The WNBA was founded in 1996 and started play in 1997, building off the momentum of the 1996 Olympics in which the U.S. women's team won the gold medal and gained a lot of attention in the media.

Most teams are in cities that also have NBA teams. The exception was the Connecticut Sun, which is located in a state that also has one of the nation's most successful and high profile college women's programs, the University of Connecticut. The only other team not to have an NBA team in the same city is the Seattle Storm, though that only came about when the Seattle Super-Sonics relocated to Oklahoma City.

Cynthia Cooper: Houston Comets

Cynthia Cooper is one of the mainstays of the WNBA; she won four WNBA Championships as a guard with the Houston Comets. As a player, Cynthia was a scoring machine, with a career average of 21 points per game. She is the league's all-time points-per-game leader. Cynthia had a 92-game streak in which she scored double figures while in the WNBA. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.

CYNTHIA COOPER

Points	Rebounds	Assists
21.0	4.9	3.2

Sheryl Swoopes: Houston Comets, Seattle Storm

Sheryl Swoopes is the first WNBA player to earn league MVP honors three times. Though her 16-points-per-game career scoring average is eye popping, she's also been the league's most valuable player of the year in 2000, 2002, and 2005 and its defensive player of the year in 2000, 2002, and 2003. Sheryl also led the Houston Comets to four WNBA championships, including one in the league's first season. She also has three Olympic gold medals.

SHERYL SWOOPES

Points	Rebounds	Assists
16.2	5.1	3.4

Diana Taurasi: Phoenix Mercury

A career 20-points-per-game scorer in the WNBA, Diana Taurasi showed how complete she is as a player by averaging more than four assists and four rebounds per game as well. As a college player, Diana was the ultimate winner, leading her team to National Championships three years in a row — 2002, 2003, and 2004. She finished college as the first Big East player with more than 2,000 points, 600 rebounds, and 600 assists.

DIANA TAURASI

Points	Rebounds	Assists
20.0	4.2	4.1

Candace Parker, Los Angeles Sparks

In the 2008 season — her rookie year — Candace Parker averaged 19 points a game, almost 10 rebounds, and exactly four assists for the Los Angeles Sparks. She was named the female athlete of the year by the Associated Press that year. Candace was the college player of the year in 2007, when she led Tennessee to a National Championship. Though Tennessee has had great college players through the decades, Can-dace was the fastest one to score 1,000 points, doing that in just her 56th career game. She accomplished all that in just two years at Tennessee, despite having to red-shirt as a freshman because of a pair of knee injuries.

CANDACE PARKER

Points	Rebounds	Assists
18.9	9.4	3.7

Lisa Leslie, Los Angeles Sparks

Lisa Leslie, who once scored 101 points in the first half of a high school game, won the WNBA MVP award three times. She is a well-balanced force in the front court and back, averaging 17.4 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. Lisa has won two WNBA titles and is the league's all-time leading scorer.

LISA LESLIE

Points	Rebounds	Assists
17.4	9.4	2.3

The WNBA's All-Decade Team

In 2006, the WNBA selected its All-Decade team after the league's 10th year:

WNBA ALL-DECADE TEAM

Name	WNBA Team (Current/Last Team)
Sue Bird	Seattle Storm
Tamika Catchings	Indiana Fever
Cynthia Cooper	Houston Comets
Yolanda Griffith	Sacramento Monarchs
Lauren Jackson	Seattle Storm
Lisa Leslie	Los Angeles Sparks
Katie Smith	Detroit Shock/Minnesota Lynx
Dawn Staley	Houston Comets/Charlotte Sting
Sheryl Swoopes	Houston Comets
Tina Thompson	Houston Comets

HONORABLE MENTION

Name	WNBA Team (Current/Last Team)
Ruthie Bolton	Sacramento Monarchs
Chamique Holdsclaw	Los Angeles Sparks/Washington Mystics
Ticha Penicheiro	Sacramento Monarchs
Diana Taurasi	Phoenix Mercury
Teresa Weatherspoon	Los Angeles Sparks/New York Liberty