It’s a very contentious time in the world of women’s hoops. At the time of writing there is absolutely no indication that the WNBPA and the WNBA Commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, are close to securing a Collective Bargaining Agreement to play this upcoming season. The WNBA has carried on like there will be; putting out social media posts, promoting theme nights, and releasing the schedule for teams. I do think that’s more to do with securing the dates for the arenas rather than a “power play” but it is still very odd to see these kind of things happen in the middle of a gridlock.
Thankfully, for a large majority of the WNBA players, there are other avenues to keep their game sharp while the WNBA is on hiatus. Prior to 2022 the only place to play basketball outside of the W was overseas and a lot icons of the game made their mark over there like Diana Taurasi, Kelsey Plum, and Sue Bird. In 2022 Athlete’s Unlimited (AU) came onto the scene and allowed WNBA players to earn money stateside while continuing to work on their game during the W’s offseason. AU has gained a lot of momentum over the last few years and they have also secured working relationships with ESPN and FanDuel Sports to broadcast some of their games.
Then in 2024 the game really changed. Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart came together to form Unrivaled: a 3 on 3 women’s basketball league that offered a lot more than a chance to stay stateside during the offseason. Right out of the gate it was announced that the inaugural members of the Unrivaled season would be granted a $250,000 salary, equity in the league, and to top it all of the members were treated to state of the art training facilities and practice centers in Miami, Florida.
Immediately with the announcement of the league you could sense a shift in the way that the WNBA was handling their business. As stated by Napheesa Collier, Englebert and the WNBA leadership feel as if the players are being ungrateful, and as it pertains to the CBA, shouldn’t be asking for what they have been. What they are asking for is a longer conversation that probably deserves it’s own piece, but the requests are fairly straightforward: a higher starting salary, a higher max salary, a higher revenue share, and guarantees that all teams will upgrade their facilities.
If you’ve somehow stumbled on this article without any prior knowledge of the current CBA negotiations, just know that by every metric, what the WNBPA is asking for is more than reasonable given the explosion in growth and popularity in the women’s game over the past 4 years especially. With Cathy seemingly wanting to play hardball with these negotiations, the WNBA players are leaning more and more on leagues like AU and Unrivaled for their livelihood and a way to go out and hoop.
As odd as it may seem, Unrivaled specifically is both helping and hindering the WNBA and their pursuits. Let’s start with the obvious and how Unrivaled is a competitor to the legacy brand that is the WNBA.
The most obvious way Unrivaled is competing with the W is in the financial department. Now, keep in mind, the WNBA has been around since 1996 and currently brings in around $200 million a year in revenue. There is still a lot of room to grow there but I can promise you that the NBA wasn’t pulling in $200 million a year in their 30th season of existence. What do they do with that money, exactly? I’m not sure, but I can tell you that they don’t give it to their players, because the league’s largest contract is $269,000 a year which belongs to Kelsey Mitchell.
Unrivaled, as I’ve mentioned before, gave EVERY SINGLE PLAYER a base salary of $250,000 including relative unknowns like Kate Martin. Kate is actually a great example of the pay discrepancy between the two leagues because as the 18th pick in the 2024 WNBA draft her rookie contract is worth $297,000…over four years. Unrivaled is shaking the industry to the core as a startup company. They have invested in their players and, for the most part, the players have been incredibly loyal to the league. It also shows up in their media rights deals and league evaluations which have grown more than 10x since the inaugural season.
Unrivaled is also outclassing the WNBA in their facilities department. You may have caught wind of it in the past W season, but not all team facilities are created equal. Infamously, Chicago Sky superstar Angel Reese has commented on the lackluster facilities for her own team. While the media made it a bigger deal than it should have been, she wasn’t wrong in the slightest. The Chicago Sky won the WNBA Championship in 2021, and up until about 3 years ago they were still using trashcans for players to do cold plunges. I would encourage you to look it up yourself, but there really is no comparison. A startup league should not be outclassing and out maneuvering a league like the WNBA in any realm.
