With disability causes so close to her heart, she's also a high-profile ambassador for Special Olympics and is also heavily involved with Lyme disease charities.
• Katie Douglas: A wing known for her two-way play, drafted #10 overall out of Purdue in 2001 by the Orlando Miracle a few years before they became the Connecticut Sun. Douglas set the Sun's standing record for career three-pointers before they traded her back to her hometown Indiana Fever in 2008, where the five-time All-Star contributed to the team's sole championship in 2012. She retired after spending 2014 back with the Sun.
• Małgorzata "Margo" Dydek: The WNBA's all-time leader in career blocks and the tallest woman ever to play pro basketball at a staggering 7'2". The Polish player was the #1 overall pick in 1998, going to the Utah Starzz; her height allowed her to lead the W in blocks in eight separate seasons (including setting the current rookie record for blocks and joining Lisa Leslie as the only W players to put up a triple-double statline with blocks), though she only received two All-Star nods, as her height possibly limited her other basketball abilities. Dydek was traded to the Sun in 2005 and retired after spending 2008 with the Sparks. Tragically, Dydek died of a heart attack in 2011 at just 37 years old while pregnant with her third child.
• Allison Feaster: Forward drafted #5 overall in 1998 by the Sparks after setting a host of still-standing Ivy League basketball records, twice leading the NCAA in scoring and guiding Harvard to the only 16-seed March Madness upset in women's basketball history. Her W career was not quite as spectacular, with only one All-Star selection after she was traded to the Charlotte Sting, but she's continued to have a major impact on the basketball world, serving as a high-ranking front office member for the NBA's Boston Celtics since 2020. Her daughter Sarah Strong, born late in Feaster's W career, is on track to attain even greater collegiate success than her mother, emerging as a major star for UConn.
• Cheryl Ford: Forward drafted #3 overall by the Detroit Shock in 2003. Ford came to the W after an esteemed college career at Louisiana Tech, the alma mater of her Hall of Fame father Karl Malone (though the two have a decidedly... complicated relationship) and made an immediate splash, helping the Detroit Shock go from the worst team in the league to winning a championship in her first season, picking up Rookie of the Year along the way. The four-time All-Star twice led the W in rebounds and won another two titles in Detroit, though the final title was claimed while she was recovering from a torn ACL sustained in an on-court brawl earlier in the season. Ford returned the following year but was let go after the Shock made the move to Tulsa; she never made another W roster and retired a few years later. She still holds the now-Dallas Wings franchise record for career rebounds.
• Sylvia Fowles: Hall of Fame center for the Chicago Sky and Minnesota Lynx, drafted #2 overall by the Sky in 2008 from LSU, where she was the SEC's all-time leading rebounder. Fowles quickly established herself as a solid scorer, tenacious rebounder, and elite defender, becoming claiming the first two of her four Defensive Player of the Year nods in '11 and '13. After seven seasons in Chicago (where she set the standing franchise records for blocks and rebounds), she had a contract dispute and sat out the first half of 2014 until she got traded to Minnesota, becoming the final piece of a dominant dynasty that won WNBA titles in '15 and '17; Fowles was Finals MVP in both seasons as well as league MVP in 2017, not to mention DPOY nods in '16 and '21, and duplicated her major franchise records from Chicago. In 2018, she set the standing W record for most rebounds in a season (since passed by Angel Reese). In 2020, she surpassed teammate Rebekkah Brunson as the W's career rebounding leader (since surpassed by Tina Charles), and ended her career in 2022 as the first W player with 4,000 career boards. In total, she led the league in rebounds in three seasons and blocks in two, earned eight All-Star nods, and had her #34 retired by the Lynx. Outside of the W, Fowles won four Olympic gold medals and two EuroLeague championships.
• Yolanda Griffith: A Hall of Fame center, the Florida Atlantic product landed in the WNBA with a splash when she was drafted #2 overall in 1999 by the Sacramento Monarchs after a few years in other pro leagues. "Yo-Yo" won league MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in her very first season in the W, the first of two years she led the league in rebounds and steals; her first three seasons also remain the three best in W history in terms of total offensive rebounds. The eight-time All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medalist kept the Monarchs competitive for the next decade, and she won Finals MVP after leading them to a championship in 2005. She retired in 2009 after a season apiece in Seattle and Indiana.
• Becky Hammon: A Hall of Fame point guard out of Colorado State who played 16 seasons in the league before retiring in 2014. Although small by WNBA standards (5'6"/1.68 m) and not exceptionally fast, she made up for her relative lack of physical skills with an extraordinary basketball IQ. The New York Liberty signed the undrafted point guard in 1999 and traded her to the San Antonio Stars in 2007, where she led the league in assists in her first season and set standing franchise records for assists and three-pointers. Despite her individual success and several Finals visits, Hammon was one of very few W stars to never win a ring. Despite being born in South Dakota, Hammon became a naturalized Russian citizen; this decision was controversial, but it allowed Hammon to make significantly more money in her playing career and play in the Olympics after not making the U.S. team, winning bronze in 2008. Just before the end of the six-time All-Star's final season as a player, she made headlines when the NBA's San Antonio Spurs hired her as an assistant. Hammon became the first woman to be a full-time coach in any of America's four major professional leagues and remained with the Spurs through the 2021–22 season, by which time she was increasingly seen as a potential NBA head coach in the making. On New Year's Eve 2020, she became the first woman to act as an NBA head coach, taking over after Gregg Popovich was ejected from a game. Hammon returned to the W in 2022 to become head coach of the franchise where she had finished her playing career and that had retired her #25, now known as the Las Vegas Aces. In her first season, she led the Aces to the league's best record and the franchise's first title; she won Coach of the Year, and followed it up with another championship the next season and a third in 2025.
• Lindsey Harding: The #1 overall pick in 2007 after winning multiple national player awards at Duke, the guard had a solid but unspectacular journeywoman career in the W, spending two seasons apiece in Minnesota, Washington, Atlanta, and L.A., missed out on 2015, and split 2016 between New York and Phoenix before retiring from play. She took advantage of her extensive experience to enter into coaching; she is currently an assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers, getting that gig in 2024 after becoming the G League's first-ever female Coach of the Year in her first and only season at the helm of the Stockton Kings, and is also head coach of the Mexico national team.
• Chamique Holdsclaw: What Could Have Been in a smooth, athletic package with a knack for getting into small spaces. She came into the league in 1999 as the #1 overall pick, going to the Washington Mystics with high expectations after being part of three championship teams at Tennessee. She partially lived up to the hype, with six All-Star selections, a Rookie of the Year win, an Olympic gold medal, two rebounding titles and a scoring title, the W record for single-game rebounds (24), and the Mystics' franchise rebounds record. However, lingering knee and hamstring problems cut many of her seasons short, while battles with depression compounded by family tragedies left gaps in her career. She was traded to the Sparks in '05, abruptly retired early in '07, and attempted comebacks in '09 and '10 with the Dream and Stars. Holdsclaw eventually made the Hall of Fame in 2026.
• Alexis Hornbuckle: A guard drafted #4 overall in 2008 coming off of back-to-back championships at Tennessee, she immediately performed well for the Detroit Shock, leading the W in steals in her rookie year while contributing to their title run. That year turned out to be her peak in the pros, though she won another ring with the Lynx in 2011 the year after being traded. She retired in 2013 after two years in Phoenix.
• Lauren Jackson: A versatile stretch four from Australia and arguably the best player ever from that country—she won seven WNBL championships and four MVPs, plus three Olympic silver medals in the 2000s. She spent her entire WNBA career for the Seattle Storm, from her overall #1 selection in 2001 through 2012, and was extremely successful in the States as well—she won championships in '04 and '10 (winning Finals MVP in the latter) and was named league MVP thrice: first in '03, when she led the league in scoring (she led in points again during next year's title run); then in '07 when she led in points and rebounds, was also named Defensive Player of the Year, and set the standing WNBA record for single-season player efficiency; and then finally in the 2010 title run. Despite her many accomplishments, the seven-time All-Star was still an example of What Could Have Been, as she battled near-constant shin, ankle, and knee injuries throughout her career. She retired from basketball in 2016 after missing almost all of the previous two years to the after-effects of a particularly bad knee injury, and the Storm retired her #15; she remains the franchise leader in rebounds and blocks. However, the Hall of Famer ended up returning to play at age 40 in 2022 for her hometown team in Australia's second-level women's league in a bid to make the Aussie team for that year's FIBA World Cup in Australia. She made the team and picked up a bronze medal, returned to the Aussie top flight, and became the oldest Olympic basketball player ever when she took the court for her fifth Olympics in 2024 at age 43 (and claimed another bronze).
• Vickie Johnson: The New York Liberty's career leader in minutes played, the shooting guard was drafted in the second round in the 1997 "elite draft" for players with prior professional experience not already allocated to other teams (she was just one year out of Louisiana Tech). She played for New York until 2005, wrapping up her career with another four seasons with the San Antonio Silver Stars before transitioning into coaching, putting up short and generally unimpressive stints as the HC of the Stars and Wings.
• Lisa Leslie: One of the cornerstones of the Los Angeles Sparks and the early W itself, she was assigned to LA at the league's beginning- appropriate for an Angeleno who went to USC. The Hall of Fame center became a back-to-back champion and Finals MVP in 2001-02, three-time MVP ('01, '04, '06), and two-time Defensive Player of the Year ('04, '06), twice led the W in blocks, won four Olympic gold medals (becoming the all-time leading scorer for the U.S. women's team); holds the Sparks franchise records in minutes, points, blocks, and rebounds; was the league's all-time leading rebounder until Catchings passed her in her final season; recorded the first-ever dunk in a WNBA game; and posted the first 20-point triple-double in league history (not only was this feat not matched for 17 years, she reached that threshold with blocks rather than assists). There are those who call her Lisamort, and those who call her the Diva, and those who... she has a lot of FanNicknames. Her #9 is retired and the Sparks' court is named after her; she later bought into the team as a part owner, but her group sold out in 2013 to a separate group that included Magic Johnson. She later became the head coach of the Triplets of Ice Cube's 3-on-3 basketball league, winning a championship in its first season. Leslie will enter the Naismith Hall a second time in 2026 as a member of the 1996 US Olympic team.
• Betty Lennox: Nicknamed "Betty Basketball", "Betty Big Baskets", or simply "B-Money" by fans, Lennox was drafted #6 overall in 2000 out of Louisiana Tech by the Minnesota Lynx and immediately showed great promise, winning Rookie of the Year and making what turned out to be her only All-Star selection. In her second season, she suffered what many believed would be a Career-Ending Injury to her hip and bounced around to the Sol and Rockers in the next two seasons, both of which ended with her team dissolving. The discarded shooting guard subsequently signed with the Seattle Storm and experienced a remarkable comeback, winning Finals MVP while taking the team to their first title. Lennox was picked up by the Dream in the 2008 Expansion Draft and put up the best numbers of her career in her sole season in Atlanta; she subsequently signed with the Sparks, but a knee injury derailed her trajectory, and she retired after spending 2011 with the Shock.
