Women's National Basketball Association

The Women's National Basketball Association or WNBA is an organization governing a professional basketball league for women in the United States. Formed in 1996 as a counterpart to the NBA, the league started play in 1997.

Current organization

Conferences and schedules

The league is divided into two conferences. There are 6 teams in the Eastern Conference and 7 teams in the Western Conference. Each team plays a 34-game regular season schedule. The four teams in each conference with the best winning records go on to compete in the playoffs.

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All-Star Game

In the middle of July, regular play stops and the WNBA All-Star Game is held as part of a weekend event in a selected WNBA city. The actual game is played in the native WNBA team's home arena. The All-Star Game features star players from the Western Conference facing star players from the Eastern Conference. During the season fans get to vote for the players they would like to see start the game.

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Playoffs

At the end of the regular season, the top four teams in each conference are matched up in the playoffs. Each conference has two conference semi-final series, pitting the team with the best record in each conference with the team with the 4th best record in the conference. The team with the 3rd best record in each conference faces the team with the 2nd best record in the same conference. The winning teams from each of these series face each other in the conference final, with the winning team in each conference facing the other team in the WNBA Finals.

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First and second round playoff games series are best-of-three playoff games series. The first game of the series is played on the home court of the team with the lower seed, while the last two games are played on the home court of the higher ranked team. The WNBA Finals is a best-of-five playoff games series.

Related Topics:
Best-of-three playoff - Best-of-five playoff

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Rules

Rules are governed by standard basketball rules as defined by the NBA, with a few notable exceptions:

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• Games are played in two 20-minute halves of play, as in college basketball.
• There is a tip-off to start each half.
• The shot clock runs for 30 seconds.
• The three-point line is 20 feet and 6.25 inches (6.25 m) from the middle of the basket, shorter than the NBA distance
• The regulation WNBA ball is a minimum 28.5 inches (72.4 cm) in circumference, 1.00 inch (2.54) cm smaller than the NBA ball. This size is used for all senior-level women's competitions worldwide.