Dallas Wings facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Dallas Wings
Conference	Western
League	WNBA
Founded	1998; 26 years ago (1998)
History	Detroit Shock 1998–2009 Tulsa Shock 2010–2015 Dallas Wings 2016–present
Arena	College Park Center
Location	University of Texas at Arlington Arlington, Texas
Team colors	Navy, volt green, blue, cyan
Main sponsor	American Fidelity
President	Greg Bibb
Head coach	Latricia Trammell
Assistant(s)	Brandi Poole April (McDivitt) Schilling Courtney Paris
Ownership	Bill Cameron Chris Christian Mark Yancey Greg Bibb University of Texas at Arlington
Championships	3 (2003, 2006, 2008)
Conference titles	4 (2003, 2006, 2007, 2008)
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The Dallas Wings are an American professional basketball team based in Arlington, Texas. The Wings play in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team is owned by a group led by chairman Bill Cameron. Greg Bibb is president and CEO. Brad Hilsabeck joined the Dallas Wings ownership group in March 2019 with the acquisition of Mark Yancey’s interest in the Wings.

The team was founded in Auburn Hills, Michigan, before the 1998 WNBA season began, and moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, before the 2010 season; on July 20, 2015, Cameron announced that the franchise would move to Arlington for the 2016 WNBA season.

The franchise has been home to players such as shooting guard Deanna Nolan, one of women's basketball's all-time leading scorers Katie Smith, Cheryl Ford, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Odyssey Sims, and Australian center Liz Cambage.

Franchise history

The Detroit Shock (1998–2009)

The Shock were one of the first WNBA expansion teams and began play in 1998. The Shock quickly brought in a blend of rookies and veterans, but only qualified for the postseason once in its first five years of existence. The Shock went through two coaches (hall of famer Nancy Lieberman and Greg Williams) before hiring former Detroit Pistons legend Bill Laimbeer. Rumors arose that the Shock would fold after the team's awful 2002 season. Laimbeer convinced the owners to keep the team for another year, certain that he could turn things around. The Shock finished the next season with a 25–9 record and defeated the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Sparks in the 2003 WNBA Finals. Detroit became the first team in league history to go from last place one season to WNBA champions the next season.

After a couple of seasons of losing in the first round of the playoffs, the Detroit Shock returned to success and appeared in three straight finals from 2006 to 2008. They won the WNBA championship in 2006 over the Sacramento Monarchs and 2008 over the San Antonio Silver Stars, but lost to the Phoenix Mercury in 2007.

The Tulsa Shock (2010–2015)

Tulsa had been mentioned as a possible future city for WNBA expansion, but efforts did not come together until the middle of 2009. An organizing committee with Tulsa businesspeople and politicians began the effort to attract an expansion team. The group was originally given a September 1 deadline, but WNBA President Donna Orender extended that deadline into October. The investment group hired former University of Arkansas head coach Nolan Richardson as the potential franchise general manager and head coach, and on October 15, 2009, the group made its official request to join the league.

On October 20, 2009, WNBA President Donna Orender, lead investors Bill Cameron and David Box, Tulsa mayor Kathy Taylor, Oklahoma governor Brad Henry, and head coach Nolan Richardson were present for a press conference announcing that the Detroit Shock would relocate to Tulsa. On January 23, 2010, the franchise announced that the team would remain as the Shock, but their colors were changed to black, red, and gold.

On July 20, 2015, majority owner Bill Cameron announced he was moving the team to Dallas-Fort Worth.

Dallas Wings (2016–present)

The 2019 Wings in action against Minnesota

On July 23, 2015, WNBA league owners unanimously approved the Tulsa Shock's relocation to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex to play out of the College Park Center at the University of Texas at Arlington. College Park Center is also home to the UT Arlington Mavericks basketball and volleyball teams. At a press conference at College Park Center on November 2, 2015, the team was announced to be renamed the Dallas Wings.