• Sancho Lyttle: A native of the Grenadines was drafted #5 overall in 2005 out of Houston by the Houston Comets, though she didn't stay local for long as the Comets folded in 2008. The forward-center was the first player taken in the subsequent dispersal draft by the Atlanta Dream, where she emerged as a star, earning two All-Star nods, leading the W in steals twice, and setting the standing Dream franchise records for career rebounds. Lyttle signed with the Mercury in 2018, but an ACL injury that same year ended her career.
• Janel McCarville: The #1 overall pick in 2005, the center out of Minnesota was one of the most disappointing players taken so high, never becoming an All-Star, but still had a solid pro career. Injuries and team dysfunction contributed to her posting just 1.8 points per game in her rookie year with the Sting, easily the worst of any #1 pick rookie. After the team dissolved following her second season, she landed with the New York Liberty and won Most Improved Player in her first year. After spending 2011-12 out of the W, New York traded her rights to the Lynx, where she picked up a title in 2013, missed all of the '15 season with injuries, and retired a year later.
• Taj McWilliams-Franklin: A long-serving and highly decorated forward-center, she had a circuitous route to the pros, with a high school pregnancy derailing her early college career in the early '90s. She bounced back at NAIA St. Edwards, entered the ABA, and eventually was drafted in the third round by the Orlando Miracle in 1999 at nearly 30 years old. She followed the Miracle when they became the Connecticut Sun, playing there until 2006 and collecting five of six total All-Star nods, and spent several more years as a journeyman role-player, picking up championships with the Shock in '08 and Lynx in '11 before retiring in 2012 in her early forties, holding the then-record for career offensive rebounds. She later entered coaching, briefly serving as the Wings' interim HC in 2018.
• DeLisha Milton-Jones: Held the record for most games ever played in the W when she retired after her 17th season in 2015, and still sits in the top five. The Florida product had already played several years in the pros before being drafted #4 overall in 1998 by the Los Angeles Sparks after the ABL folded. The three-time All-Star forward won two championships with the Sparks along with two Olympic golds. After ten non-consecutive years in L.A. and three in Washington, Milton-Jones hopped around several teams in a support role, being awarded the Perrot Sportsmanship award in her final season for still playing at 40 years old. She has since entered coaching.
• Maya Moore: Hall of Fame forward for the Minnesota Lynx 2010s dynasty, drafted #1 overall in 2011 out of UConn after an incredibly decorated college career, including consecutive national championships and a then-NCAA record 90 straight wins. She helped lead the Lynx to their first WNBA championship in 2011 and won Rookie of the Year. She finished a close second to Candace Parker for the regular season MVP in 2013 but won the Finals MVP by helping lead Minnesota to their second title. In 2014, she won MVP after leading the league in scoring, took the Lynx to two more championships in '15 and '17, led the league in steals in '18, won two Olympic gold medals, and set franchise records in three-pointers and steals. The six-time All-Star's career came to an untimely end for unusual reasons. She sat out the 2019 season to pursue personal interests involving Christian ministry and criminal justice reform, being particularly focused on securing the release of Jonathan Irons, who had been wrongfully convicted to a 50-year prison sentence for a non-lethal shooting when he was 16 and served nearly half of it; soon after she helped secure his release in 2020 after over a decade of campaigning for it, they married. Moore never returned to play, formally announcing her retirement from basketball in 2023, and the Lynx in turn retired her #23. Many women's basketball fans consider Moore the greatest to ever play the game, even with her career being abbreviated by her own choice, and wonder What Could Have Been had she desired to continue playing. Moore was also far and away the most successful W player to never incur a technical foul in her entire career.
• Deanna Nolan: A combo guard drafted #6 overall by the Detroit Shock in 2001 out of Georgia, Nolan led the team on their dynasty run to three championships, racking up five All-Star nods and Finals MVP in '09 while setting most franchise records, including the still-standing marks for minutes, assists, and steals, in nine seasons. "Tweety" retired right before the Shock made the move to Tulsa.
• Murriel Page: The longest-tenured player in Washington Mystics history in terms of total minutes, the Florida forward was drafted #3 overall in 1998 and played for the team through 2005, rounding out her pro career with three more years in L.A. before retiring and entering coaching.
• Courtney Paris: A center drafted #7 overall in 2009 after a statistically dominant collegiate career at Oklahoma (where she set the NCAA record for consecutive double-doubles for both genders), her original team in Sacramento dissolved after her rookie year. After two seasons in Atlanta, she settled in and began to reflect some of her collegiate form with the Tulsa Shock, leading the W in rebounds in 2014 and '15. She finished her career with the Storm, winning a title in 2018 before retiring the following year and entering coaching.
• Candace Parker: One of the most accomplished players in WNBA history, having won championships with three different franchises. Silky, smooth, and incredibly athletic, "Ace" was drafted #1 overall in 2008 out of Tennessee by the Los Angeles Sparks fresh off of winning back-to-back national titles in college. She proved equally capable in the pros right away, not just winning Rookie of the Year but league MVP for leading the W in rebounds, becoming just the second W player ever to successfully dunk, and becoming the only W player to post a 5x5 (at least five in every statistical category); she also won the first of two Olympic gold medals in the middle of that campaign. Pregnancy and injuries partially sidelined her for the next few seasons, but she still secured an assist and two more rebound and block titles, won another MVP in 2013, was named Finals MVP after taking the Sparks to a title in 2016, won Defensive Player of the Year in 2020, and set the Sparks franchise assists record. After over a decade in LA, she returned to her hometown^*Well, close enough. She grew up in the western suburb of Naperville. by signing with the Chicago Sky as a free agent in 2021 and immediately won another title (and the Sparks notably fell off in her absence); the next year, despite being in her late 30s, she became the first player in league history to record two triple-doubles in a single season (and also the first to have three career triple-doubles, still tied for third all-time). She signed with the Las Vegas Aces "super team" in 2023 and won a third title in a contributor role before retiring. Parker has earned number of other accolades abroad, has served as a lead basketball analyst for TNT and CBS since 2018, and picked up enough big-name endorsements that she made Forbes magazine's 2021 list of the top 10 earners among female athletes worldwide.^note The W's current maximum salary is a shade over $200K. Parker's total earnings in 2021? An estimated $5.7 million. Most significantly, Parker was one of the cover athletes for NBA 2K 22 (specifically a special edition marking the WNBA's 25th anniversary), making her the first woman ever to receive this spot on the popular video game. She's also become part of the growing list of sportspeople who own shares in American soccer teams; she is a minority investor in Angel City FC, an LA-based team that started play in the National Women's Soccer League in 2022. Formerly married to NBA journeyman Shelden Williams, she's now married to Russian basketball player Anna Petrakova. The Sparks and Sky both retired her #3, and she made the Hall of Fame at the first opportunity.
• Ticha Penicheiro: One of the W's greatest ever point guards, the Portuguese player was drafted #2 overall by the Sacramento Monarchs in 1998 after a stellar career at Old Dominion. The four-time All-Star was an incredible passer, led the W in assists in each of her first six seasons, set a rookie assist record that lasted until Caitlin Clark came to the W, became the only W player ever to record ten steals in a game, and contributed to the Monarchs' championship in 2005. She signed with the Sparks in 2010 after the Monarchs were dissolved and led the W in assists a seventh time in her first year in L.A.; she retired two years later following a season with the Sky as the W's all-time leader in career assists (since surpassed by Sue Bird and Courtney Vandersloot). Her exclusion from the Naismith Hall of Fame has been widely questioned considering that she's been awarded nearly every other major legacy award possible for a WNBA player.
• Kim Perrot: A Pint-Sized Powerhouse point guard who managed to sign with the Houston Comets in 1997 despite going undrafted out of Louisiana, then known as Southwestern Louisiana, and standing at just 5'5", Perrot played ferociously, was adept at stealing the ball, and helped win the first two WNBA championships. The Ensemble Dark Horse was beloved by fans and players alike well before she tragically fell ill with lung cancer in her third season, which quickly metastatized into her brain; she died in the middle of what would have been her third season, with the Comets dedicating their championship win to her. Perrot's #10 became the first jersey retired by a WNBA franchise, and she became the namesake for the league's Sportsmanship Award.
• Cappie Pondexter: An explosive, offensive-minded guard who played for five WNBA teams in her career. Drafted #2 overall in 2006 out of Rutgers by Phoenix, she, Diana Taurasi, and the Mercury won titles in '07 and '09, with Pondexter winning Finals MVP in the latter and claiming Olympic gold in-between. She then demanded a trade to the New York Liberty, either because she wanted to be on the Liberty or because of her fashion business. Controversial among New York's faithful, especially after making some unfortunate remarks after the 2011 earthquake/tsunami/meltdown in Japan, she was dealt to Chicago in 2015 and stayed there for three years. The seven-time All-Star's numbers waned with age; she moved to the Sparks in 2018, was released during the season, got picked up by the Fever, and retired after that season.
• Ruth Riley: A forward-center drafted #5 overall by the Miami Sol in 2001 after she led Notre Dame to a national title. After two underwhelming seasons and the Sol's folding, Riley was picked up by the Detroit Shock as the first pick in the dispersal draft. Riley was key to helping the team go from the worst in the league to winning a title in her first season, picking up Finals MVP in the process. After winning an Olympic gold medal in '04 and a second chip in '06, Riley was traded away to San Antonio, finishing her career with stints in Chicago and Atlanta before retiring in 2014. Riley still holds the now-Dallas Wings franchise record for career blocks.
• Nykesha Sales: A small forward from UConn was assigned to the Orlando Miracle in 1998 and later returned to her home/college state when the team became the Connecticut Sun, playing out the rest of her career there before retiring after 2007. While not the flashiest of players, Sales earned eight straight All-Star selections, led the W in steals in '04, set multiple franchise records (most since passed by Alyssa Thomas), and still holds the Sun's franchise records for career points.
• Katie Smith: A Hall of Fame wing, the Ohio State product was first allocated to the Minnesota Lynx in 1999 after winning both of the only two titles in the short-lived American Basketball League with the Columbus Quest. Despite winning a scoring title in '01 thanks to her exceptional shooting ability, the Lynx largely struggled during Smith's tenure. She was traded to the Detroit Shock in 2006 and returned to team success, winning championships in '06 and '08 and Finals MVP in the latter season. When the Shock left Detroit, so did Smith, bouncing around to Washington, Seattle, and New York. The seven-time All-Star and three-time Olympic gold medalist was the W's all-time scoring leader when she retired after 2013, moving straight into an assistant coaching role with the Liberty. She was eventually promoted to head coach, but Liberty fans would likely rather not talk about that era—after two abysmal seasons, Smith took an assistant job back with the Lynx.
