New 3-on-3 Women’s Basketball League ‘Unrivaled’ Launching in 2025

(left to right) Former University of Connecticut players Napheesa Collier, Breanna Stewart, Tina Charles, Cheryl Reeve, Gabby Williams, Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird #6 of Team United States pose for photographs during the Women's Basketball medal ceremony on day sixteen of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games at Saitama Super Arena on August 08, 2021 in Saitama, Japan. (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

A new 3-on-3 women’s basketball league is set to launch in January 2025, and it’s backed by several heavy hitters.

Unrivaled is the name of the league, and it is co-founded by Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) players Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier.

Investors for the league include Carmelo Anthony, Steve Nash, Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, in addition to several business executives who formerly worked for such outlets as ESPN, Turner Sports, and Warner Bros.

The league says it will offer the highest salaries in women’s sports league history and will be player-owned with equity opportunities.

It is slated to be held in Miami over a 10-week window, with six teams making up the inaugural season. Each team will have five players, with several WNBA All-Stars already having agreed to join. The league will announce its full roster of players at a later date.

With the January start, Unrivaled will not conflict with the WNBA season, which had its 2023 WNBA Finals end on Oct. 18. This gives women’s basketball players an opportunity for additional income stateside and figures to be one of the biggest selling points to attract current stars.

“For years, women have relied heavily on off-court sponsorships for a majority of their income,” Ms. Stewart said in a statement. “With Unrivaled, we’re revolutionizing the game by prioritizing investments in our stars and ensuring their on-court performance is reflected in their pay.”

Many WNBA players from superstars to role players often supplement their incomes by going overseas to play when the WNBA isn’t in session. In 2015, Diana Taurasi infamously sat out that year’s entire WNBA season at the request of the Russian team she was playing for in the offseasons. That Russian team paid Ms. Taurasi more than what she was slated to make with the Phoenix Mercury, just in order to keep her fresh for the Russian season. Ms. Taurasi is arguably the most accomplished player in WNBA history as the league’s all-time leading scorer, a three-time champion and a two-time Finals MVP. So, if she needed to go overseas for another income opportunity, then nearly every other WNBA player is in the same boat.

Ms. Stewart is the WNBA’s reigning MVP—her second time winning the award—as well as a two-time champion and two-time Finals MVP. Meanwhile, Ms. Collier has quite the resume in her own right as a three-time All-Star who also made All-WNBA First-Team last season. The two players are on rival WNBA teams currently, but they were teammates in college at the University of Connecticut. Both also have extensive histories in playing overseas as Ms. Stewart has played in China, Russia, and Turkey during WNBA offseasons, while Ms. Collier has played in France and Turkey.

“With the growing popularity of women’s basketball and the WNBA, this is an opportunity for us to extend our visibility into the traditional basketball season,” Ms. Collier added in a statement. “Breanna and I set out to create a league that would change the way women’s sports are viewed and ultimately how sports leagues operate. We may have had the vision, but this isn’t just our league—it belongs to the players, and the Unrivaled model reflect that.”

Breanna Stewart #30 of the Seattle Storm handles the ball in the first half ahead of Nneka Ogwumike #30 of the Los Angeles Sparks at Crypto.com Arena on July 07, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)

Posterity

Ms. Stewart also talked about wanting to leave the game of basketball better than where she found it as a reason why she and Ms. Collier started this initiative as it’s not just something that benefits them and current players but future generations of women’s basketball players as well.

“This is my why. This is what we do in the WNBA,” said Ms. Stewart. “We’re trying to continue to grow the game individually and collectively and making sure that now we’re filling gaps, filling voids of not seeing these W players throughout the entire offseason. And now we’re going to be around.”

Unrivaled is the latest dividend of the increased popularity of 3-on-3 basketball. The format has evolved into more than just the type of basketball one would see in parks or gyms as it’s been adopted by organizations such as the NBA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), in addition to several 3-on-3 leagues already sprouting up.

At the 2010 Youth Olympics, 3-on-3 basketball made its competitive debut, and then in 2017, the NBA started the Dew NBA 3X, which was a series of tournaments for amateur players. Also in 2017, rapper Ice Cube launched the BIG3, which is still in operation and features players formerly of the NBA and international leagues.

It was that year that 3-on-3 basketball got the thumbs-up from the IOC for inclusion in the Summer Olympics. It made its debut at the 2020 Games in Tokyo, which were contested in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The United States did not qualify on the men’s side of 3-on-3 basketball for the 2020 Games, but the U.S. women not only qualified, but they also won the gold.

The Paris Olympics in the summer will also feature 3-on-3 basketball, and both the men’s and women’s United States teams have qualified.