The Golden State Valkyries ended their inaugural season breaking records and defying the odds by making the playoffs. And while the run was brought to an end by a slim loss to the Minnesota Lynx last Wednesday, their incredible season comes while the WNBA is enjoying its own surge of popularity.
But have you heard of the WPBA? The Women’s Premier Basketball Association. This East Bay group believes the sport can help women define their future and even change the world.
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Story Transcript:
HOST ERIN LIM: We're listening to women playing basketball. Not in the WNBA - the Women’s National Basketball Association. This is the Women’s Premier Basketball Association — a pro league based in the East Bay. The WPBA wrapped up its Tournament of Champions last month. It was a three-day showcase that brought the league’s best together in Oakland. My podcast partner, Demetrius Johnson, was there courtside, and we’re going to hear about it. But, Meech, first off, what exactly is the Women’s Premier Basketball Association?
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’s developmental league, like the NBA has with its G League.
ERIN: So the G league is like farm teams for the NBA. Like the Golden State Warriors have the Santa Cruz Warriors with up and coming players, or the players recovering from injury, or folks like that.
REPORTER DEMETRIUS JOHNSON: Yeah, and right now, the WNBA doesn’t have that kind of pipeline. Think about this: at the very least there’s about 16,000 women basketball student athletes in colleges and universities. There’s only about 160 roster spots in the WNBA. Give or take. If they don’t make it into the WNBA or play professionally overseas, where can they continue their basketball career? That’s where independent women’s leagues come in. You have Exalt, which is a league out of Austin, Texas starting up next year giving players a platform to keep hooping after college. You have Upshot 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 — giving women a second chance to extend their basketball careers.
ERIN: Alright! Well I want to learn more.. Let’s get into it.
Story Transcript: Hoops, Hope, and a Second Chance: The Story of the WPBA
REPORTER: We’re at the Women’s Premier Basketball Association All-Star Game at the Oakland Hills Campus. This used to be a private college, home of the Holy Names University Hawks. But today the gym is the home for the WPBA games.
The bleachers are packed. You’ve got families in attendance, folks from the community, teammates supporting their fellow all stars. I even met Delroy Lindo from the movie Sinners in the crowd. Crazy! The music is bumping between plays. It’s a celebration, but it’s 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.
The WPBA has eight teams: 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’s All-Star game brought together the league’s best from all of them - players who’ve been grinding through an eight-game regular season for a shot at the Tournament of Champions.
The WPBA has its eyes on the future — to become the G League of the WNBA. And it’s already got the attention of some big names.
Kevon Looney: Not everybody can make it to the WNBA. I think there’s 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 — this is a place where they can hone their skills and show people what they can do.
REPORTER: And he’s not the only one paying attention.
Antonio Davis: I always think it’s 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.
REPORTER: That’s Antonio Davis — NBA veteran and CEO of the National Basketball Retired Players Association.
Faatimah A. is the founder and commissioner of the WPBA.
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’s growing, you have to go back a few months — before the season even tipped off.
I was at the WPBA Media Day at the Head Royce K-12 school in Oakland. And what I saw that day… I’m 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’t just the players there, it was also who wasn’t there.
A woman is building what aspires to be the G League of the WNBA — not only that, but a black woman, and there wasn’t another outside media outlet there. Just me. That’s it. In that moment, I realized how alone Faatimah was in promoting this showcase for young women.
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.
Faatimah: I believe it’s my duty to create that second opportunity for players, and to nurture the players that need the support. I’m big on making sure we have what we need for our players — and for the women in professional workspaces here in the community.
REPORTER: One of those players is Erica McCall — former Stanford player, current assistant coach for Stanford’s women’s 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 couple years ago. She took some time to recover, and now, the WPBA has given her a chance to play competitively again.
Erica McCall: I was out here playing ball — really fun basketball, really meaningful to me because I didn’t think I’d be able to play again. For this league, it means a lot to me and I’m happy to be here and to inspire anyone that I can.
REPORTER: Then you have Nicol Berry, who grew up in Oakland, 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.
Nicol Berry: Oh, everything — because Black woman is beautiful. I don’t want to necessarily put a race on it but the fact that it’s another sister to another sister — I’m always going to support it, I’m always going to be there for you, and I’m always going to just say black is excellence. So keep pushing forward.
REPORTER: There’s so much more to the story of the woman who created the WPBA. Faatimah 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.
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.
REPORTER: Basketball gave Faatimah more than a sport — 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.
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.
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, took her in and opened her eyes to the possibilities ahead.
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.
REPORTER: Kenya passed away due to heart failure 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 that has spanned four continents and 12 countries including the EuroLeague and EuroCup.
But even as her playing days wind down, her true purpose — building opportunities for others — is just getting started.
Faatimah: I wanted this to be seen as a second chance — a place where people can get their second chance. ’Cause sometimes we don’t get that.
REPORTER: To build the WPBA from the ground up, Faatimah started by making sure the league was registered and trademarked.
Faatimah: It’s 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.
REPORTER: It’s important to her that everybody gets paid, so the league has a profit sharing model. And while the WPBA is just a local Bay Area league right now, it’s already on the global radar. It’s the only women’s league in the U.S., aside from the WNBA, recognized by FIBA, basketball’s global governing body which includes 212 national basketball federations.
Faatimah: I want this to be known as an international brand powerhouse for women’s basketball — for players to come here, develop, and use this as a launchpad for opportunities in their careers.
REPORTER: But that’s 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.
It’s the fourth quarter. The Phoenix are up by 10. They’ve held the lead all night, but the Blaze just won’t go away. They crank up the pressure — a full-court press, swarming the ball the second it’s inbounded. Little by little, they chip away.
Then in the last few seconds, they take the lead. The crowd is going crazy! And then, it’s over. The Blaze Win.
Afterward, I catch up with the game’s MVP Brook Demetre. She’s just graduated from Stanford where she averaged 10 pts and 4 rebounds 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.
Brook Demetre: Yeah, the WBPA is awesome. I’m fresh out of college, so it’s a fun way to keep playing against great competition. It’s just a bunch of girls playing really hard, trying to get to the next level or just doing it for fun. So it’s really awesome.
REPORTER: The league itself is also growing, Faatimah told me the WPBA is seeking pre-seed investors, and if successful, the WPBA will expand into new locations. But beyond business and growth, I wanted to end our conversation by focusing on the heart of it all: the players and the next generation of girls watching.
So, I had one last question for Faatimah.
REPORTER: If a young girl — let’s say a young Black girl — asked why she should join the WPBA, what would you tell her?
Faatimah: I would tell her to still shoot for the W. And if that doesn’t happen, don’t worry — we’ve got your back. We’re still gonna help you get to where you want to be.
REPORTER: They’ve got your back. And we should have theirs. Support matters. Representation matters. Sometimes, chasing your dream gives others the courage to chase theirs. That makes the WPBA bigger than a league. It’s time we all paid attention.