• Dawn Staley: A Hall of Fame point guard who won multiple national awards at Virginia in the early '90s. She was drafted #9 overall in 1999 by the Charlotte Sting and was a six-time All-Star, retiring after spending 2005-06 with the Comets; she also won three Olympic gold medals, serving as the U.S. flagbearer in the 2004 Games. While still an active player in the WNBA, Staley became head coach of Temple and saw solid success. In 2008, she was hired as HC of South Carolina and built the program into a national power, winning three championships; she is the only person to win the Naismith Award as both player and coach and won a fourth gold medal coaching the U.S. Olympic team in 2020–21. Staley will enter the Naismith Hall a second time in 2026 as a member of the 1996 Olympic team, and is all but certain to become the first woman to be inducted three times once she becomes eligible as a coach.^note Jerry West is the only man to have entered the Hall three times (player, member of 1960 US Olympic team, contributor).
• Sheryl Swoopes: One of the game's greats, the first player signed by the WNBA, and the first woman basketball player to sign a shoe deal with Nike. Originally assigned to the Houston Comets in '97 after her stellar career at Texas Tech (where she won a national title in '93), the wing was a brilliant defensive player and incredible slasher in her prime; she was the first WNBA player ever to collect a triple-double (both in the regular and postseason), and still one of only ten to have had more than one in the league. After winning championships in each of her first four seasons, Swoopes began to collect more individual accolades right before teammate Cynthia Cooper retired; she won her first MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in 2000 after leading the league in scoring and steals. She would win both awards twice more, MVP in '02 and '05 (leading the W in scoring again in the latter season) and DPotY in '02 and '03 (leading in steals again in the latter). Despite all this success and three Olympic gold medal wins, the six-time All-Star never managed to win another title after Cooper's retirement; she played one year in Seattle in '08 and attempted a comeback with the Tulsa Shock in 2011 at age 40 before retiring. Her marriage to her high school sweetheart and pregnancy with son Jordan was heavily marketed by the league in its early years. She revealed in 2005 that she was gay and in a relationship with her former assistant coach Alisa Scott, becoming one of the first high-profile American athletes to come out publicly and paving the way for many W players after her; she has since remarried to another man. After retiring for good, the Hall of Famer went into coaching, serving as head coach at Loyola University Chicago before being fired during the 2016 offseason amid allegations of player mistreatment. Swoopes will also enter the Naismith Hall a second time in 2026 as a member of the 1996 Olympic team.
• Diana Taurasi: Guard for the Phoenix Mercury for her entire two-decade career, drafted #1 overall out of UConn in 2004 after leading them to three straight national titles. For the WNBA's 25th anniversary in 2021, she was named the league's "Greatest of All Time" by fans, and with good reason. Hot-headed, foul-mouthed, charismatic, and exceedingly talented, she won three championships in Phoenix ('07, '09, '14), claimed one regular season MVP ('09, the last guard to date to claim the award) and two Finals MVPs (plus Rookie of the Year), led the WNBA in scoring a record five times (and assists once), set the single-season per game scoring record in '06 (which stood until A'ja Wilson's 2024 campaign), became the league's career scoring leader in '17 (she's also the W's all-time leader in three-pointers and the Mercury's all-time leader in assists and steals), and holds the league records for All-W selections (14) and first-team All-W selections (10). Her fiery temper also ensured that she racked up well over 100 technical fouls throughout her career (the nearest runner-up has roughly half as many, making this potentially her most unbreakable record). Taurasi set all of these records despite sitting out the 2015 WNBA season at the request of the Russian team she then played for during the traditional basketball season, which offered her a bonus well in excess of her WNBA salary to do so.^note To put the financial decision in perspective, she was making slightly under the WNBA's then-maximum salary of $107,000. Her Russian team was paying her $1.5 million a season, not including the aforementioned bonus. In Taurasi's defense, she turned 33 during the 2015 WNBA season and hadn't had an offseason since she was at UConn. This wasn't the first time that Taurasi had been offered a bonus to sit out a WNBA season, and several other WNBA players have reportedly been offered similar bonuses; she's just the first player to accept such an offer. Also, Taurasi won six EuroLeague titles while playing overseas. As noted above, she and Sue Bird became the first basketball players with five Olympic golds in 2021, and they subsequently adorned the WNBA variant cover of NBA 2K 23. Taurasi remained a highly productive scorer while playing into her forties, putting up performances in that span that no basketball player of either gender had equaled at that age^note Michael Jordan was the first NBA player to surpass 30 points in a game in his 40s; Taurasi had several plus a 40-point game, all at a more advanced age than MJ and with 40-minute games instead of 48. LeBron James later became the only male player to match that feat., becoming the oldest full-time player in W history,^note The oldest player to appear in a WNBA game was Nancy Lieberman (the namesake of the best-known award for top D-I PG), who played in a single game in 2008 at age 50. and winning her sixth Olympic gold in Paris 2024, making her the first basketball player, first American, and fourth athlete ever to win gold in six different games.^note On the men's side, Rudy Fernández played in his sixth Games for Spain in 2024 (though he "only" has three total medals, none gold). Even at her advanced age for a player, Taurasi's not the oldest Olympic basketball player; Lauren Jackson (in her fifth Games in Paris) beat her by exactly 13 months. Critics will note that Taurasi barely played in Paris, not even stepping onto the court in her final game, but the point still stands. Off the court, Taurasi is married to longtime Mercury teammate Penny Taylor. She also portrayed a member of the Goon Squad in Space Jam: A New Legacy, voicing White Mamba, a humanoid snake that bears the nickname granted to her by the Black Mamba himself.
• Penny Taylor: A small forward out of Australia drafted #11 overall in 2001 by the Rockers, Taylor was taken by the Phoenix Mercury with the top pick in the 2004 dispersal draft when the Rockers dissolved and played in Arizona through 2016, helping them win three championships while also winning two silver Olympic medals for her home country. Right after retiring from play in 2016, Taylor married her longtime Mercury teammate and all-time WNBA great Diana Taurasi and has had two children with her. The three-time All-Star had her #13 retired by the Mercury.
• Tina Thompson: A Hall of Fame forward, she was the league's first-ever college draft pick, chosen #1 overall in 1997 by the Houston Comets out of USC. She contributed to the team's fourpeat championship run in her first four years, signed with her hometown Sparks after the Comets folded in 2009, and spent her last two seasons with the Storm before retiring in 2013 (and also won two Olympic gold medals). At that point, the nine-time All-Star was the last player from the WNBA's first season to be active in the league and was the league's all-time leading scorer (since surpassed only by Diana Taurasi and Tina Charles). Rarely seen without her lucky lipstick. Spent four years as head coach of Virginia before being shown the door in 2022.
• Michele Timms: One of the most dominant players in Australian basketball, the point guard won five WNBL championships in the late '80s and early '90s and won Olympic bronze in 1996 before being assigned to the Phoenix Mercury in 1997. Timms was in her early 30s and past her prime by the time the WNBA was taking off but had an impressive first year, was named an All-Star, and won Olympic silver in 2000 before retiring from play in 2001. The Mercury retired her #7. Timms is a member of five Halls of Fame—Sport Australia (2004), Basketball Australia (2006), Women's (2008), FIBA (2016), and Naismith (2024).
• Kristi Toliver: Drafted #3 overall in 2009 after critically contributing to Maryland's national title run as a freshman, Toliver was traded by the Sky to the Los Angeles Sparks after just a year, won Most Improved Player in '12, and helping them win a title in '16 while setting the franchise record for career three-pointers. Toliver was subsequently traded to the Washington Mystics, where she set the WNBA record for most threes in a game (nine) and won a second championship in 2019 right before returning to the Sparks. She signed back with the Mystics in 2023 and has not officially retired, but it might be difficult for her to keep playing due to other factors: Toliver is also notable as the first ever active WNBA player to simultaneously coach in the NBA, serving stints as an assistant with the Wizards and Mavericks, and she is now associate head coach of the Mercury, presenting a substantial conflict of interest for playing elsewhere in the W.
• Penny Toler: A star player at Long Beach State in the '80s, Toler was assigned to the Los Angeles Sparks in the inaugural W season after a decade of playing in other leagues and earned the distinction of scoring the first field goal and free throw in WNBA history. She played decently for three seasons before retiring in 2000 and moving straight into the role of team GM, assembling three different champion rosters over the next two decades and even serving as interim HC in 2014. She was fired in 2019 after a locker room tirade. Her #11 is one of three jerseys retired by the Sparks.
• Teresa Weatherspoon: A fiery point guard, "Spoon" was assigned to the New York Liberty in 1997 and left there after 2003. We do not discuss her '04 season with the Sparks. She won the W's first two Defensive Player of the Year awards after leading the league in steals both years (her 100 steals in '98 remains the league's record), but she was equally effective on the other side of the ball—she was also the league's first assists leader and may be best known for her buzzer-beating halfcourt heave in Game 2 of the 1999 Finals to win the game for New York and extend the series, a moment that's been regularly cited as the best play in W history. Weatherspoon still holds the franchise record for assists and steals. The five-time All-Star later coached at her alma mater, Louisiana Tech, from 2009-14, but the Hall of Famer failed to duplicate her national championship-winning play as HC. After four seasons as an assistant with the New Orleans Pelicans, she returned to the W in 2024 as the head coach of the Chicago Sky, only to be fired after just one season. She's now head coach of Vinyl BC, one of the six inaugural teams of the 3-on-3 Unrivaled league. Prior to her W career, she won Olympic gold in '88 and bronze in '92 as part of the last American women's team to lose on the biggest international stage.
• Lindsay Whalen: Hall of Fame point guard for the Minnesota Lynx. Started out as a hometown hero of the University of Minnesota, where she graduated as the program's all-time leading scorer. Known for her quiet yet machine-like consistency of play, she helped made women's college basketball popular in the state by bringing twice as many people to the arena during games. She was drafted #4 overall by the Connecticut Sun in 2004 and helped lead them to two Finals appearances, but was traded back to her home state of Minnesota in 2010 to play for the Lynx. In 2011, she helped lead the Lynx to four championships and set the franchise assist record before retiring in 2018 to immediately become the head coach at her alma mater, serving in that role for five seasons, and then returning to the Lynx as an assistant. During her pro career, the five-time All-Star thrice led the W in assists, and she won two Olympic gold medals; the Lynx retired her #13.
• Sue Wicks: A forward for the New York Liberty, taken #6 overall in the inaugural 1997 Draft, nearly a decade after she set almost every program record at nearby Rutgers. The aging veteran played the next six seasons in New York, mostly off the bench, but received one All-Star nod in 2000 and the league's Sportsmanship Award the next year. However, Wicks is probably most notable for being the first WNBA player to come out as gay while still playing, opening the door for many players after her to feel comfortable in doing the same (roughly one-quarter to one-third of WNBA players today are openly queer).
• Sophia Young: The #4 overall pick by the San Antonio Stars in 2006, the small forward out of Baylor played her whole decade-long career with the team, notching three All-Star selections while setting the current franchise records for minutes, steals, rebounds, and points (since surpassed in the latter two by A'ja Wilson).

