REPORTER DEMETRIUS JOHNSON: The WPBA is a developmental league that gives women hoopers a platform to keep playing, growing their game, and getting a chance to be seen by the top professional leagues. The goal for the league is to one day become the WNBA\u2019s developmental league, like the NBA has with its G League.<\/p>\n
ERIN: So the G league is like farm teams for the NBA. Like the Golden State Warriors have the Santa Cruz Warriors<\/a> with up and coming players, or the players recovering from injury, or folks like that.<\/p>\n REPORTER DEMETRIUS JOHNSON: Yeah, and right now, the WNBA doesn\u2019t have that kind of pipeline. Think about this: at the very least there\u2019s about 16,000<\/a> women basketball student athletes in colleges and universities. There\u2019s only about 160 <\/a>roster spots in the WNBA. Give or take. If they don\u2019t make it into the WNBA or play professionally overseas, where can they continue their basketball career? That\u2019s where independent women\u2019s leagues come in. You have Exalt<\/a>, which is a league out of Austin, Texas starting up next year giving players a platform to keep hooping after college. You have Upshot<\/a> launching next year as well with teams so far in Jacksonville, Savannah, Greensboro, and Charlotte. And then here in the Bay Area, you have the WPBA doing the same \u2014 giving women a second chance to extend their basketball careers.<\/p>\n ERIN: Alright! Well I want to learn more.. Let\u2019s get into it.<\/p>\n Story Transcript: Hoops, Hope, and a Second Chance: The Story of the WPBA<\/p>\n REPORTER: We\u2019re at the Women\u2019s Premier Basketball Association All-Star Game at the Oakland Hills Campus. This used to be a private college, home of the Holy Names University<\/a> Hawks. But today the gym is the home for the WPBA games.<\/p>\n The bleachers are packed. You\u2019ve got families in attendance, folks from the community, teammates supporting their fellow all stars. I even met Delroy Lindo<\/a> from the movie Sinners in the crowd. Crazy! The music is bumping between plays. It\u2019s a celebration, but it\u2019s also a showcase, because even in an All-Star setting, where the games are usually for show, the WPBA players are competing for more opportunities to further their basketball careers.<\/p>\n Delroy Lindo from the movie Sinners at the WPBA All Star game<\/p>\n The WPBA has eight teams<\/a>: The Alameda Wolves, Bay Area Phoenix, Bay City Blaze, Berkeley Royals, Hayward Reign, Oakland Swish, San Francisco Riptide, and the Tech City Titans.This year\u2019s All-Star game brought together the league\u2019s best from all of them – players who\u2019ve been grinding through an eight-game<\/a> regular season for a shot at the Tournament of Champions.<\/p>\n The WPBA has its eyes on the future \u2014 to become the G League of the WNBA. And it\u2019s already got the attention of some big names.<\/p>\n Kevon Looney: Not everybody can make it to the WNBA. I think there\u2019s a lot of great talent. I think they need a lot more roster spots up there, so all the girls coming out of college who still have a passion for playing basketball \u2014 this is a place where they can hone their skills and show people what they can do.<\/p>\n Demetrius Johnson interviewing Kevon Looney at the WPBA All Star Game.<\/p>\n REPORTER: And he\u2019s not the only one paying attention.<\/p>\n Antonio Davis: I always think it\u2019s important for women to have a place to play. And I think Faatimah saw that. She had the ability to gather women and create a space for them to play.<\/p>\n REPORTER: That\u2019s Antonio Davis<\/a> \u2014 NBA veteran and CEO of the National Basketball Retired Players Association.<\/p>\n Faatimah A.<\/a> is the founder and commissioner of the WPBA.<\/p>\n Faatimah A.<\/a> is the founder and commissioner of the WPBA.<\/p>\n There were some stars in the building and the players definitely showed up to play. But to really understand the full scope of the WPBA currently and how it\u2019s growing, you have to go back a few months \u2014 before the season even tipped off.<\/p>\n I was at the WPBA Media Day at the Head Royce K-12 school<\/a> in Oakland. And what I saw that day\u2026 I\u2019m glad I was there to see it. Black mothers. Black daughters. Black dreams. And real hoopers with stories that matter. But what struck me the most wasn\u2019t just the players there, it was also who wasn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n A woman is building what aspires to be the G League of the WNBA \u2014 not only that, but a black woman, and there wasn\u2019t another outside media outlet there. Just me. That\u2019s it. In that moment, I realized how alone Faatimah was in promoting this showcase for young women.<\/p>\n She presented very professional but still friendly, hair impeccable, dreads colored pink, black WPBA polo. But what stood out the most is how much she cares for the players.<\/p>\n Faatimah: I believe it\u2019s my duty to create that second opportunity for players, and to nurture the players that need the support. I\u2019m big on making sure we have what we need for our players \u2014 and for the women in professional workspaces here in the community.<\/p>\n Team Harris at the WPBA All Star Game<\/p>\n REPORTER: One of those players is Erica McCall<\/a> \u2014 former Stanford player, current assistant coach for Stanford\u2019s women\u2019s basketball team. She made it all the way to the W. Played for the Indiana Fever, Washington Mystics, Atlanta Dream and the Minnesota Lynx. But she had to retire because of chronic pain in her right knee<\/a> a couple years ago. She took some time to recover, and now, the WPBA has given her a chance to play competitively again.