A growing climate in women’s basketball means more opportunities for players to make more money while avoiding the physical and mental stress of playing overseas.
Instead of playing basketball during the offseason in other countries, WNBA players are finding opportunities to supplement their W salaries with income where they can remain in North America.
One of those opportunities is slated to occur this January with the debut season of the Unrivaled league. Unrivaled is set to be a 3×3 league that will run for eight weeks and will be based in Miami. It was co-founded by the New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart and the Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier.
Six teams of five players each will compete in Unrivaled. As of this writing, 18 of the 30 players who will be part of the league have been announced. Along with Stewie and Phee, Kelsey Plum, Arike Ogunbowale, Jewell Loyd, Chelsea Gray, Rhyne Howard, Kahleah Copper, Jackie Young, Angel Reese, Dearica Hamby, Kayla McBride, Marina Mabrey, Satou Sabally, Allisha Gray, Natasha Cloud, Skylar Diggins-Smith and Rickea Jackson have also been announced.
In addition, Unrivaled also has an NIL deal with UConn’s Paige Bueckers who is projected to be the No. 1 overall selection in the 2025 WNBA Draft.
Unrivaled has also secured investment from former ESPN president John Skipper and former Turner president David Levy. In addition, noteworthy sports names such as Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Carmelo Anthony, Steve Nash and Michelle Wie West are also among those who are investing money in Unrivaled.
Also – Utah-based Ally Bank signed on to become the league’s first brand partner. In addition, former Women’s Tennis Association president Micky Lawler joined Unrivaled as the league’s first-ever commissioner. Alex Bazzell is the league’s president.
Of course, given that Unrivaled is presenting a chance for WNBA players to make money while staying stateside, a key component of it is the salary. It is expected said salary will be $250,000. If this figure is indeed true, that would be on par with the maximum salary for the WNBA. Per the Unrivaled website, all 30 players will receive equity ownership in the league.
Another intriguing element to Unrivaled is that it is slated to play its games on a “compressed full court” of 70 by 50 feet. Games are set to take place in a one-hour window and Unrivaled is also scheduled to feature a 1v1 tournament in February.
When the league was announced, the comparisons were already flowing in regarding the differences and similarities between Unrivaled and Athletes Unlimited. Firstly – Unrivaled is 3×3 where Athletes Unlimited embraces the more traditional 5×5 format. In addition, when one looks at who has agreed to join the Unrivaled league, these are more established stars where Athletes Unlimited is more for hoopers that are essentially playing for WNBA roster spots.
There is already a concerted effort by some to try and pit the two leagues against each other but it is all in bad faith. Unrivaled and Athletes Unlimited can both co-exist because they are different leagues with different styles but both have a similar aim. They are looking to shift the climate within professional women’s basketball in the United States where players no longer feel obligated to play overseas because of relatively meager WNBA salaries.
The momentum for ensuring WNBA players are able to stay home during the offseason was already shifting with the growth of the league. What happened with Brittney Griner being imprisoned in Russia in 2022 changed it entirely and brought more mainstream attention to the financial conditions that force WNBA players to go overseas during the offseason.
There is a positive shift where players who do decide to play overseas are now only doing so because they choose to as opposed to feeling obligated to. Unrivaled and Athletes Unlimited are needed elements of a changing landscape in women’s basketball. After all…if the United States has consistently shown that it presents the best women’s basketball players on the planet (gold medals at Olympics and FIBA World Cups) then those players should be treated as such.
That shift also includes players taking advantage of opportunities outside of directly playing the game. Howard took on a role as assistant coach at Florida. This past college season, Aliyah Boston took on a role with NBC Sports as an analyst for Big Ten basketball games.
Any initiative to ensure our women remain in the United States and away from harsh environments such as those in Russia, Ukraine and the Middle East is a massive step in the right direction. In a women’s basketball landscape where there is more debate than ever about positive and negative growth of the game, Unrivaled and Athletes Unlimited are shining examples of growing the game the right way.