Current Players

• Ariel Atkins: Drafted #7 overall by the Washington Mystics in 2018, this Texas shooting guard quickly proved to be both a dominant defender and excellent scorer, setting the franchise record for three-pointers while helping the Mystics win a title in her second season. She was traded to the Sky in 2025, then to the Sparks in '26.
• DeWanna Bonner: The W's all-time leader in postseason games played and its third all-time leader in scoring. The Phoenix Mercury took the Auburn product with the #5 overall pick in 2009. The wing won Sixth Woman^note now Sixth Player of the Year in each of her first three seasons in the W, developed into a regular All-Star, and won two championships with the team. During that time, she also formed one of the W's most prominent power couples with teammate and seven-time All-Star Candice Dupree; they married in 2014, and Bonner missed the 2017 season to give birth to twins. Dupree left Phoenix for Indiana that same season, and Bonner was traded to the Connecticut Sun in 2020 for three first round picks. The couple divorced sometime during that separation; Bonner is now engaged to superstar Alyssa Thomas (see below), who was her teammate in Connecticut from 2020–24; after a brief spell in Indiana, she reunited with Thomas in Phoenix. Bonner also has more playoff rebounds than any other W player.
• Aliyah Boston: The #1 overall pick in 2023, going to the Indiana Fever after winning a national championship at South Carolina in 2022 but missing out on a repeat in 2023 thanks in large part to one Caitlin Clark spoiling an otherwise unbeaten season. The forward-center won Rookie of the Year off a dominant performance and has now teamed up with Clark after she was drafted at the same top spot by the Fever the year after Boston.
• Paige Bueckers:^note pronounced "beckers" Even before her first WNBA game, the #1 overall pick in 2025 by the Dallas Wings was one of the biggest names in the women's game. Comparisons with Caitlin Clark are inevitable—both Midwestern guards listed at 6 feet (Bueckers from the Twin Cities, Clark from Iowa), they were top recruits out of high school in 2020 as some of the most promising passers and shooters in the history of the game. However, while Clark stayed in-state, Bueckers went to UConn. Despite struggling with injuries, missing a good chunk of 2021–22 to a shin injury and all of 2022–23 to a torn ACL, she still managed to win multiple national awards and set a host of program records above her highly decorated Husky predecessors before winning a natty in 2025. She broke out in the pros almost immediately, setting the new record for single-game scoring by a rookie (44) on her way to Rookie of the Year and second-team All-WNBA honors.
• Jordin Canada: A point guard out of UCLA drafted #5 overall by the Seattle Storm in 2018, Canada won a title in her first season and led the W in steals in the second. She signed with the Los Angeles Sparks in 2022 and put up some of the best numbers of her career, earning another steals title in '23, and was traded to the Dream in '24.
• Caitlin Clark: Even before finishing her college career at Iowa in 2024, Clark was possibly already the most famous woman to ever play basketball. The Indiana Fever's #1 overall pick in 2024 essentially rewrote the record books of college basketball for both genders, becoming the NCAA's all-time scorer and coming just shy of carrying her team to a national championship based solely on her remarkable three-point shooting and passing skills. She then shattered multiple W records as a rookie, not just setting the total scoring record for rookies but also the single game and season assist records for all players (though the season mark fell back to Alyssa Thomas the following year) and becoming the first (and so far only) rookie ever to post a triple-double (her three career triple-doubles is tied for third all-time). Combined with her prolific scoring, this made her among the most individually impactful offensive players in the history of the league, though she also absolutely shattered a less favorable record for most turnovers in a season. Early in the 2026 season, she officially qualified for the W's career assists leaderboard and became its all-time leader in assists per game—at nearly two per game more than previous leader Courtney Vandersloot. Even more than her on-court impact, Clark has had a paradigm-shifting effect on the overall popularity of the women's game—to the point that The Other Wiki has a page devoted solely to that topic. Her arrival to the W has directly contributed to truly massive growth in the league's attendance and profitability even as struggles with various injuries kept her off the court for most of her second season.
• Natasha Cloud: A guard drafted by the Washington Mystics in the second round in 2015 out of Saint Joseph's in Philadelphia, Cloud emerged as an exceptional passer who set the franchise record for assists, contributed to the team's title run in 2019, and led the W in assists in 2022. She signed with the Mercury in 2024 and was traded to the Sun the next year as part of a deal for Alyssa Thomas.
• Napheesa Collier: The current star for the Minnesota Lynx, the power forward was drafted #6 overall in 2019 out of UConn. Despite not winning any championships with the aged remainders of the Lynx's 2010s dynasty, Collier won Rookie of the Year, Olympic gold in 2020 and '24, and quickly established herself as a regular All-Star. She soon brought the Lynx right back to contention after a brief rebuild. In 2024, she won Commissioner's Cup MVP and Defensive Player of the Year, finished as runner-up to A'ja Wilson for season MVP, tied Breanna Stewart's record for most points in a playoff game, and returned the team to a Finals appearance while leading all players in that postseason in points, rebounds, steals and blocks, the first to ever do so. She followed that up with just the second ever 50-40-90 shooting campaign in W history. Her greatest impact to women's basketball may come off the court, as she and Stewart launched a 3x3 "Unrivaled" basketball league in 2025, essentially as a way to allow top-tier women's players to stay in the United States in the W's offseason. Collier captains Lunar Owls BC in that league, and also won the league's inaugural one-on-one tournament and its first MVP award.
• Kahleah Copper: Drafted by the Mystics #7 overall in 2016, the wing from Rutgers was moved to the Chicago Sky a year later as part of the Elena Delle Donne trade. Over the next few years, Copper developed into an All-Star, leading the Sky to their first title in 2021 and winning Finals MVP. She was traded to the Mercury in 2024, winning Olympic gold later that year.
• Sophie Cunningham: Though not exactly a star—she's averaged double-figure points in only two of her seven W seasons to date—the current Indiana Fever guard has gained an outsized place in W culture since joining Clark in 2025. A Missouri farm girl who starred at Mizzou before being drafted in the second round in 2019 by Phoenix, Cunningham stayed there until being traded to the Fever. She became known as "The Enforcer" for physically defending the often injured and fouled Clark, which led to a huge increase in interest in her social media presence (much of said interest focused on her fashion sense and looks).
• Skylar Diggins:^note Known by "Diggins-Smith" during her marriage from 2017–25. Was a superstar point guard at Notre Dame, where she graduated as the school's second-leading career scorer before being drafted #3 overall in 2013. Known for her charisma and good looks, Diggins was hyped as the next great WNBA point guard after she was drafted by the then-Tulsa Shock in 2013. She got off to a slow start in her debut rookie season, shooting way below her points average from college, but lived up to expectations in 2014, being named the league's Most Improved Player. She missed most of the 2015 season to a torn ACL but came back strong, becoming another perennial All-Star. She missed 2019 while pregnant with her first child; when she became a free agent in 2020, the Wings sent her to the Mercury in a sign-and-trade deal during that offseason, getting three draft picks in return. After another maternity leave for her second child in 2023, she moved to the Storm, then signed with the Sky in '26. Also won gold in the 2020–21 Olympics.
• Chelsea Gray: Drafted #11 overall in 2014 by the Sun, the point guard out of Duke sat out her rookie year while recovering from injury, underwhelmed in year two, and was traded to the Los Angeles Sparks. She won a championship as a bench player in her first year in L.A. but soon earned the nickname "Point Gawd" as a regular starter and All-Star. Gray signed with the Las Vegas Aces in 2021 and has been a major contributor to their superteam dynasty, winning three championships in and earning Finals MVP in the first title run in '22. She is one of only ten players with multiple career triple-doubles. Gray also won Olympic gold in 2020 and '24, captained Rose BC to the first Unrivaled league title in 2025 (also earning that league's Finals MVP award), and won the Unrivaled 1-on-1 tournament in 2026.
• Brittney Griner: Longtime center for the Phoenix Mercury, drafted from Baylor #1 overall in 2013 after winning a national title being named consensus NCAA player of the year in her last two seasons. The 6'8" (2.03 m) Griner, known in college for her dominant shot-blocking and as one of the few women who can routinely dunk, entered the league with as much hype as any player in years, especially when she came out as lesbian and had the league's top-selling jersey in her rookie season. She more than lived up to the hype; a perennial All-Star, Griner has led the league in blocks eight times, including her first seven straight seasons (her 129 in 2014 remains the league's single-season record, and her 11 in one game that year is also a record), has also led the W in scoring twice, and holds the Mercury's career records for blocks and rebounds. She was named Defensive Player of the Year in consecutive seasons (2014-15), helped lead the Mercury to a title in the former season, and has won three Olympic gold medals with Team USA. In one of the most surprising free agency moves in W history, she signed with the Atlanta Dream in the 2024–25 offseason, and followed it up by helping the Dream to a franchise record for regular-season wins. She only spent one season with the Dream, signing a free-agent deal with the Connecticut Sun—which will move to her hometown of Houston in 2027.
  • In 2022, Griner was found guilty of drug charges^note specifically possessing cannabis-based vaping cartridges in Russia, where she had played during the WNBA offseason, and sentenced to 9 years in prison. This was widely viewed as a politically motivated move in the United States, as it coincided with the buildup to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and she indeed wound up being part of a US–Russia prisoner swap for an arms dealer, serving 10 months in all; she returned to playing for the Mercury before a later move to the Dream in free agency. Griner's predicament made her a poster child for the league's then-pressing salary issues and the requirements for most players to play abroad or work other jobs to make a living. This issue, combined with the overall growth of the sport, contributed to changes in league rules, the introduction of more domestic alternatives like Unrivaled, and eventually greater salaries.
• Rhyne Howard: The #1 overall pick in 2022, going to the Atlanta Dream out of Kentucky. The shooting guard immediately established herself as a potent threat on the court, winning Rookie of the Year, becoming a regular All-Star, and returning the Dream to contention. In 2025, she led the league in threes and tied the W's record for most threes in a game.
• Sabrina Ionescu: Joined the league in 2020 as the face of American women's basketball at the time, starting her pro career with the New York Liberty as the #1 overall pick out of Oregon and having already entered First-Name Basis with the public—she's the only D-I player, male or female, with 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, and 1,000 assists in a college career,^note Caitlin Clark fell 10 rebounds short of joining her. as well as the all-time NCAA leader in triple-doubles. Unfortunately, COVID knocked out any chance of her competing for a national title before entering the W, and her rookie season came to a premature end when she went down with a severe ankle sprain in the Libs' third game in the COVID bubble. When the W came back to home markets in 2021, Sabrina sank a buzzer-beating game-winning three in her first game in Brooklyn and two games later became the then-youngest WNBA player to record a triple-double (since surpassed by Clark). Her overall production was slowed by the injury, but she still ended up with the league's top-selling jersey in 2021 and a regular spokeswoman in commercials. Finally fully healthy in 2022, Ionescu racked up impressive stats, becoming the second player after Candace Parker with two triple-doubles in a season and three in a career and the first W player with 500 points, 200 rebounds, and 200 assists in a season.^note It doesn't sound like a lot, but keep in mind (1) the WNBA regular season was 36 games in 2022 (increased to 40 for 2023 and 44 for 2025), compared to the NBA's 82, and (2) regulation WNBA games last only 40 minutes instead of the NBA's 48. In 2023, she set a new W single-season record for three-pointers (helped by the league's expansion to 40 games); posted her fourth triple-double (placing her behind only Alyssa Thomas for career total); adorned the WNBA variant cover of NBA 2K 24; blew away the field in the All-Star Game three-point contest, making all but two of her 27 final-round attempts for a record 37 points; and got her own unisex signature shoe and apparel line from Nike. Besides nearly 80 NBA players wearing her shoe model at least once in that league's 2023–24 season, Ionescu even attended the NBA's All-Star Game to compete with Stephen Curry in their three-point contest and kept up with the legendary shooter from the men's three-point line, outperforming every other man in the event save for Curry himself. She won Olympic gold and helped take the Liberty to their first championship in 2024, became the last-named and (reportedly) by far highest-paid of the 36 inaugural Unrivaled players, and set the Liberty franchise record for career threes.
