Court Queens

A definitive, first-of-its-kind, richly photographic celebration of women’s basketball captures the passion, energy, and skill of the sport—and the many players and coaches who helped build it. Women’s basketball is taking the country by storm with record-breaking viewership and attendance—and unprecedented attention. These new stars stand on the shoulders of countless trailblazing players and coaches. While fighting for their place on the court over the last 130 years, they were also playing some of the most thrilling, hard-fought games in basketball history. Deeply researched and deftly written, this love letter to the game covers the history of college and professional women’s basketball through vivid portraits of forgotten heroes, individual games, unforgettable moments, and iconic teams and seasons. Journalists and superfans Emma Baccellieri and Jordan Robinson begin with Senda Berenson introducing the game to women at Smith College in 1892—where the players wore ankle-length skirts!—and chart the growth of the sport around the country over the decades that followed. From six-on-six to five-on-five, college to professional to international, they cover the people who have defined women’s basketball. Baccellieri and Robinson chronicle some of the legendary players who helped build the game as we know it today, like Cheryl Miller, Lisa Leslie, and Diana Taurasi, and the coaches who shaped them. From the early professional leagues to the birth of the WNBA and right up to the modern day of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Paige Bueckers, the book traces how far the women’s game (and fandom) has come. And for every star whose name you already know, Court Queens introduces you to a handful of electric, game-changing others who never got the shine they deserved. Packed with hundreds of photos and pieces of memorabilia, this seminal work is filled with stories you won’t soon forget.