Although WNBA season starts May 15 this year and lasts a few short months, a lot of fans would say ball is life. And to that, we’d like to add that talking about basketball words is the spice of that life.
Have you wondered where the WNBA teams found inspiration for their names? From the Dallas Wings to the Minnesota Lynx, there are plenty of winning stories and interesting patterns when it comes to the names of these teams.
Many WNBA teams are named after affiliated NBA teams that share the same home city and pay homage to their hometowns. You also might notice that many of their names are singular and sometimes abstract—the Indiana Fever, for example, as opposed to the state’s football team the Colts. (Why a fever? We’ll explain!) The WNBA isn’t alone in this (take, for example, the NBA’s Orlando Magic, or the NHL’s Minnesota Wild), but the WNBA certainly has more than its fair share of distinctive team names.
The league, which started play in 1997 with eight teams, has 12 teams today (with a few teams that have changed names or dropped out). Let’s bounce and step into the name game.