• Jonquel Jones: A Bahamian power forward/center, later naturalized in Bosnia and Herzegovina and playing for that country internationally, drafted by the Connecticut Sun at #6 overall in 2016 out of George Washington, Jones had a muted rookie year but exploded in her second, setting a then-record for rebounds in a season and winning Most Improved Player. Her role was reduced the next year, but she still won Sixth Woman of the Year; the Sun restored her to the full-time starting role in 2019, and she immediately led the W in rebounds and blocks while taking the team to a Finals appearance. After sitting out 2020 to avoid COVID, Jones picked up right where she left off, winning league MVP and her third rebounding title, then took the Sun to a league-best record and another Finals appearance the following year and set the franchise record for career blocks. However, with the Sun still falling short of winning a title, Jones successfully pushed for a trade to join the New York Liberty superteam in 2023; she won Commissioner's Cup MVP in her first season and Finals MVP the following year, finally securing a ring.
• Jewell Loyd: Drafted her #1 overall in 2015 out of Notre Dame by the Seattle Storm, the guard won Rookie of the Year and two championships, won Olympic gold in 2020 and '24, and has been a perennial All-Star. While the Storm receded in the win column in 2023 in the absence of her former co-stars, Loyd acquitted herself well, setting the then-current W record for most points scored in a single season (thanks to a slightly expanded calendar, still second to Diana Taurasi in per-game points, and immediately surpassed in both categories by A'ja Wilson the following year). Issues with the front office led her to be traded to the Aces in '25 in a high-profile three-team exchange. Like Taurasi, Loyd was greatly admired by Kobe Bryant, who gave her the nickname "Gold Mamba".
• Angel McCoughtry: Forward who made her name with the Atlanta Dream, drafted #1 overall in 2009 out of Louisville. A slashing, high-scoring forward with a penchant for drawing fouls, and also a top-tier defender, she won Rookie of the Year, helped lead the Dream to playoff berths in all but one of her seasons in the ATL, including three Finals appearances (all losses), twice led the league in both scores and steals, won two Olympic gold medals, and set the Dream franchise records in minutes, points, assists, and steals. Missed the 2019 season to injury and moved to the Aces, helping them to a Finals appearance in her first season in Vegas... make that Bradenton. She was let go in 2022, signed with the Lynx for a few games, and has yet to return to another roster; though she has yet to officially retire, the five-time All-Star still stands out as one of the most accomplished W players to never win a championship.
• Emma Meesseman: A dominant forward out of Belgium, drafted in the second round in 2013 by the Washington Mystics and serving as an excellent contributor, setting the franchise record for blocks and becoming the first European and only player drafted outside the first round to win Finals MVP in 2019. She led Olympic competition in scoring in 2020-21 and signed with the Sky for 2022 but then spent three years away from the W, seemingly shifting her focus solely to EuroLeague play, which made sense: Meesseman has won six titles in Europe and was named MVP in her first two seasons after she stopped playing in the United States. She also captained Belgium to EuroBasket Women gold in 2023 and 2025, and was named MVP of both editions. In 2025, amongst the W's rapid growth in revenue and popularity, she made her return, signing with the Liberty.
• Kelsey Mitchell: The current main scoring threat for the Indiana Fever, ranking first in franchise three-pointers and second in overall scoring behind Tamika Catchings with a higher per-game rate. Drafted #2 overall in 2018 out of Ohio State after one of the greatest scoring careers in NCAA D-I history, Mitchell mostly languished on one of the worst teams in the W before emerging as an All-Star in the early 2020s and finally seeing team success as the main target for Caitlin Clark's passes. Mitchell was the first W player to score nine three-pointers in a game, a record since tied by Jewell Loyd and Arike Ogunbowale.
• Arike Ogunbowale: Shooting guard for the Dallas Wings, the Milwaukee native first made her name in college at Notre Dame, notably hitting not one but two thrilling buzzer-beaters to lead the Irish to the 2018 national title. She parlayed those heroics into an appearance on Dancing with the Stars in that offseason and went on to go #5 overall in the 2019 Draft with the Wings. She quickly emerged as a star of the future, finishing third in league scoring as a rookie (though Rookie of the Year honors went to Napheesa Collier of the Lynx) and then leading the league in that category in 2020; she is already the Wings' all-time scoring leader. She also led the W in steals in 2024. Arike is also notable for twice being snubbed for a spot on the Olympic roster, only to both times win All-Star MVP while leading the team of fellow Olympic rejects to an upset (the latter time setting the All-Star scoring record in just a quarter of play). She was also captain of Vinyl BC in the first season of the Unrivaled league.
• Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike: Sisters and Stanford alums.
  • Nneka, the older by two years and shorter by one inch (6'2"), was named Pac-10/Pac-12 Player of the Year twice, and went #1 overall in the 2012 Draft to the Los Angeles Sparks. She made an immediate impact, earning Rookie of the Year and becoming a perennial All-Star, eventually setting the Sparks franchise record for steals. In 2016, she took her game to a new level, leading the league in field goal percentage and setting personal highs in scoring, rebounds, and assists, earning MVP honors while leading the Sparks to the championship. Since then, she's continued to play at top level and is also known for her Nice Gal image on-court, winning the league's sportsmanship award a record four times (2019–21, '25). She was also one of two WNBA players featured in Space Jam: A New Legacy, voicing Arachnneka, a humanoid spider who played on the Goon Squad. She signed with the Storm in 2024 but returned to the Sparks two years later.
  • Chiney, through her first season in the WNBA, was almost a mirror image of Nneka—twice Pac-12 POY, #1 pick in the 2014 Draft (to the Connecticut Sun), and Rookie of the Year. Unfortunately, she became something of a Glass Cannon. First, she tore her right ACL and missed 2015, but came back strong enough in 2016. She then went to play in China, where she hurt the Achilles in her other leg and missed the 2017 WNBA season. Chiney recovered from this setback, making another All-Star appearance in 2018, but was traded to the Sparks the next year, reuniting her with her older sister; she then settled into the role of sixth woman. During the traditional basketball season, she's now an ESPN analyst; this enabled her to sit out 2020 to more fully recover from past injuries. During that time, she also became the first black woman to host a national ESPN Radio program, teaming up with Mike Golic Jr. for the network's 3-hour afternoon drive-time show.
• Kelsey Plum: Drafted by the San Antonio Stars #1 overall in 2017 after breaking the D-I women's basketball all-time scoring record (since surpassed) while at Washington. Though the point guard struggled somewhat at first, she made the move with the team when they became the Las Vegas Aces the next year and developed into a core piece as they built towards their back-to-back titles in 2022-23, being named Sixth Player of the Year in '21^note and the first to receive the award under the "Sixth Player" name before becoming a regular All-Star. She is also a two-time Olympic gold medalist, in 3x3 basketball in '20 and 5x5 in '24; she and Jackie Young (below) are the only players with medals of any color, much less gold, in both 3x3 and the full-court game. Plum was traded to the Sparks in '25 as part of a big three-team exchange.
• Angel Reese: A power forward drafted #7 overall by the Chicago Sky in 2024, Reese quickly established herself as one of the most recognizable names in the WNBA, including featuring on the cover of NBA 2K 26. Reese had an extremely successful collegiate career, transferring to LSU from Maryland in 2023 and leading the Tigers to a national championship while setting the NCAA (both genders) record for double-doubles in a season, with her long wingspan and tenaciousness helping her to rack up a ton of rebounds and baskets in the paint. The "Bayou Barbie"'s college career also made her The Rival for superstar Caitlin Clark, whom LSU defeated in the '23 championship game. Reese has openly embraced being perceived as "the villain", which helped elevate her profile and generated a great deal of revenue for both herself and the entire W; while Clark always draws great ratings, faceoffs between her and Reese^note and Kamilla Cardoso, star of the South Carolina team that beat out Clark for the collegiate title in '24 and was also drafted by the Sky in the same draft #3 overall set viewership and ticket price records for the league.^note Many observers have drawn parallels between the Clark/Reese rivalry and the one between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird in the '80s, which likewise carried over from college and helped to greatly boost the popularity of the NBA. Reese has mostly lived up to the hype on the court: in her rookie campaign, she smashed the single-season record for rebounds per game by any W player and the rookie record for total double-doubles despite having her season cut short by injury. She also broke the W record for consecutive double-doubles, previously set at nine by a veteran Candace Parker, before she had even played twenty games, going 15 straight. However, Reese's critics will be quick to point out that many of those rebounds have been the result of her missing her own shots, as she has some of the lowest field goal percentages of any player in the W who so regularly goes for the basket. These issues, combined with Reese's vocal criticism of the organization's management and their lack of on-court success, led to her being traded to the Atlanta Dream in 2026 for two future first-round picks. In the 2026 basketball-based animated film GOAT, she's the voice of the minor character Propp, an anthropomorphic polar bear.
• Jessica Shepard: Forward drafted in the second round by the Lynx in 2019 after winning a national championship at Notre Dame. Shepard was a solid contributor to the Lynx for six seasons (missing 2024 to a suspension for prioritizing international play) but never fully broke out as a star. While her average career stats have been pretty middling, her signing with the Dallas Wings in 2026 almost immediately showed record promise; in the span of a week, she posted two triple-doubles (only nine other players had as many in their whole career at that point, and her career total of three is tied with Caitlin Clark and Candace Parker for third), with one of those joining Alyssa Thomas as the only 20-20-10 statlines in W history.
