Is the WPBA a professional league?

Yes. The WPBA is a professional development league sanctioned by FIBA. It serves as a pipeline to the WNBA, Athletes Unlimited and professional leagues around the world.

Where does the WPBA play?

In the Bay Area. The eight teams represent Alameda, Berkeley, Hayward, Oakland, San Francisco and the wider region, and 2026 game days were held at Fremont High School in Oakland.

How do players join the WPBA?

Through open tryouts, held in Hayward for 2026, and the WPBA Combine, first held during NCAA Final Four weekend. Coaches evaluate players through drills and live games.

How can fans support the WPBA?

Attend home games in the summer, buy from the league store, follow the league on social media and give through the WPBA donation page.

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What is the Women's Premier Basketball Association, and why does it matter?

By McKinley Malbrough III, J.D., MS-HRM · Certified WNBA player agent · Former certified NBA agent

Published September 29, 2026. Last updated September 29, 2026.

Short answer

The Women's Premier Basketball Association (WPBA) is an Oakland-based professional development league for women, founded in 2022 and sanctioned by FIBA. Its eight Bay Area teams play a summer season that gives waived WNBA players, college graduates and working pros a path to the WNBA, overseas leagues and FIBA competition.

This is Part 1 of a three-part series on the league. Part 2 follows the Bay Area Phoenix into FIBA's top women's club tournament in the Americas, and Part 3 explains why the sport needs development leagues like this one.

What is the WPBA?

The Women's Premier Basketball Association is a professional development league for women, founded in 2022 and sanctioned by FIBA, the sport's international federation, per the WPBA. It plays in Oakland and serves as a pipeline to the WNBA, Athletes Unlimited and top leagues around the world.

Its stated mission is to empower women through basketball with a professional platform where athletes develop their skills, advance their careers and inspire the next generation of female leaders, per the league's mission page. Around the games sit mentoring, training programs, education, job placement assistance and networking events.

Who is the WPBA built for?

Three groups of players, per the league's 2025 announcement:

Players waived by the WNBA who need competitive games to earn the next call.
College players making the jump to professional basketball.
Experienced professionals sharpening their game between seasons abroad.

The league also makes room for women who built careers off the court and still play at a high level. A 2023 San Francisco Chronicle profile described rosters that mixed overseas pros and former college standouts with police officers, lawyers, doctoral students and physical therapists.

Players, coaches and referees from across the Women's Premier Basketball Association line up at center court — Eight Bay Area teams, one professional standard: the WPBA season runs every June through August. Photo courtesy of the Women's Premier Basketball Association.

Who founded the WPBA, and why?

Faatimah A founded the league in 2022, during her fifth season as a professional player abroad, per her U.S. Sports Camps profile. She has played on four continents in eight countries, per the Chronicle, and she is a point guard for Team Jamaica, per the WPBA.

She built the league to spare players the obstacles she met in her own career. She runs operations, marketing, media, web development and game-day logistics herself. She received the 2022 Woman of Courage Award, and her work has been covered by FIBA, the Chronicle, KTVU, KRON4 and KQED's Snap Judgment, per U.S. Sports Camps. Part 3 tells more of that story.

How is the league organized?

Eight teams play in 2026: the Alameda Wolves, Bay Area Phoenix, Bay City Blaze, Berkeley Royals, Hayward Reign, Oakland Swish, San Francisco Riptide and Tech City Titans, per the WPBA.

Season: 10 weeks, June through August, per the Chronicle. The 2026 opening weekend was June 13.
Game days: four games in one day at Fremont High School in Oakland, per Visit Oakland.
Roster entry: open tryouts in Hayward, plus a WPBA Combine first held during NCAA Final Four weekend, per the WPBA.

A WPBA guard drives to the basket during a league game in a Bay Area gym — Game film against professional competition is what clubs abroad ask to see first. Photo courtesy of the Women's Premier Basketball Association.

What sets the WPBA apart from a summer league?

FIBA sanction and international play. In 2024 the WPBA was the only U.S.-based organization to compete in FIBA's Women's Basketball League Americas, and it hosted an exhibition against New Zealand's national team ahead of the FIBA World Qualifiers, per the league's 2025 season announcement. The league returns to that FIBA tournament this week, which Part 2 covers in full.

Its advisory board includes Gary Payton Sr., Chasity Melvin, Phil Handy and Kenny Thomas, per the same announcement. The league also builds programming around financial literacy, health and technology, not only games.

What does the WPBA need to keep growing?

Money and attention. The league is funded by its founder's work, sponsors and supporters. During the season she has refereed games across the Bay Area on her off days to help cover league expenses, per the Chronicle. International travel for a full roster is the largest single cost a club like this faces.

Fans can buy tickets to home games, shop the league store and give through the WPBA donation page. For a player weighing the league, it offers something few summer options do: professional coaching, organized stats and film, and a FIBA-recognized stage. For more on where those players go next, see how overseas contracts work and what WNBA players earn under the new CBA.

How does one agent see the league?

The author is a certified WNBA player agent, a former certified NBA agent and a Bay Area resident who counts the league's founder as a friend. When a club abroad considers an American player, its first request is recent film against professional-level opponents. A player who sat out a summer has nothing current to send. A WPBA season fills that gap with game film and box scores from a FIBA-sanctioned league.

Sources

Data current as of September 29, 2026. Figures are linked where each one appears. Leagues and regulators update these rules; check the source before relying on a number.