Luckily for the WNBA, Unrivaled is also inadvertently aiding the league and the on-court product. If you’ve never played, or even watched, 3-on-3 basketball it is a much different kind of game than traditional 5-on-5. There is so much more space to work with and the pace is usually faster. Honestly, it’s an offensive player’s fantasy, but that also means that each defensive possession is life or death. Winning your matchups, backdoor cutting, the midrange, and your defensive versatility are all things that need to be worked on or fine tuned to play this kind of game.
If you’re able to excel in 3×3, more often than not, your hard work will translate to your 5v5 gameplay. That’s not a blanket statement, but it does make sense. If you’re able to lockdown your opponent in a wide open court and lightning fast pace of play, you’ll be able to show up defensively in the W where there is less space (because there are four more people on the court) and the pace is slower.
While all of that is anecdotal, there are also concrete examples of how playing in Unrivaled has improved the games of players in the WNBA season. The first one that comes to mind is Los Angeles Sparks and Rose BC player Azura Stevens. Azura had a perfectly respectable 2024 campaign averaging 9.6 points and 6 rebounds a game, but there was a certain lack of confidence in her game. For her entire career she had been put into this box and never really had a chance to break out of it. After one season in Unrivaled she was able to shatter that glass ceiling.
In Unrivaled she was able to handle the ball more, she felt comfortable to fire up a transition 3, she was able to play freely. After her season in Unrivaled (where she was a vital part of a Championship run) she parlayed all of that confidence and freedom into her play for the Sparks. In the 2025 season she blossomed averaging 12.8 PPG, had a career high in ASP, and chipped in 2.3 stocks per game, all while shooting 38% from 3 on career high attempts. All of that hard work earned her a 2nd place finish in the WNBA’s Most Improved Player Award.
Keeping in LA, Dearica Hamby also used her time in Unrivaled to continue her late WNBA career renaissance. Much like Stevens, Hamby was allowed a freedom that I don’t believe she had before. After one year in Unrivaled, she had a career high in PPG, BPG, and FG% in 2025.
The biggest example of a player’s game exploding is someone who’s already been named dropped in this piece: Angle Reese. Reese was also part of the Championship squad Rose BC and, unsurprisingly, she was a huge part of that run. The theme of freedom and expression will continue for Reese as she was able to showcase her playmaking chops in Unrivaled. She evolved into a true Point Forward while still maintaining her rebounding and defensive prowess, which also resulted in her winning the inaugural Unrivaled Defensive Player of the Year Award.
Just a few short months later in the WNBA season she was able to have career highs in PPG, BPG, SPG, and ASG, all while addressing the weakest part of her game; her shooting percentages. Year to year, Reese was able to increase her FG% by 6% points, and while I still think she can be more efficient, to see that kind of growth from one offseason is impressive and I don’t think we get to see this level of play from her without Unrivaled.
Leagues like Unrivaled, Athlete’s Unlimited, and the EuroLeague are certainly competitors to the WNBA, but because the W has so much history behind it, it will forever be associated as the league with the best talent and the “best” women’s basketball league. When those players thrive in these other leagues and they can bring it to the W, only the WNBA benefits.
They’re able to capitalize on the jumps in skill. They’re able to showcase the talent level on their social media channels and commercials. They’re also able to parlay all of the skills and confidence gained from other leagues into ticket sales, jersey sales, and advertiser revenue.
Sooner or later the WNBA will have to pay the piper. These players deserve to be paid. They deserve to see the fruits of their labor. Without them and all the time they put into being great players, the league would not be what it is today. The WNBA has been able to get away with this for so long because they were the only game in town. Now? The game has changed.
There have been rumors and rumblings that AU and Unrivaled could transition to a full-time schedule to combat a potential WNBA lockout. Once the leagues put those plans into play, it could quickly spell the end of the WNBA as we know it. The W has been able to leech off of these leagues for quite some time, but I think that time is going to come to an end soon. If it is the end? So be it. I know that I’ll be watching these athletes regardless of where they play. I just hope that the WNBA realizes that they need these players more than the players need the league before it’s too late.
Round The Game 
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