• Breanna Stewart: Stretch four for the New York Liberty, moving there as a free agent in 2023 after seven seasons with the Seattle Storm, which drafted her #1 overall in 2016 out of UConn. The 6'4" Stewie came into the league as perhaps the most hyped prospect ever at that time—she led the Huskies to NCAA national titles in each of her four seasons in Storrs, leading the team for most of UConn's NCAA-record winning streaks of 111 total games and 126 regular-season games, and also was named the Final Four MVP in all four seasons, consensus national player of the year in her last two (also winning a major national award as a sophomore), becoming a fixture on Team USA while still at UConn... you get the picture. After leading the league's rookies in scoring, rebounding, blocks, and minutes per game in 2016 (co-leader among all players in minutes, and in the top six in the other three categories), Stewart was the runaway Rookie of the Year, receiving all but one vote. She didn't stop there, going on to earn regular season and Finals MVP honors in 2018 while leading the Storm to the title. Sadly, she missed the 2019 season to a torn Achilles suffered in the 2019 EuroLeague Women final.^note Her injury made her another poster child for the league's salary issues. Even without the geopolitical risks (cf. Brittney Griner), another problem is that players who go overseas don't get any significant offseason. One ESPN writer noted shortly after Stewart's injury that in calendar 2018, she played in China, had little time off before the WNBA season, almost immediately followed that with duty for Team USA at the FIBA World Cup in Spain, and then had little downtime before going to play in Russia. The last time she'd had any real time off was in 2015, before her senior season at UConn. She came back strong in 2020 with a season that put her in contention for another MVP trophy, though A'ja Wilson (below) beat her out for that honor; Stewie went on to claim Finals MVP again in a sweep of Wilson's Aces. During the 2020 season, she also became a prominent social voice on racial justice and feminist causes—enough so that Sports Illustrated named her one of its five Sportspeople of the Year. Despite becoming the first Commissioner's Cup MVP in 2021, leading the W in scoring in 2022, and setting a single-game playoff scoring record, she signed with the Libs in 2023, citing a wish to play in "the biggest market in all of sports".^note Given that she grew up in the Syracuse area and went to school at UConn, it's likely her ties to the region also played a part in her move. Stewart won her second MVP in her first season in New York, and though she fell short of winning another title with a loss to the Aces in the Finals, she eventually brought the franchise to its long-desired first championship. She has won three Olympic gold medals and is a co-founder and team captain in the Unrivaled league (Stewie captains Mist BC, leading them to that league's 2026 title).
• Kiah Stokes: Center drafted by the New York Liberty #11 overall out of UConn in 2015 after she contributed to three consecutive national title runs, Stokes mainly played off the bench in her five and a half seasons in New York but was a capable defender in that time, setting the franchise record for career blocks. She was traded to the Las Vegas Aces in mid-2021, which turned out very well for her—while the Liberty stocked up on superteam talent, Stokes contributed to helping the Aces win three championships (one against her former team) as a role player on an even more stocked roster.
• Brittney Sykes: A talented guard drafted #7 overall out of Syracuse by the Dream in 2017, Sykes was traded to the Los Angeles Sparks in 2020 and established herself as a dominant defensive threat, leading the W in steals in '21 and '22 and winning Defensive Player of the Year in the latter year before signing with the Mystics.
• Alyssa Thomas: Forward for the Connecticut Sun for a decade after they drafted her #4 overall out of Maryland in 2014. Thomas holds the Sun's franchise records for minutes, assists, rebounds, and steals, and has become the most prominent triple-double threat in the post-COVID era—yes, even more so than Sabrina. Always a strong defender who regularly averaged double-figure points, she led the league in steals in 2020 but took major levels in badass in 2022. In that season, Thomas had four triple-doubles, two in the regular season and two in back-to-back Finals games, making her the W's career leader in that category and also the first to record one (much less two) in the Finals. The following year, she came close to averaging a triple-double, recording six in the regular season (including the first ever 20-20-10 statline in W history) and one more in the playoffs while leading the league in rebounds and setting new league records for total (not per-game) single-season defensive boards, assists, and double-doubles (as well as turnovers), narrowly missing out on the season MVP award to Stewie.^note Thomas actually had more first-place votes, but Stewie won on overall points. While all of those single-season records were passed the following year by A'ja Wilson and Caitlin Clark, her fifteen career triple-doubles as of 2024 was still twelve more than any other WNBA player—and that was before she was traded the next year to the Mercury, broke her own record for assists and triple-doubles in a season, and became the only W player to put up 15 assists and rebounds in the same game and the first to have a 20-point triple-double in the playoffs. Making Thomas' accomplishments all the more impressive is the fact that she has played most of her career with labrum tears in both shoulders, managing intense discomfort and limited shooting dexterity rather than miss time to receive surgeries. She also won Olympic gold in '24. Thomas is currently engaged to former Sun teammate DeWanna Bonner. Also captain of Laces BC in Unrivaled.
• Courtney Vandersloot: Point guard for the Chicago Sky from 2011–22 and '25-present, Vandersloot has been the league's poster child for Overshadowed by Awesome and Dude, Where's My Respect?, despite standing as the league's all-time leader in assists per game until Caitlin Clark qualified for the career leaderboard in 2026.^*By better than half an assist per game over the former #2, former Liberty teammate Sabrina Ionescu. After leading Gonzaga to a surprise run to the NCAA regional finals in her 2010–11 senior season and becoming the first NCAA player (male or female) with 2,000 points and 1,000 assists in a career (since joined by Sabrina and Caitlin),^note Incidentally, she and Sabrina played for the same head coach in college, Kelly Graves. the Sky made her the #3 overall pick in that year's draft. Sloot made an immediate impact, making the All-Star Game in her rookie year. However, with other big names at her position, most notably Sue Bird and Skylar Diggins, she didn't make another All-Star team until 2019, her fourth of a total seven seasons leading the W in assists ('14, '17-'21, '23, two more than any player has led the league in any category) including breaking the record for single-season assists multiple times. (Through 2025, she has six of the top eight seasons in per-game assists in league history, and they were the top six before Caitlin Clark in 2024 and Alyssa Thomas in 2025.) On top of that, she set the W records for most assists in a game (18, since passed by Clark) and most consecutive points/assists double-doubles (6 in 2017) and is one of just ten WNBA players with multiple triple-doubles, posting one in the '18 regular season and one in the '21 playoffs. Further developing the "overshadowed" theme, she didn't make the 2016 US Olympic team, and given USA Basketball's long track record of demonstrating loyalty to established players, wound up opting to play internationally for Hungary in 2017, believing (not without reason) that she'd never get to play for Team USA in her prime. After finally winning a title with the Sky in '21 and setting franchise records in minutes, steals, and (of course) assists, Sloot was one of numerous elite players to sign with the New York Liberty in '23. Her assist production declined in '24 with Ionescu transitioning to the point guard role (missing eight games after her mother's passing didn't help either), though she still managed to pass Sue Bird for most career playoff assists and won a second ring. She subsequently signed back with Chicago, adding the franchise's points and field goals records to her résumé early in the 2025 season before tearing an ACL.
  • Vandersloot and her former Sky backcourt mate Allie Quigley formed one of the most notable examples of a Real Life Battle Couple, known as "The VanderQuigs". A second-round pick out of DePaul in 2008 by the Mercury, Quigley bounced around to Indiana, San Antonio and Seattle before landing in Chicago in 2013. Her long-range ability and literal chemistry with Vandersloot (they got married in 2018) helped Quigley win Sixth Woman of the Year in 2014 and '15, get named to three All-Star teams, and become the Sky's franchise leader in points (since passed by her wife)—solo, she won four Three-Point Shootouts. She has sat out of the W since Vandersloot left for New York in '23, and the Sky retired her #14.
• Courtney Williams: Shooting guard drafted #8 overall out of South Florida in 2016. Williams bounced around the W for most of her career, playing for four different teams before settling down (for now) in 2024 with the Minnesota Lynx. One of just ten players with multiple triple-doubles in her career, Williams is probably best known for her visibility off the court; she and Lynx teammate Natisha Hiedeman host a Twitch channel, StudBudz, that has garnered media attention for its unfiltered look at WNBA life, particularly emphasizing the experience of queer Black women athletes.
• Elizabeth Williams: A center-forward drafted #4 overall in 2015 out of Duke, the British-born Nigerian-American struggled mightily in her rookie year with the Sun and was traded the following year to the Atlanta Dream, where she immediately took a huge step up, winning Most Improved Player in her first season before going on to set the Dream's franchise record for career blocks. She signed with the Mystics in 2022 and is currently with the Sky.
• Riquna Williams: A talented combo guard out of Miami, Williams was taken the second round in 2012 by the Tulsa Shock and proved an extremely capable scorer off the bench, including scoring a then-WNBA record 51 points (still second most all-time) in one game in her second season, helping her win Sixth Woman of the Year. After earning her first All-Star nod in 2015, Williams was traded to the Sparks but missed her first season due to injury; she eventually developed into a solid contributor. She signed with the Aces in 2021 and was a bench contributor on the team's back-to-back championship run... though she was cut from the team prior to their '23 title due to the latest of several domestic violence allegations, which may mark the end of her pro career.
• A'ja Wilson: The Las Vegas Aces' all-time leading scorer and rebounder and a face of the league, being the only player to win MVP four times. The 6'4" Wilson grew up in a small South Carolina town not far from the state capital of Columbia and went to that city to play under Hall of Fame guard Dawn Staley at South Carolina, leading the Gamecocks to a national title in 2017 and sweeping all major NCAA player of the year awards the next season. (Carolina has since put up a statue of her in front of its arena and retired her #22.)^note While South Carolina does not officially retire numbers per athletic department policy, only retiring jerseys, Staley stated at the retirement ceremony that no future Gamecock woman would wear #22 again. After going #1 overall to the Aces in the 2018 Draft, she lived up to her billing, being named Rookie of the Year. Wilson further cemented her status in the 2020 bubble, posting numerous record statlines, leading the league in blocks for the first of three seasons, and winning her first MVP. She was named MVP again in '22 before collecting her first championship ring and was Finals MVP in the Aces' successful repeat in '23, also being named Defensive Player of the Year during both title campaigns while remaining a dominant scoring threat (tying the W single-game points record in the latter season). In 2024, she got a signature shoe from Nike, was placed on the WNBA and All-Star variant covers of NBA 2K 25, and went right back to work with one of the most impressive campaigns in basketball history. She surpassed Jewell Loyd's overall single-season scoring record and Diana Taurasi's longstanding per-game scoring metric, set the single season mark for rebounds (coming behind only Angel Reese in rebounds per game), and led the W in blocks—no basketball player, male or female, has managed to lead their league in all three stats since they officially began counting them, and Wilson was subsequently named the first unanimous MVP since Cynthia Cooper in the league's inaugural season. The next year, she again led in all three categories and became the only W player ever to have a 30 point-20 rebound game before collecting her fourth MVP, third title and DPotY, and second Finals MVP. A'ja also won Olympic gold in 2020-1 and 2024. Wilson has been dating fellow Olympian and NBA All-Star Bam Adebayo for several years. She's also the voice of a minor character in GOAT, the anthropomorphic alligator Kouyate. And yes, her first name does come from the Steely Dan album... actually, its title track, as it was her father's favorite song.
• Jackie Young: The #1 overall pick in 2019 by the Las Vegas Aces after winning a national title at Notre Dame, the guard developed quickly as a key piece of the Aces' early 2020s run of dominance, winning Most Improved Player in 2022 while helping the team win three titles. She is one of just ten W players with multiple triple-doubles in her career. Young and the aforementioned Kelsey Plum are the only players with Olympic medals in both 3x3 and the full-court game, with golds in 3x3 in '20 and 5x5 in '24.