<\/p>\n Erica McCall: I was out here playing ball \u2014 really fun basketball, really meaningful to me because I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d be able to play again. For this league, it means a lot to me and I\u2019m happy to be here and to inspire anyone that I can.<\/p>\n REPORTER: Then you have Nicol Berry, who grew up in Oakland<\/a>, played for UC Berkeley, and now plays for the Oakland Swish. I asked her what it means to have a black woman leading this league.<\/p>\n Nicol Berry: Oh, everything \u2014 because Black woman is beautiful. I don\u2019t want to necessarily put a race on it but the fact that it\u2019s another sister to another sister \u2014 I\u2019m always going to support it, I\u2019m always going to be there for you, and I\u2019m always going to just say black is excellence. So keep pushing forward.<\/p>\n REPORTER: There\u2019s so much more to the story of the woman who created the WPBA. Faatimah<\/a> was born in Toronto, Ontario but her Mom brought her to Oakland when she was just five years old. They were chasing stability but they found struggle instead.<\/p>\n Faatimah: There was a point in my life where I was homeless, living in a shelter with my family during middle school. Oakland helped build me up and reminded me of my fighting spirit. I owe that to my heritage and to the community here in Oakland.<\/p>\n REPORTER: Basketball gave Faatimah more than a sport \u2014 it gave her an escape. It allowed her to focus on the game instead of the challenges she was facing, and it gave her a community.<\/p>\n Faatimah: Being able to make new friends, and being able to have people acknowledge that I’m good at something. So it kind of just masked what I was going through and it allowed me to just be a regular person.\u00a0<\/p>\n REPORTER: She played throughout middle school modeling her game after Allen Iverson. A.I. Fast, quick, handles, woop-woop. But in high school, everything changed because a special coach and mentor, Kenya Babers<\/a>, took her in and opened her eyes to the possibilities ahead.<\/p>\n Faatimah: Being with him and the family really helped me to just put things into perspective. Because I never really knew about high school basketball. I never really knew what college was like. Like those were the types of conversations that I was having with him.<\/p>\n REPORTER: Kenya<\/a> passed away due to heart failure<\/a> while Faatimah was still in high school, but his mentorship left a lasting impact. She played varsity all four years, and continued in college. She then built a professional career<\/a> that has spanned four continents and 12 countries including the EuroLeague and EuroCup.<\/p>\n But even as her playing days wind down, her true purpose \u2014 building opportunities for others \u2014 is just getting started.<\/p>\n Faatimah: I wanted this to be seen as a second chance \u2014 a place where people can get their second chance. \u2019Cause sometimes we don\u2019t get that.<\/p>\n REPORTER: To build the WPBA from the ground up, Faatimah started by making sure the league was registered and trademarked.<\/p>\n Faatimah: It\u2019s gonna allow us to be able to continue to open new doors and create more resources for the women in this league. For the people within our ecosystem to be able to continue to move forward and contribute to this sports economy.<\/p>\n REPORTER: It\u2019s important to her that everybody gets paid, so the league has a profit sharing model<\/a>. And while the WPBA is just a local Bay Area league right now, it\u2019s already on the global radar. It\u2019s the only women\u2019s league in the U.S., aside from the WNBA, recognized by FIBA<\/a>, basketball\u2019s global governing body which includes 212 national basketball federations.<\/p>\n Faatimah: I want this to be known as an international brand powerhouse for women\u2019s basketball \u2014 for players to come here, develop, and use this as a launchpad for opportunities in their careers.<\/p>\n Faatimah at the Valkyries vs the Minnesota Lynx.<\/p>\n REPORTER: But that\u2019s the business side, and this league is about hooping. And that brings us to the 2025 Championship game between the undefeated Bay Area Phoenix and the defending champs, the Bay City Blaze.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the fourth quarter. The Phoenix are up by 10. They\u2019ve held the lead all night, but the Blaze just won\u2019t go away. They crank up the pressure \u2014 a full-court press, swarming the ball the second it\u2019s inbounded. Little by little, they chip away.<\/p>\n Then in the last few seconds, they take the lead. The crowd is going crazy! And then, it\u2019s over. The Blaze Win.<\/p>\n Afterward, I catch up with the game\u2019s MVP Brook Demetre. She\u2019s just graduated from Stanford where she averaged 10 pts and 4 rebounds <\/a>this past season. For her, the WPBA is a bridge. A league that gives players resources to keep developing, to get seen by scouts, and open new doors.<\/p>\n Brook Demetre: Yeah, the WBPA is awesome. I\u2019m fresh out of college, so it\u2019s a fun way to keep playing against great competition. It\u2019s just a bunch of girls playing really hard, trying to get to the next level or just doing it for fun. So it\u2019s really awesome.<\/p>\n![\"Delroy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771678278_812_.jpeg\"\/)
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