Women’s basketball revolutionized: How Unrivaled will change everything

By now, most WNBA fans have heard about Unrivaled, the new professional women’s 3-on-3 basketball league set to launch next month in Miami.

The league, co-founded by UConn teammates and WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, has generated headlines in recent months with its strategic rollout of the identities of its 33 participating WNBA players, as well as by promising unprecedented salaries and signing a massive media rights deal with TNT.

But, how did Unrivaled come about?

Why did high-profile basketball stars like Angel Reese, Brittney Griner, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Satou Sabally, and dozens of others opt to participate?

Why did TNT Sports and Under Armour choose to invest in such a major way?

And how will such a new league measure success?

As part of our weekly WNBA Explained series, SB Nation sat down with Alex Bazzell — the president of Unrivaled, who also happens to be Collier’s husband — for a lengthy interview.

Bazzell, a basketball trainer himself, has been with Collier throughout the entirety of her professional career and intimately understands just how different WNBA offseasons are from NBA offseasons, which tend to be much more focused on player development.

Whereas historically, WNBA players have gone overseas during the offseason to earn supplementary income, NBA players

“It’s just an opportunity to create something really unique for the players and for the fans, to be quite honest,” Bazzell told SB Nation.

Why Unrivaled prioritized full-court 3-on-3 basketball

One of the unique characteristics of the league is that all games will be played in a 3-on-3 format on a compressed, 70-foot full-court (a standard WNBA court is 90 by 50 feet). Typically, competitive 3-on-3 basketball is played on a half-court (such as in FIBA international play), but Unrivaled took the more unorthodox approach.

But why not just play offseason 5-on-5?

For one, the 3-on-3 format would ensure that the league would be importantly viewed as distinct from, and not in competition with, the WNBA.

In addition, since fewer players are required for a 3-on-3 league, average salaries could be significantly higher, something that was a key priority from the league’s inception. Because there are only 33 players, it was also feasible to give each inaugural athlete an equity stake.

“It worked from a business perspective,” Bazzell said.

On the court, the visionaries behind Unrivaled are also big proponents of the concept of the 3-on-3 format.

“It’s just meant to space the floor, showcase talent, be ultra-competitive, somewhat be a yin and yang compared to the WNBA and their product,” Bazzell said. “Both really complement each other in the grand scheme of things.”

With more space, players can showcase individual skills, and less time will have to be spent learning plays that are specific to Unrivaled clubs.

Each player will also benefit from more touches and time with the ball in their hands.

“Basketball, in my opinion, should still have an up-and-down flow — where players can transition, they can walk the ball up the court, they can get in sets,” Bazzell said. “They can expose opportunities, which happens all the time, in 5-on-5.”

Still, how 3-on-3 full-court will play out on a professional remains to be seen.

“It’s never really been done at this level, so it’ll be interesting,” said New York Liberty guard Courtney Vandersloot, who, at 35, is one of the oldest players participating. “I think it’s going to benefit me because I play at that kind of pace — that’s a strength of mine.”

How Unrivaled is centering player development

When you talk to people involved in Unrivaled — whether coaches, leadership, or the players themselves — it’s evident that player development is central to the league’s mission.

Bazzell, a longtime basketball trainer who has worked with a myriad of NBA and WNBA stars, has a player development background himself.

“For our head coaches, we’ve tended to go towards people who have more of a player development background,” Bazzell said.

Photo by David Becker/NBAE via Getty Images

All six of the clubs’ head coaches — Nola Henry, Adam Harrington, DJ Sackmann, Andrew Wade, Teresa Weatherspoon, and Phil Handy — have a strong player development background.

Unrivaled is building a 20,000-square-foot venue in Miami, which includes two full basketball courts, was also built to prioritize players’ development and comfort.

“We built extensions to the venue for added space for locker rooms, for cold tubs, and everything genuinely for the athletes to have great experiences,” Bazzell said. “That’s one component of player development — just hiring the right people, and giving them the right resources.”

Susan Borchardt, a performance coach for USA Women’s Basketball, will serve as Unrivaled’s Director of Performance and Recovery. The league has also hired nearly a dozen personal trainers and massage therapists.

The venue itself aims to provide all Unrivaled athletes the amenities and services that they need — including mothers who choose to bring their kids with them to the 9-week league. The venue includes a hair and makeup room, a childcare center, and more.

“We’re going to provide daycare servicing for the mothers on arrival,” Bazzell said. “It’s everything that the athletes need under one roof when it comes to anything and everything — on-court or off-court for them.”

This is the first time most of the participating WNBA players will spend their offseason with these types of amenities at their fingertips.

“I’m pretty excited just to get the players in the market, and to get them under this facility, and having them improve, and getting the resources that I feel like they’ve always deserved for their offseasons — but have yet to really, truly experience from a player development side,” Bazzell said.

How Unrivaled got TNT and other major companies on board

In October, Unrivaled made waves after announcing an official media partnership with Turner Sports: all of the league’s games will be streamed on Max. In addition, games played on Friday and Monday will typically be broadcast on TNT, while Saturday night games will be broadcast on TruTV.

Alex Bazzell pointed to the widespread increased interest in women’s sports as a big part of why Turner Sports chose to come aboard. Across 24 games, the 2024 WNBA regular season on ESPN platforms averaged 1.2 million viewers per game, which marked a 170% increase from 2023.

“The data is clear,” Bazzell said. “When you look at women’s sports and where it’s going, it’s not an oversaturated market right now. In men’s sports, you can go down the line and watch a number of different leagues or teams. Women’s sports are still at that tipping point. You’re going to see more growth in the coming years. And when you look at viewership numbers, women’s basketball is the pinnacle of that viewership.”

