A fresh look has arrived on the scene of women’s basketball. Unrivaled Basketball League, a 3v3 professional women’s league, evokes the authentic, youthful, and joyful experience of playing pickup on a blacktop court. Based in Miami, Fla., Unrivaled features six teams competing in round-robin style matchups over eight weeks, culminating in a week of playoffs. The league’s inaugural season, which launched Jan. 17, looks to combat inequalities in women’s basketball—and its unparalleled existence already does just that.
Familiar names in the new league include WNBA standouts such as the Chi-Town Barbie Angel Reese, New York Liberty point guards Sabrina Ionescu and Courtney Vandersloot, Minnesota Lynx center Brittney Griner, and Washington Mystics forward Aaliyah Edwards. Disappointingly, two-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson isn’t participating this season, nor is WNBA Rookie of the Year and 2024 Time’s Athlete of the Year Caitlin Clark. Unrivaled reportedly offered Clark a $1 million contract, but she said she wants some time out of the spotlight to rest.
Founded by two U.S. Basketball Olympians, Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart (who are playing in the league), Unrivaled is for female players, by female players with twists on the game of basketball. For example, the coaches work together to select the six players on each team and, to ensure fair competition, the coaches do not know which team they will be assigned to.
Playing pickup on a half court is quick, vibrant, and nonstop. To mimic that, Unrivaled games are on a compressed court, 70 by 50 feet, 24 feet shorter than a full-size court. This shortened court ensures player stamina over the four quarters of play, promoting a fast-paced atmosphere. If a player is fouled while shooting, they will only get one shot, regardless of where they were shooting. This and the 18-second shot clock—compared to the WNBA’s 24 seconds—look to minimize slow-downs in play. The first three quarters are seven minutes each, while the fourth quarter uses an 11-point Elam Ending. If the score is 66-59, 11 points are added to the leading score, 66, to make 77. The first team to reach that total of 77 wins the game. Collier, who plays for the Lunar Owls, explained that this twist ensures “a game-winner every single game.” Her teammate, Skylar Diggins-Smith, put in that game-winning shot for the Lunar Owls on opening weekend, complete with a body-shaking celebration.
Beyond its differences in rules, Unrivaled provides a higher average starting salary than the WNBA—$220,000 to the WNBA’s $147,745. It is the highest average salary in all of women’s sports, thus explaining why so many stars are drawn to the inaugural season. In the past, WNBA players traveled abroad to play, either for offseason competition or supplemental income. This can be dangerous, as in the case of Griner receiving a prison sentence for illegal drug possession while traveling to a Russian league. Players feel forced to choose between traveling to earn an income or staying with their families, while higher-paid male athletes get to rest at home during the offseason. With Unrivaled, WNBA stars can now have the same offseason competition with a liveable salary, all in the U.S.
Unrivaled is made possible through sponsorships, including Samsung, State Farm, Coca-Cola, Miller Lite, Sephora, as well as investments from soccer stars Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, tennis phenom Coco Gauff, the NBA’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Phelps, and University of South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley. The initial players also receive equity shares in the league and free childcare at the league’s Miami facility, Wayfair Arena.
However, Unrivaled still has room to grow. The league is tiny; their 36 players are a quarter of the WNBA’s 144. Not only are the rosters small—the arena is, too. Wayfair Arena only seats 850 fans. This puts a weight on the importance of TV viewership. However, initial viewership data should be taken with a grain of salt—as seen with the WNBA, momentum and popularity build as the season progresses. While no games take place on Sundays to minimize overlap with the NFL, the season does compete with the NBA and NHL, hinting at possible issues with split viewership. Still, the league has quite a few eyes on it (averaging just over 200,000 viewers through the first six games) and has already given highlight-worthy moments to its fans.
But the league faces broadcasting problems in addition to viewership concerns. Unrivaled hopes to rely on a media-rights deal with TNT Sports rather than ticket sales, but so far, TNT has restricted Unrivaled to a one-hour window on either TNT or TruTV (also available for streaming on Max). This has already proved too short, as the few games played so far have exceeded one hour.
While the season is young, Unrivaled seems poised to draw more attention and raise the bar for women’s sports that have long been underappreciated and underpaid. The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team has been embroiled in lengthy fights for compensation equal to the men’s team from the U.S. Soccer Federation. Women’s hockey faces similar challenges, and despite Title IX, women’s NCAA basketball teams still lack the same training facilities as men’s teams.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has been supportive thus far of Unrivaled and its mission. Collier mentioned that Engelbert gave her and Stewart tips for game-day security, medical resources, and links to business connections. While not competing with the WNBA’s player base or season time, Unrivaled still looks to elevate the standards for women’s basketball. Their pay, amenities, and operations put pressure on the WNBA to improve—sooner rather than later.