The international women's game

The USA was late to the party when it came to founding a stable league, and still competes with European leagues for the full attention of most elite players. Most players spend their winters in Europe to supplement their incomes and stay sharp. Between 1981 and 1996, Europe, Asia, and South America offered the only options for a woman who wanted to keep playing. The pecking order of leagues is fluid; currently the most prestigious and lucrative include Russia, Turkey, and in very recent years China. You can also find W players, alumnae, and hopefuls in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Israel, Australia, and other countries.

In international play, the US is the heavyweight, rarely contested. The game has a presence in several other countries, though:

• Australia: The Opals have been one of the most consistent sides in the world in the last fifteen years, but haven't been able to finish the job. Known for Lauren Jackson, Penny Taylor, and bodysuits.
• Brazil: The gender dynamic of basketball and soccer is, for the most part, reversed between Brazil and the US, which has resulted in Brazil being a world power in women's basketball for a looooong time. Like other Brazilian athletes, they are best known by their first names or nicknames ("apelidos"). Their legends include Magic Paula (real name Maria Paula da Silva, and yes, the nickname comes from Earvin Johnson's), Hortência Marcari and Janeth Arcain; current stars include Érika de Souza and Damiris Dantas.
• The USSR/Russia: The Unified Team brought back Olympic gold in 1992, spurring the development of the US national team. Russia is still a power on the world stage, though they haven't developed their young talent in recent years.
• France: Not historically a powerhouse, but came out of nowhere to win their group and take silver at the 2012 Olympics, picked up bronze in the 2020 (21) Olympics, and took Team USA to the wire in the 2024 final in Paris. They've developed a bad case of Every Year They Fizzle Out at the continental level, losing in the final in each edition of EuroBasket Women from 2013–2021 and finishing third in the 2023 and 2025 editions.
• Spain: Also not a historic powerhouse, but also came out of nowhere to win their group and take silver at the 2014 World Championship. Following a silver at the 2016 Olympics and bronze at the 2018 World Cup, not to mention three EuroBasket Women titles in the 2010s, they've established themselves as a major European power, though France, Serbia, and Belgium are pushing them strongly.
• Belgium: Also not a historic powerhouse, and unlike France or Spain have yet to win any Olympic or World Cup medals, but nonetheless have emerged as a major continental power since the mid-Tens (coinciding with the emergence of the aforementioned Emma Meesseman), picking up bronze medals at EuroBasket Women in 2017 and 2021 and following it up with wins in the two most recent editions in 2023 and 2025.

The Harlem Globetrotters

An equal-parts absolute anomaly and wholehearted-tribute to the sport of basketball, the Globetrotters are a purely-exhibition team, which mixes athletic talent with comedic routines. The team is not actually from Harlem either in foundation (Chicago) or current home base (Atlanta); the name was instead selected to denote that the team consisted entirely of African-American players, as Harlem was seen as a center for African-American culture when the team was founded in the 1920s. The team has played thousands of games since, including exhibition games against NBA teams, and several of the team's players (such as Naismith Hall of Fame inductees Meadowlark Lemon and Curly Neal) were as famous as their NBA counterparts during their heyday. More info on the real-life team can be found on The Other Wiki; what we have here on them is a cartoon and a pinball table. Also, they are apparently mathematical geniuses from another planet who occasionally stop by Earth to crack wise about our mamas.

The Washington Generals

The Globetrotters' former rivals, the Washington Generals (now owned by the Globetrotters themselves). While the Generals have become famous for being losers, they did have one recorded win in 1971 under the name the New Jersey Reds (one of several names the Generals alternated in 1971 and 1972 in an attempt to make it look like there were more teams in the "league" the Trotters "played" in). Despite the close relation between the two teams, the Generals were in fact independently owned for most of their existence (specifically by their founder Red Klotz and his family). In 2015, the Trotters ended their contract with the Generals, causing the latter team to fold. In 2017, the Trotters' parent company bought the Generals name from the Klotz estate and relaunched them as an independent, wholly-legitimate exhibition team separate from the Trotters.

The Basketball Tournament

The Basketball Tournament (TBT) is a summer men's tournament in the US that's steadily increased in popularity since its first edition in 2014. It started out with 32 teams, but has since settled into a 64-team format. Much like the NCAA tournaments, it's a knockout tournament that starts with regional play before the regional survivors assemble for a single-site championship event. One of TBT's more notable features is its winner-take-all prize—initially $500,000, it increased to $2 million before COVID-19 led to it being knocked back to $1 million.

As noted above, its base rule set is that of the NCAA, but has several key differences:

• Games are played in 9-minute quarters instead of the 10-minute quarters of NCAA women's basketball or the 20-minute halves of NCAA men's basketball.
• Players foul out after their sixth personal foul (same as the NBA and WNBA), instead of their fifth.
• Bonus free throws follow NCAA women's rules (which are the same as FIBA's) — after the fifth team foul in a quarter, the non-fouling team gets two free throws. The "one-and-one" of NCAA men's play (and, before 2023–24, NFHS play), in which the shooter must make the first free throw to get the second, does not exist.
  • An exception to this applies during the Elam Ending (see below). Any foul that would result in bonus free throws will instead give the non-fouling team one free throw and possession. This was introduced in 2020 in order to eliminate an incentive for teams to foul in one specific situation—when the defensive team could reach the target score with a free throw or two-point basket while the offense needed a three-pointer.
• The Elam Ending is TBT's most distinctive, and indeed iconic, feature. At the first dead ball with 4 minutes or less remaining in the fourth quarter, the game clock is turned off. At that point, a "target score" is set by adding a specified number of points to the score of the leading team (or tied teams). Initially, 7 points were added; since 2019, 8 points have been added. The game then continues with no game clock but with a shot clock, and the first team to meet or exceed the target score wins, thus eliminating overtime. The NBA All-Star Game adopted the Elam Ending starting in 2020 with a slightly different procedure (setting the target score at the end of the third quarter and adding 24),^note The choice of 24 was an explicit tribute to Kobe Bryant, who had died in a helicopter crash three weeks before the 2020 ASG. He had worn that number during his last 10 seasons with the Lakers. but ditched it for 2024 and beyond. The Canadian Elite Basketball League used the Elam Ending in a 2020 tournament that took the place of its COVID-canceled season, using the TBT procedure but adding 9 points to set the target score, and made this permanent when normal league play resumed in 2021. The NBA G League adopted the Elam Ending with a twist in 2022–23. First, overtime in all regular-season games is now played under Elam Ending conditions, with the target score set by adding 7 points to the final score in regulation. Second, games in December's G League Winter Showcase use the same format as the NBA All-Star Game used to, but with the target score set by adding 25 to the leading score after 3 quarters. The Unrivaled 3-on-3 women's league is also using the Elam Ending; details on its implementation will be covered below in that league's section.
  
