The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a women's professional basketball league in the United States. It currently is composed of twelve teams. The league was founded on April 24, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the National Basketball Association (NBA). League play started in 1997; the regular season is currently played from June to September with the Finals in October.

Many WNBA teams have NBA counterparts and play in the same arena. The Connecticut Sun, Seattle Storm, and Tulsa Shock are the only current teams to play without sharing the market with an NBA team (although the Storm shared a market with the Seattle SuperSonics before that team's relocation). In addition to those three teams, the Chicago Sky is the only other team that does not share an arena with an NBA counterpart. The four aforementioned franchises, along with the Atlanta Dream and the Los Angeles Sparks are all independently owned. This independent ownership is important to the WNBA's growth; at one time, all teams in the league were owned by the NBA.

Riquna "Bay Bay" Williams (born May 28, 1990) is an American basketball player for the Miami Hurricanes. She is a student at the University of Miami, where she is majoring in liberal arts.

Riquna's nickname is Bay Bay. She is the youngest of five children. As a senior in high school she averaged 32.5 points per game (ppg) at Pahokee High School. As a freshman at the University of Miami she averaged 8.7 PPG, including a season high of 23 points against Clemson.

She was first discovered during the summer going into her senior year of high school playing for Team Breakdown.

She emerged as one of the best scorers in the country in her sophomore year, and averaged 19.6 PPG. She was named to the All-ACC Second Team her sophomore year

Williams was named to the pre-season Wooden watch list, a list of players under consideration for the John R. Wooden Award, which will be presented to the outstanding player of the year at the end of the season.

Candace Nicole Parker (born April 19, 1986) is an All-American basketball player for the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks and UMMC Ekaterinburg of Russia. She is the younger sister of NBA player Anthony Parker. She attended the University of Tennessee and was drafted by the Sparks in 2008. She may be best known for being the first woman to dunk in an NCAA tournament game and the first woman to dunk twice in a college game—she set both milestones as a redshirt freshman on March 19, 2006. She also became only the second player to dunk in a WNBA game on June 22, 2008.

A versatile player, she is mainly a forward, but was listed on Tennessee's roster as a forward, center, and guard. She was a starter on the Lady Vols basketball team, winners of the 2007 and 2008 NCAA championships.

Parker won the 2009 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice award as the favorite female athlete in the sports category.

Candace Parker was born on April 19, 1986 to Natasha, who currently works for the front office of the Chicago Sky, and Larry, who is in the insurance business. She has two older brothers: Anthony Parker, who is an NBA player, and Marcus, who is a doctor.

Brittney Yevette Griner (born October 18, 1990) is an American women's college basketball player at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. In 2012, the three-time All-American was named the AP Player of the Year and the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. Standing 6'8" tall, Griner wears a men's US size 17 or 18 shoe and has an arm span of 86".

In 2009, Griner was named the nation's #1 high school women's basketball player by Rivals.com. Griner was selected to the 2009 McDonald's All-American basketball team. On March 20, 2012, Griner threw down a one-handed dunk against the Florida Gators, becoming just the second woman to dunk in the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament.

Griner attended Nimitz High School in Houston. In addition to lettering in basketball throughout high school, she played varsity volleyball as a freshman.

During her senior year, Griner led the Cougars to the Texas 5A girls basketball state championship game, where the Nimitz lost 52-43 to Mansfield Summit High School. Griner dunked 52 times in 32 games as a senior, setting a single-game record of seven dunks against Aldine High School. The mayor of Houston Bill White declared May 7, 2009, Brittney Griner Day.

Skylar Diggins (born August 2, 1990 in South Bend, Indiana) is currently a women's basketball player for the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. She was a McDonald's All-American coming out of high school. As a freshman, Diggins became the fourth Indiana native to join the Irish roster in 2009-10, along with fellow South Bend-area guard (and co-captain) Melissa Lechlitner, Indianapolis guard Ashley Barlow (and co-captain) and Valparaiso forward Becca Bruszewski. In addition, she was one of three Miss Basketball honorees on the '09-10 Notre Dame roster, along with Lindsay Schrader (Illinois 2005) and Kellie Watson (Michigan 2008).

Diggins rose to national prominence in her sophomore year, finishing the regular season first on the team in assists per game (4.8 average), while placing second in scoring (14.4) and third in steals (1.9). Since the season began, she has scored in double figures 30 times, including eight 20-point outings, and has notched at least five assists in 21 games.

Diggins continued her stellar play in the NCAA tournament, leading the Irish to the second championship game appearance in school history, ten years after Notre Dame captured the national title in 2001. However, the Fighting Irish lost to the Texas A&M Aggies in the final game of the 2011 women's basketball tournament, by a score of 76-70. In the losing effort, Diggins finished with 23 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 steals. She made 8 of 9 free-throws in the game, including two with 40.7 seconds remaining. But the sophomore struggled from beyond the arc, sinking only 1 of 5 three-point attempts. Diggins also committed 6 turnovers, the last one ending Notre Dame's chances for good as the game clock wound down. As the Associated Press reported, "Diggins, fighting back tears, said the Irish couldn't handle A&M's pressure. 'We turned it over too much. I don't know if it was nerves or what,' she said. 'We just didn't handle the pressure.'"