Among the many things that the maiden voyage of the Unrivaled League proved – that ranks are, indeed, subjective.
Going into the first season of Unrivaled, Rose BC was picked as the last-ranked team by ESPN behind its Laces, Lunar Owls, Vinyl, Phantom and Mist peers. At first, it appeared as if those rankings would be proven correct – then the rest of the season happened.
It was a season that culminated in Rose prevailing over Vinyl for the Unrivaled championship.
In addition, a great deal of individual hardware was also bestowed upon Rose players. That included Chelsea Gray who concluded the season with Finals MVP honors. Gray would average 28.5 points, six assists and three rebounds a game. She also had a field goal percentage of 49 percent and a 3-point percentage of 44 percent.
Rose’s 2025 Unrivaled rendition included Kahleah Copper, Lexie Hull, Azurá Stevens, Brittney Sykes and Angel Reese – who also was named Defensive Player of the Year.
From the way Unrivaled was presented to the names it was able to land to the star power it was able to attract to the sponsorship deals Unrivaled managed to ink. Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier saw the vision for this league and it is safe to say that season one was a massive success. It helps when a number of high-profile women’s sports luminaries are partnering with Unrivaled – including Dawn Staley, Paige Bueckers and Coco Gauff.
One wonders if the WNBA will indeed take notes when looking at everything that went into how Unrivaled was presented. The W itself may not have promoted Unrivaled the same way it did Athletes Unlimited – that was something individual teams did more than anything else.
We know that Cathy Engelbert was in Miami at Wayfair Arena for part of the Unrivaled schedule. When Engelbert has her next media availability session – which will likely be in advance of next month’s WNBA Draft at The Shed in New York City, she surely will be asked about what elements from Unrivaled can work for a WNBA season – especially now that said season is 44 games long and features a best-of-seven Finals.
It is particularly important that the WNBA do this considering it is expanding and will be at least at 16 teams in a few years. The WNBA may have been able to get by in the past by doing things low budget – especially in terms of presentation. Those days are over.
For better or for worse, ratings and attendance are up. And the number of cities that are about to be home to teams is going to increase as well. The last thing Engelbert and the WNBA should want is to stick to the old ways of playing it safe in terms of presentation.
Unrivaled was anything but a low budget league. We saw how put together it was. Having TNT as its primary broadcast partner was a home run. To the WNBA’s credit, it has made improvements in recent years. The most notable of these has been how much the All-Star Game has grown from a standalone game to a weekend’s worth of events.
One of the many aspects of Unrivaled that made it such an intriguing idea was it not only being 3×3 basketball, but it being full court 3×3. After so many occasions of getting used to 3×3 only when it is contested in a half court setting, Unrivaled let us know what up-tempo, full court 3×3 can resemble.
It will be a full calendar year before Unrivaled returns in the early portion of 2026, but it is likely that the 2026 version of Unrivaled will be on the road in many places. Also – will anyone that did not take part in Unrivaled this first season return for the second one?
All of these are questions that we will certainly and eventually learn the answers to. As for now, it is incumbent on the WNBA to remember what many players said about Unrivaled (especially when it first began in January) and ensure we feel those same vibes from May to October.
Players especially have leverage given we are going into what should surely be a contentious set of negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement. What Unrivaled did with its players will almost certainly come up in those CBA talks with the W and its owners.
The price has been steadily rising in terms of women’s basketball these past few years. Unrivaled has taken it to new heights and the WNBA needs to thank Unrivaled for displaying how the game can be showcased.
One can even say Unrivaled has all the characteristics of being a….Changemaker.
