Professional women’s basketball returns this week.
It’s not the WNBA, and the jerseys will look a bit different, and there will be less players on the court, but the players scoring layups, knocking down deep shots, grabbing gritty rebounds and dishing out sweet assists will be the same.
From Breanna Stewart and Angel Reese to Napheesa Collier and Brittney Griner, most of the faces familiar to fans of women’s basketball new and old are here.
Here is Unrivaled, the new 3-on-3 women’s professional basketball league founded by Stewart and Collier.
The inaugural season starts Friday night with two games played in South Florida.
The league was created to give WNBA players another choice in the offseason. It’s an alternative to going overseas, and the chance to stay in shape, make money, and have some fun in a different variation of the sport without having to travel abroad.
For years, WNBA players have played in foreign leagues – from Israel to Spain to Russia to Australia and elsewhere – during the offseason to make extra money.
Griner is among the countless group of WNBA players who played overseas during the offseason in the past, but not since her detainment in Russia in 2022.
Griner was held in a Russian prison for 293 days after being arrested on drug charges and was only freed after President Joe Biden negotiated a prisoner swap.
“I feel like something was missing in my offseason; I was used to playing year-round,” Griner told ESPN. “This is going to help me stay fresh, knocking all the dust off… Hopefully, it helps the [WNBA] bring in more viewers, more [corporate] partners. It’s definitely going to put more pressure on the [WNBA] to do better, honestly.”
Not only will Unrivaled give players the opportunity to play at home during the offseason, but they’ll make good money doing it too. The average salary in Unrivaled is $222,000, which is more than the supermax salary in the WNBA of roughly $214,000.
When Griner mentions Unrivaled putting pressure on the WNBA, that’s what she means – especially with the WNBA’s players opting out of its collective bargaining agreement with the league. To avoid a lockout ahead of a historic $2.2 billion media rights deal kicking in, the WNBA and its players will have to sign a new CBA by October.
Big-name investors from Coco Gauff, Michael Phelps and Giannis Antetokounmpo are backing Unrivaled, and the league has garnered brand partnerships with Samsung, State Farm and Miller Lite with Under Armour as a uniform partner. Games will be relatively easy to find and watch as they will all stream on MAX and air on TNT and truTV.