The NWBL, game by game.
For six winters, while the WNBA was out of season, some of the best basketball players in the world kept playing. The National Women's Basketball League ran from 2001 to 2006 in Loveland and Lubbock, Springfield and San Jose, and its rosters carried names like Sheryl Swoopes, Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings, Becky Hammon, Ruth Riley, Swin Cash and Rebecca Lobo.
The league ceased operations in 2007. Its records had nowhere to go. This is what survived: 254 games, 291 players, and every box score anyone thought to keep.
Career scoring leaders
| Player | Seasons | G | PTS | PPG | RPG | APG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Becky Hammon | 2003–2006 | 65 | 1461 | 22.5 | 3.7 | 6.1 |
| Anna DeForge | 2003–2005 | 71 | 1206 | 17.0 | 5.1 | 3.6 |
| Katie Cronin | 2004–2006 | 65 | 927 | 14.3 | 6.4 | 2.9 |
| Latonya Johnson | 2003–2005 | 63 | 811 | 12.9 | 4.4 | 1.6 |
| Sheryl Swoopes | 2003–2005 | 36 | 677 | 18.8 | 5.8 | 3.8 |
| Tamicha Jackson | 2002–2004 | 47 | 655 | 13.9 | 3.6 | 4.5 |
| Ruth Riley | 2004–2006 | 38 | 567 | 14.9 | 9.3 | 2.0 |
| Maxann Reese | 2002–2005 | 69 | 548 | 7.9 | 2.0 | 1.4 |
| Tera Bjorklund | 2005–2006 | 36 | 481 | 13.4 | 6.0 | 1.2 |
| Felicia Ragland | 2004–2005 | 45 | 476 | 10.6 | 4.6 | 2.0 |
| Tina Thompson | 2003–2004 | 18 | 472 | 26.2 | 7.6 | 1.9 |
| Kelly Miller | 2002–2003 | 24 | 458 | 19.1 | 6.0 | 5.1 |
| Erica Glover | 2005–2006 | 41 | 455 | 11.1 | 3.9 | 2.1 |
| Coco Miller | 2002–2003 | 24 | 454 | 18.9 | 4.5 | 4.8 |
| Taquilla Allen | 2002–2004 | 46 | 453 | 9.8 | 4.7 | 2.0 |
Browse
NWBL
- 2003 season 63 games
- 2004 season 63 games
- 2005 season 72 games
- 2006 season 36 games
Pro Cup 2004
- 2004 season 5 games
Pro Cup 2003
- 2003 season 7 games
Pro Cup 2002
- 2002 season 7 games
All-Star Classic
- 2001 season 1 games
About this archive
The league
The NWBL played its season in the WNBA off-season, which is how it drew the players it did. The Colorado Chill took the last two titles, in 2005 and 2006. The biggest crowd on record here is 4,620 at the Springfield Civic Center in March 2003; a typical night drew a few hundred to a couple of thousand.
Franchises moved often, and the same club shows up here under more than one name. Records are kept as they were recorded at the time.
The site
The Stat Zone was built in 2002 to keep statistics for basketball leagues, and has stayed online ever since because these numbers exist nowhere else.
It was rebuilt in 2026 from the original scorekeeping databases. The figures are unchanged from what was entered courtside.