The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a professional basketball league in the United States. It currently is composed of fourteen 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 All Star game being played midway through the season in July and the finals at the end of September until the beginning of October.