‘Unrivaled Basketball League’ to debut with some of WNBA’s biggest stars

A new 3-on-3 women’s basketball league set to debut Friday, Jan. 17, is putting the WNBA on notice. The league’s co-founders, two of the biggest stars in women’s basketball, say it’s the perfect off-season spotlight to grow the game. 

Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, college teammates at UConn, came up with the idea hoping to capitalize on the growing popularity of women’s sports. Just three months ago, the pair were battling each other in the WNBA Finals. Now, they’re business partners, and anticipation for the league’s debut has been worth the wait.

“The people who have been in it, we’ve known for so long that the product that we have is so good and it’s really rewarding to see everyone else catching up and to see the game growing,” Collier told TNT Sports. “To see stars in our sport become superstars is really fun to be a part of, because change usually happens slowly, but it’s happening so quickly. To see it happening in real time and to be a part of that has been such a cool experience.”  

The full-court 3-on-3 games will be played at a facility in Miami and broadcast on the Turner family networks. The league’s schedule has teams rotating with each other three times a week for two full months, covering most of the WNBA’s off-season. There will also be a 1-on-1 competition mixed in.

The idea is to keep players home during that time, instead of watching them go abroad to supplement their WNBA paychecks.

“Unrivaled is definitely replacing us playing abroad –– ‘Phee and I have definitely done our time overseas,” Stewart said. “And as we continue to build this league from year one, to year two, to hopefully many, many more down the road, we hope to expand and bring more and more players in.“   

IT'S GAME DAYYYYYYY! 🗣️ Make sure you tune in tonight at 7pm ET! pic.twitter.com/vAZ2IkemoF

— Unrivaled Basketball (@Unrivaledwbb) January 17, 2025

Some of the biggest stars in the WNBA will play with Unrivaled this season. Names like Alyssa Thomas, Sabrina Ionescu, Brittney Griner and Angel Reese. Stewart says their salaries are the highest ever for a women’s sports league at more than $240,000 per player on average. That’s 60% higher than the average salary in the WNBA. Every player also receives equity and revenue shares from the league.

Women’s basketball great Candace Parker, who will be part of the Unrivaled broadcast team, says competition is a good thing.

“I think it’s gonna force the WNBA to look at themselves and think about what they can do better, and how to better the player experience,” Parker said. “I really valued looking at Unrivaled and seeing how intentional they were about ensuring the players were taken care of. Because guess what? When you’re a player and you’re taken care of and your needs are met, you’re paid well, there’s gonna be some pretty good basketball.” 

There are big bucks behind the league, too –– more than a dozen major corporate sponsors have signed on. Individually, several NBA stars, Olympians like Michael Phelps and Alex Morgan, and tennis great Coco Gauff have put up more than $35 million. With that kind of cash and a player salary pool of $8 million, Unrivaled looks to be in it for the long haul.