Harden, LeBron James (4 MVP awards), Stephen Curry (2 time MVP), and Kevin Durant (MVP, 4 NBA scoring titles). Ever since the 1990s, an increasing number of players born outside the United States have signed with NBA teams, sparking league interest in different parts of the world. Professional basketball is most followed in cities where there are no other sports teams in the four major professional leagues, such as in the case of the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Sacramento Kings, the San Antonio Spurs, the Memphis Grizzlies, or the Portland Trail Blazers. New York City has also had a long historical connection with college and professional basketball, and many basketball legends initially developed their reputations playing in the many playgrounds throughout the city. Madison Square Garden, the home arena of the New York Knicks, is often referred to as the "Mecca of basketball." Minor league basketball, both official and unofficial, has an extensive presence, given the sport's relative lack of expense to operate a professional team. The NBA has an official minor league, known since 2017 as the NBA G League under a naming rights agreement with Gatorade. The most prominent independent league is BIG3, a three-on-three league featuring former NBA stars that launched in 2017. Several other pro basketball leagues exist but are notorious for their instability and low budget operations. Another prominent event is The Basketball Tournament. a full-court 64-team knockout tournament held during the summer with a $1 million winner-take-all prize. While current NBA players are contractually barred from playing due to injury risk, several have served as team sponsors, and many players from the G League, as well as Americans playing in overseas leagues, participate. The WNBA is the premier women's basketball league in the United States as well as the most stable and sustained women's professional sports league in the nation. Several of the 12 teams are owned by NBA teams. The women's national team has won eight Olympic gold medals and 10 FIBA World Cups. Historically, women's basketball in the United States followed a six-woman-per-team format in which three players on each team stayed on the same side of the court throughout the game. The six-person variant was abolished for college play in 1971, and over the course of the 1970s and 1980s was steadily abolished at the high school level, with the last states still sanctioning it switching girls over to the men's