The 1997 WNBA Season was the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Natio ...

's first in existence. It started off with 8 franchises:

Charlotte Sting The Charlotte Sting were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Charlotte, North Carolina, one of the league's eight original teams. The team folded on January 3, 2007. The Sting was originally the sister organization of ...

Cleveland Rockers The Cleveland Rockers were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Cleveland, that played from 1997 until 2003. The Rockers were one of the original eight franchises of the WNBA, which started in 1997. The owner was Gordon Gu ...

, Houston Comets,

Los Angeles Sparks The Los Angeles Sparks (LA Sparks) are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Sparks compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The team was foun ...

, New York Liberty, Phoenix Mercury,

Sacramento Monarchs The Sacramento Monarchs were a basketball team based in Sacramento, California. They played in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 1997 until folding on November 20, 2009. They played their home games at ARCO Arena. The Mona ...

, and the

Utah Starzz Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

. It featured an inaugural game between the New York Liberty and the Los Angeles Sparks. The Sparks lost to the New York Liberty, 67–57. The attendance at the Forum was 14,284. The season ended with the Comets defeating the Liberty in a one-game series 65–51. Cynthia Cooper was named

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

of the game.

Regular season standings

Eastern Conference Western Conference

Season award winners

League leaders

*Chantel Tremitiere: Sacramento Monarchs, Minutes Played 1051 *Cynthia Cooper: Houston Comets, Field Goals 191 *Wendy Palmer: Utah Starzz, Field Goal Attempts, 420 *Haixia Zheng: Los Angeles Sparks, Field Goal Percentage, .618 *Cynthia Cooper: Houston Comets, 3-Pt Field Goals, 67 *Ruthie Bolton: Sacramento Monarchs, 3-Pt Field Goal Attempts, 192 *Eva Nemcova: Cleveland Rockers, 3-Pt Field Goal Percentage, .435 *Cynthia Cooper: Houston Comets, Free Throws, 172 *Cynthia Cooper: Houston Comets, Free Throw Attempts, 199 * Bridget Pettis: Phoenix Mercury, Free Throw Percentage, .898 *Latasha Byears: Sacramento Monarchs, Offensive Rebounds, 87 *Lisa Leslie: Los Angeles Sparks, Defensive Rebounds, 203 *Lisa Leslie: Los Angeles Sparks, Total Rebounds, 266 *Teresa Weatherspoon: New York Liberty, Assists, 172 *Teresa Weatherspoon: New York Liberty, Steals, 85 *Elena Baranova: Utah Starzz, Blocks, 63 *Chantel Tremitiere: Sacramento Monarchs, Turnovers, 122 *Isabelle Fijalkowski: Cleveland Rockers, Personal Fouls, 129 *Cynthia Cooper: Houston Comets, Points, 621 *Chantel Tremitiere: Sacramento Monarchs, Minutes per game, 37.5 *Cynthia Cooper: Houston Comets, Points per game, 22.2 *Lisa Leslie: Los Angeles Sparks, Rebounds per game, 9.5 *Teresa Weatherspoon: New York Liberty, Assists per game, 6.1 *Teresa Weatherspoon: New York Liberty, Steals per game, 3.0 *Elena Baranova: Utah Starzz, Blocks per game, 2.2

Playoffs

There were only 8 teams in the league. For the playoffs, the four teams with the best record in the league were seeded one to four. Houston was in the Eastern Conference in 1997 so two Eastern Conference teams matched up in the WNBA Finals.

Coaches

Eastern Conference

Marynell Meadors Marynell Meadors (born August 27, 1943) is an American women's basketball coach at the college and professional level. She most recently served as head coach and general manager of the Atlanta Dream of the Women's National Basketball Association a ...

: Linda Hill-MacDonald * Houston Comets: Van Chancellor * New York Liberty: Nancy Darsch

Western Conference

: Linda Sharp * Phoenix Mercury:

Cheryl Miller Cheryl D. Miller (born January 3, 1964) is an American former basketball player. She was formerly a sideline reporter for NBA games on TNT Sports and also works for NBA TV as a reporter and analyst, having worked previously as a sportscaster f ...

: Mary Murphy and

Heidi VanDerveer Heidi Elizabeth VanDerveer (born February 11, 1964) is a women's basketball collegiate and professional coach. She is currently the women's basketball head coach at UC San Diego. A native of Chautauqua, New York, VanDerveer was a four-year letter- ...

: Denise Taylor

References

External links

1997 WNBA Awards
{{DEFAULTSORT:WNBA

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

1997 in American women's basketball 1996–97 in American basketball by league 1997–98 in American basketball by league