  

Teams are chosen via an application process, though the organizers extend invitations to all teams that won first-round games in the previous edition. While active NBA players are contractually prohibited from playing in TBT (mostly due to injury risk), a few have served as team sponsors. Many players from overseas leagues will play in TBT while in the US for their summer break. TBT is especially noted for "alumni teams"—teams made up mostly or entirely of players who attended a specific college. Of the eight teams that have won TBT titles, six were alumni teams. For example, in the 2022 edition, 27 of the 64 teams were single-school alumni teams, and six others were drawn from groups of schools sharing a common bond.^note Two from individual Division I conferences, one from the historic Philadelphia Big 5 rivalry, one from "more prestigious" schools, one from NCAA Division III schools, and one from historically black colleges and universities. On top of all this, another alumni team was drawn mainly from a single Philadelphia high school. A number of other teams, including the 2023 champs, promote a charity.

After each game, the winning team advances its placard on a giant bracket, resembling that found in the first Karate Kid film. After pleas from several prominent sports journalists, the NCAA adopted this ritual starting with the 2018 tournament, bringing a portable bracket into each winning team's locker room to allow the team to advance its placard on said bracket.

More info on TBT can be found on The Other Wiki.

TBT champions by year

• 2014: Notre Dame Fighting Alumni
• 2015: Overseas Elite
• 2016: Overseas Elite
• 2017: Overseas Elite
• 2018: Overseas Elite
• 2019: Carmen's Crew — Ohio State alumni team; the name comes from the school song "Carmen Ohio"
• 2020: Golden Eagles – Marquette alumni team
• 2021: Boeheim's Army – Syracuse alumni team, named in honor of longtime Orange head coach Jim Boeheim^note pronounced BAY-heim
• 2022: Blue Collar U – Buffalo alumni team^note The name is a play on UB's primary color of blue and the city's (and program's) blue-collar image.
• 2023: Team Heartfire – promotes a charity that organizes Christian medical missions
• 2024: Carmen's Crew
• 2025: Aftershocks – Wichita State alumni team; the name comes from the school's nickname of Shockers^note Short for "wheatshockers", an archaic term for wheat harvest workers. Many of the school's early students worked in wheatfields to pay for their education, and its long-defunct football team played its first games on a stubbled wheatfield.

3x3

Officially pronounced "three-ex-three" (though "three-on-three" and, less often, "three-by-three" see informal use), this is FIBA's version of the 3-on-3 halfcourt game. While high-level 3-on-3 competitions have existed in the US since the 1970s, it wasn't until the current century that FIBA started its own competitions in that format. It was first tested in 2007 at the Asian Indoor Games in Macau; two more test events were held before the official launch in 2009 at the Asian Youth Games in Singapore. The first worldwide competition was at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, also in Singapore. The first FIBA World Cup was held in 2012; it was originally held every two years, but became an annual affair from 2016 (though COVID-19 scuttled both the 2020 and 2021 editions). The 2020 (21) Tokyo Olympics were the first Summer Games to feature this variant. The original name was FIBA 33, taking its name from both the 3-on-3 concept and the fact that games ended when one team scored 33 points. However, by the time official competition started, the name was changed to 3x3, with several distinctive rule changes.

3x3 differs dramatically from the standard full-court game—and not just because of the reduced number of players.

• The official court, used in sanctioned competitions, is actually not half of a standard FIBA court. It's the same width as a standard court (15 m), but is only 11 m long (as opposed to 14 m for a standard half court). The court markings are the same as those of the FIBA court.
• Rosters are four players.
• The ball used is unique to 3x3, and is standard across all adult competitions (whether for men, women, or mixed). It's the same circumference as the "size 6" women's ball (28.5 in/70 cm), but is the same mass as the "size 7" men's ball (22 oz/620 g). It also has grooves running along the panels, and has a rubberized cover instead of the leather (natural or synthetic) used in competitive indoor play.
• There is no jump ball at any time in the game. Instead of a jump ball to start the game, the first possession is decided by a pregame coin toss. The winner can choose to take possession at the start of the game, or at the start of a potential overtime.
• Game play starts with the defensive team giving the ball to the offense behind the arc. This procedure is also used after a dead ball. After a made basket or free throw (provided that the non-scoring team will receive possession), play starts with a player taking the ball under the basket. The ball must be moved outside the arc by dribbling or passing before a shot can be taken.
• The "alternating possession" rule of most full-court rule sets does not exist. In any held ball situation, the defensive team is awarded possession.
• Substitution can only take place on a dead ball, as in the full-court game. However, unlike the full-court game, no action by game or bench officials is needed. All that's needed is for the departing player to step across the "half-court" line and make physical contact with the substitute.
• Scoring is very different from that of the full-court game. Free throws are worth 1 point, as in the standard game, but a standard basket is 1 point instead of 2. Shots from behind the "three-point" line are worth 2 points instead of 3.
• The shot clock is 12 seconds.
• If the defense gains possession of the ball inside the arc by a steal, block, or rebound, it must move the ball outside the arc before being allowed to take a shot.
• Players cannot foul out—personal foul counts are not kept. They can still be ejected if they commit two unsportsmanlike fouls (equivalent to the NBA's flagrant 1) or one disqualifying foul (flagrant 2).
• As in the full-court game, a shooter who is fouled while missing a shot attempt gets a number of free throws equal to the value of the missed shot—1 if inside the arc, and 2 if outside the arc. Usually (see below).
• Also as in the full-court game, technical fouls award 1 shot to the non-offending team, and unsportsmanlike and disqualifying fouls 2 shots plus possession.
• Team foul counts are kept, and the rules surrounding foul counts and bonus free throws differ in several ways from those in the full-court game:
  • A technical foul adds 1 to the offending team's foul count. An unsportsmanlike or disqualifying foul adds 2 fouls.
  • On a team's 7th, 8th, and 9th fouls (if not offensive fouls), the fouled player gets 2 free throws. This includes fouls in the act of shooting, regardless of the result or location of the shot.
  • The 10th and all subsequent fouls (if not offensive) result in 2 free throws and possession, again including fouls on shot attempts, whether made or missed.
• Games last 10 minutes, but end by rule once either team reaches 21 points.
• A tied game goes to an untimed overtime, with the shot clock enforced. The first possession in overtime goes to the team that started the game on defense. Overtime ends once either team scores 2 points in overtime. Note that if the score at the end of regulation is 20–20, reaching 21 will not end the game—2 points must be scored.

Unrivaled

As noted in the "WNBA Players" folder, a new 3-on-3 women's league, Unrivaled, launched in January 2025. It was founded by W stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart to give W players an opportunity to play professionally in the US during the traditional basketball season. At its launch, it claimed to offer the highest average salaries of any women's pro league (yes, higher than the W before a new collective bargaining agreement saw a massive jump in salaries in 2026). Players also receive an equity stake in the league. While most of the W's big American names played in the first season, notable omissions were Caitlin Clark and A'ja Wilson (both had been courted by the league, but chose not to play for the time being). Further illustrating the prior salary gap between Unrivaled and the W, shortly before the 2025 W draft, the eventual #1 pick Paige Bueckers signed a three-year deal with the 3-on-3 league—with the first year of the Unrivaled deal reportedly paying her more than her entire four-year WNBA rookie contract. (This changed with the W's new CBA, which saw salaries for existing rookie contracts like that of Bueckers jump fourfold.)

The first season ran from mid-January to mid-March, featuring 6 teams of 6 players each.^note One team had only 5 players in 2025; Cameron Brink had committed to play in the league, but sat out the 2025 season while rehabbing a torn ACL. The regular season is followed by a four-team playoff, consisting of single games. In February, a one-on-one tournament is held with a winner-take-all prize of $250,000, with each of her teammates earning a $10,000 bonus. All players were intended to be in the first one-on-one tournament, but five opted out and seven others sat out due to injury. With the league blowing past its initial financial goals in its first season, and having attracted significant outside investment, it's announced it will add two teams for its 2026 season. In the 2025 season, all games were played at a dedicated media studio in the Miami-area community of Medley, Florida. For 2026, most games remained at that facility, but the league held one doubleheader at the Sixers' arena in Philadelphia, drawing a sellout crowd that was larger than the regular-season WNBA record. While a 3-on-3 league, it differs quite radically from FIBA 3x3.

• Games are played on a compressed full court instead of a slightly truncated half court. Specifically, it's two FIBA 3x3 courts spliced together, making the full court 22 by 15 meters (72.2 feet by 49.2 feet, compared to the 94 feet by 50 feet of the (W)NBA and US college basketball). The FIBA three-point line (same as the W, except the corners are a little closer to the basket) is being used.
• The standard women's ball is being used instead of the unique 3x3 ball, although it has sky blue and white panels instead of the W's usual orange and white, or the black and white used in the WNBA Commissioner's Cup.
• The game is played in a four-quarter format instead of the single 10-minute period of the FIBA game. Each of the first three quarters runs for 7 minutes. For the fourth, see below.
• The clock stops on a made basket only in the last 30 seconds of a period (instead of 1 minute in the W).
• The shot clock is 18 seconds, instead of the 24 of the (W)NBA or 12 of FIBA 3x3. Shot clock resets during an offensive possession are to a maximum of 12 seconds instead of 14 in the (W)NBA or 20 in US college ball.
• The Elam Ending is being used under the name "winning score". Unrivaled sets the winning score at the end of the third quarter by adding 11 points to the leading team's (or tied teams') score. The game continues with no game clock but an active shot clock, and ends once either team reaches or exceeds the winning score. In turn, this means that no overtime is needed, unlike the FIBA game.
• Free throws are awarded only on fouls in the act of shooting, as well as technical fouls. Only one free throw is ever awarded, but...
  • ...the value of the free throw varies based on the circumstances of the foul. If the player made the basket, or a technical foul was committed, the free throw is worth 1 point. A free throw after a missed basket attempt is worth 2 or 3 points, depending on the value of the original shot.
• Personal foul counts are kept, unlike in FIBA 3x3. Players foul out after their sixth foul, as in the (W)NBA. However, if a team has only three players available and one fouls out, that player can stay in the game—but any subsequent fouls she commits are treated as technical fouls.

Champions:

• 2025: Rose BC (Chelsea Gray, captain)
• 2026: Mist BC (Breanna Stewart, captain)