Uniforms

Uniforms were revealed at the First Annual Wings Draft Party April 14, 2016. The light uniforms were primarily lime green, while the dark uniforms were predominantly blue. As a result of a league-wide initiative for its 20th season, all games featured all-color uniform matchups, thus no white uniforms were unveiled for this season.

Season-by-season records

Players

Current roster

Former players

Sorted by team for which they last played

Detroit Shock

• Jennifer Azzi (1999)
• Carla Boyd (1998–1999, 2001)
• Sandy Brondello (1998–1999), now the head coach of the New York Liberty and the Australia national team
• Dominique Canty (1999–2002)
• Swin Cash (2002–2007), now the vice president of Basketball Operations and Team Development for the New Orleans Pelicans
• Barbara Farris (2000–2005, 2009)
  

  College Park Center, home of the Wings
• Cheryl Ford (2003–2008)
• Tasha Humphrey (2008)
• Shannon Johnson (2007)
• Taj McWilliams-Franklin (2008–2009, also interim Head Coach for the Wings in 2018)
• Astou Ndiaye-Diatta (1999–2003)
• Deanna Nolan (2001–2009)
• Wendy Palmer (1999–2002)
• Elaine Powell (2002–2008)
• Ruth Riley (2003–2006)
• Sheri Sam (2008)
• Katie Smith (2005–2009), now an assistant coach for the Minnesota Lynx

Tulsa Shock

• Kara Braxton (2005–2010)
• Alexis Hornbuckle (2008–2010)
• Temeka Johnson (2012)
• Marion Jones (2010–2011)
• Ivory Latta (2007, 2010–2012)
• Kayla Pedersen (2011–2013)
• Nicole Powell (2013), now the head coach of the UC Riverside Highlanders women's basketball
• Sheryl Swoopes (2011)
• Shavonte Zellous (2009–2010)

Dallas Wings

• Liz Cambage (2011, 2013, 2018)
• Skylar Diggins-Smith (2013–2019), now with the Phoenix Mercury
• Allisha Gray (2017-2022), now with the Atlanta Dream
• Isabelle Harrison (2019-2022), now with the Chicago Sky
• Moriah Jefferson (2019-2022), now with the Phoenix Mercury
• Glory Johnson (2012–2019)
• Marina Mabrey (2020-2022), now with the Chicago Sky
• Courtney Paris (2012-2017), now an assistant coach for the Wings
• Odyssey Sims (2014–2016; 2023–present), returned to the Wings on June 7, 2023, on a hardship contract after an injury to Crystal Dangerfield. When Dangerfield was cleared to play, the Wings released Sims on June 15, 2023. On June 28, 2023, Sims signed a standard contract with the Wings for the remainder of the season.
• Kayla Thornton (2017-2022), now with the New York Liberty

Coaches and staff

Owners

• William Davidson, owner of the Detroit Pistons (1998–2009)
• Tulsa Pro Hoops LLC, composed of Bill Cameron, David Box, Chris Christian, Sam and Rita Combs, and Paula Marshall
• Bill Cameron (majority owner) is chairman and Chris Christian is vice chairman/managing partner and Mark Yancey (2015–present)

Head coaches

General managers

• Nancy Lieberman (1998–2000)
• Greg Williams (2000–2002)
• Bill Laimbeer (2002–2009)
• Cheryl Reeve (2009)
• Nolan Richardson (2010–2011)
• Teresa Edwards (2011)
• Gary Kloppenburg (2012–2013)
• Fred Williams (2014–2015)
• Greg Bibb (2016–present)

Assistant coaches

Hall of Famers

• Nancy Lieberman, enshrined 1996
• Lynette Woodard, enshrined 2004

Statistics

Media coverage

Currently, Bally Sports Southwest or Bally Sports Southwest Plus broadcast the majority of games. Previously, while in Tulsa, some Shock games were broadcast locally on The Cox Channel (COX). Some games are broadcast nationally on ESPN, ESPN2, Ion Television, CBS, CBS Sports Network and ABC.

See also

In Spanish: Dallas Wings para niños