Bazzell said telling individual players’ stories will be a key priority of the media partnership between Unrivaled and Turner Sports. Turner has broadcast NBA games since 1988, and their deep-rooted track record elevating professional basketball in the U.S. made them a good fit for Unrivaled.

“[TNT] is betting on stars that have always produced viewership or just engagement on social media,” Bazzell said. “That decision was not an easy decision, but it was a calculated decision for Turner. They’ve been the home of basketball for a long time and had been great storytellers for a long time.”

Earlier this week, Unrivaled also announced a partnership with Under Armour; the sportswear company will provide athletes with athletic gear, shoes, and uniforms. It’s the latest in a string of high-profile partnerships between the 3-on-3 league and major companies.

“Why now?” Bazell said. “Timing is everything. We’ve hit this critical mass growth within women’s basketball, and quite honestly, we hope to keep that continuation going and bringing the stars to the winter, and keeping them visible. I think it helps everyone. All those things led to why everyone’s excited, not just Turner, but our other partners that are coming on board.”

First-year player salaries are shaping up to be unprecedented

Unrivaled’s total salary pool is above $8 million, Bazzell said. With 33 players currently slated to participate, the average salary currently comes in at around $242,000. In comparison, the average WNBA salary is less than half of that figure, despite the WNBA season being more than twice as long. In fact, the average Unrivaled salary is higher than the WNBA supermax, which was $241,984 in 2024.

That $8 million figure doesn’t take into account equity or revenue shares, both of which will be added to players’ salaries.

“We are really changing the outlook of the ecosystem holistically,” Bazzell said. “You’re seeing more leagues bumping up their pay because that’s where the space is now. We’re proud to play a part in that growth of just the economics of these players being paid a lot of money to play basketball. That’s where we want to get to. It’s great to have brand deals, it’s great to have all this off-court stuff, but at the end of the day, we want to be able to pay them high salaries on the court.”

Collier is thrilled with the progress Unrivaled has made in such a limited amount of time.

“It’s amazing to be able to create something that we feel like is such a game changer in the field of women’s basketball,” Collier told SB Nation in an interview last month.

Unrivaled began expanding months before the league even tipped off

Initially, Unrivaled was going to include six teams of five players each, for a total of 30 WNBA players.

But, since financial projections were better than expected, the league opted to add four more spots, subsequently recruiting Alyssa Thomas (Connecticut Sun), Stefanie Dolson (Washington Mystics), Rae Burrell (Los Angeles Sparks), and Jordin Canada (Atlanta Dream) to join.

Photo by M. Anthony Nesmith/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The improved financial projections meant more athletes would get opportunities.

“It allowed us to open up more roster spots, and to create even more competition, to bring more athletes into the fold,” Bazzell said.

Since Las Vegas Aces guard Kelsey Plum recently dropped out of Unrivaled, citing personal reasons, three spots in the league remain open. Whether or not they will be filled remains to be seen, but as it currently stands, three clubs — the Laces, the Lunar Owls, and the Phantom — have undetermined Wild Card spots.

Unrivaled is very comfortable beginning the season with less than full rosters. But, down the road, continued expansion is the goal.

“We want to be a spot where we have more opportunities, not less opportunities,” Bazzell said.

For Collier, the fact that the league has already expanded is a great sign.

“I think it just shows the level of excitement and how much women’s sports is on the rise —that we were able to expand in year one, that we’re having these amazing partnerships,” Collier said.

How Unrivaled will evaluate its early success

Unrivaled is a business — not a charity. Bazzell made that crystal clear.

“Stewie and Phee have been adamant about it — this is a business that we’re running, and we hope to over-produce for all of our partners,” Bazzell said.

But, he also made sure to note that the league’s primary measure of early success will be player satisfaction.

“When players leave, [we want them to feel] this was the best off-season they’ve ever had,” Bazzell said. “Of course, they’re a part of something really unique. It’s high-level competition, but it’s also a chance for them to work on their games and improve. On a long schedule, in the 5-on-5 regular season, there’s just not as much opportunity for that. It’s not a problem. It’s just the reality. And we’re trying to do something a little bit different when it comes to our athletes, considering that this is a chance for them to get ready for their WNBA season as well.”

Bazzell wants the players who opted to play in the inaugural year to want to come back for future seasons.

“If they enjoy the experience, and they want to continue to double down or look at this as a long-term opportunity — which is what we believe right now — we won,” he said. “So the focus for us is currently on the athletes and their experience and what they get out of it.”

After player satisfaction, the second primary objective of Unrivaled is putting out a great product for the fans — both those who come to Miami to watch games in person and those who tune in on TV.

“This is going to be a very competitive atmosphere. This isn’t an all-star game where you roll the ball out and it’s kind of a gimmick,” Bazzell said. “It’s high-level competition.”

Unrivaled’s leadership is setting realistic first-year expectations, and the league is not expecting viewership numbers to rival the WNBA’s.

“It’s just not possible,” Bazzell said. “You have to build a foundation, and I think we’re building that right now through digital and we’re hoping to keep the long-lasting WNBA fans that want to continue to have a touch point with these stars in the offseason.”

“You hope people tune in and watch games, and are really excited about the product that they see, but… we’re year one. You got to walk before you run.”

This article is the third installment of SB Nation’s new “WNBA Explained” series, a weekly column diving deep into different topics related to women’s basketball. You can read the previous installments: “History says winning the draft lottery is a really, really big deal” here and “Everything you need to know about the Golden State Valkyries expansion draft” here.