We are less than two months away from watching Unrivaled Basketball…a symbolic pillar in Women’s basketball history and professional sports history…Founded by basketball greats Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, Unrivaled is poised to break barriers and records, all behind the power of the players…

What is Unrivaled? And what does this mean for Women’s professional basketball?

Unrivaled is a basketball league created by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier with the aim of combating a plethora of issues that professionals in the WNBA face, namely pay and league schedule. Unrivaled is composed of six different basketball clubs that compete on a ~60-foot court in a 3v3 basketball competition within the Unrivaled League umbrella. Under that umbrella, the league will also host a 1v1 tournament during their inaugural season. The league’s regular season scheduling is round-robin format, with the top four teams qualifying for the playoffs at the end of the regular season. Within the six basketball clubs, their rosters will hold six players, chosen at random by the respective coaches in Unrivaled(prior to the coaches being assigned their teams)to ensure the competition is as equal as possible. 

For women’s professional basketball in the United States, Unrivaled is similar to when electric cars were introduced to the market as an alternative to gasoline-powered cars. Unrivaled is the first major professional sports league in the US to be founded by current players with active contracts in another league. Unrivaled is the first major professional sports league to give all of its participants equity in the league itself. Unrivaled should provide fans with intimate access to the players in a 3v3 setting where Turner Sports Group will stream all competitions; fans can view every Unrivaled event and watch their favorite players in a brand-new basketball setting.

Who is participating in Unrivaled? 

Unrivaled has currently announced 34/36 star-studded participants for their inaugural season. To select the teams, the six coaches were given six pods of players and tasked to draft/assign one player from each pod to each club(the coaches did not know which team they would coach until after the draft/assignments). Each pod has similarly positioned players of varying skill levels. Here are the pods into which the players were separated prior to their team drafts/assignments:

Pod A: Arike Ogunbowale, Chelsea Gray, Jewell Loyd, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Jackie Young, Kelsey Plum

Pod B: Jordin Canada, Brittney Sykes, Courtney Vandersloot, Natasha Cloud, Tiffany Hayes, Courtney Williams

Pod C: Rhyne Howard, Kahleah Copper, DiJonai Carrington, Allisha Gray, Marina Mabrey, Kayla McBride

Pod D: Rae Burrell, Lexie Hull, Rickea Jackson, Wildcard to be named, Wildcard to be named, Kate Martin

Pod E: Aliyah Boston, Angel Reese, Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier, Satou Sabally, Alyssa Thomas

Pod F: Dearica Hamby, Azura Stevens, Aaliyah Edwards, Shakira Austin, Brittney Griner, Stefanie Dolson

The basketball clubs for the inaugural Unrivaled season are listed below:

Vinyl Basketball Club: Coached by Teresa Weatherspoon

Arike Ogunbowale(pod A)

Jordin Canada(pod B)

Rhyne Howard(pod C)

Rae Burrell(pod D)

Aliyah Boston(pod E)

Dearica Hamby(pod F)

Rose Basketball Club: Coached by Nola Henry

Chelsea Gray(pod A)

Brittney Sykes(pod B)

Kahleah Copper(pod C)

Lexie Hull(pod D)

Angel Reese(pod E)

Azura Stevens(pod F)

Mist Basketball Club: Coached by Phil Handy

Jewell Loyd(pod A)

Courtney Vandersloot(pod B)

DiJonai Carrington(pod C)

Rickea Jackson(pod D)

Breanna Stewart(pod E)

Aaliyah Edwards(pod F)

Lunar Owls Basketball Club: Coached by DJ Sackmann

Skylar Diggins-Smith(pod A)

Natasha Cloud(pod B)

Allisha Gray(pod C)

**Wildcard to be named(pod D)

Napheesa Collier(pod E)

Shakira Austin(pod F)

Phantom Basketball Club: Coached by Adam Harrington

Jackie Young(pod A)

Tiffany Hayes(pod B)

Marina Mabrey(pod C)

**Wildcard to be named(pod D)

Satou Sabally(pod E)

Brittney Griner(pod F)

Laces Basketball Club: Coached by Andrew Wade

Kelsey Plum(pod A)

Courtney Williams(pod B)

Kayla McBride(pod C)

Kate Martin(pod D)

Alyssa Thomas(pod E)

Stefanie Dolson(pod F)

To get a better picture of the roster construction, I ranked each player 1-6 for a 3v3 setting(1 being the best player)in their respective pods(outside of Pod D, which is incomplete) and then added the total of the player rankings from each club to see which roster had the lowest sum(meaning in theory, they would have the best roster). Here are the results below, excluding Pod D:

Vinyl	rank	Rose	rank	Mist	rank
Arike	1	Chelsea Gray	6	JLoyd	3
Jordin Canada	5	BSykes	2	Vandersloot	6
Rhyne Howard	3	KahCopper	1	DiJonai	6
ABoston	6	Angel	5	Stewie	1
Hamby	1	Azura Stevens	5	Aaliyah Edwards	4
Pod D		Pod D		Pod D
Total	16	Total	19	Total	20
Lunar Owls	rank	Phantom	rank	Laces	rank
SDS	5	JYoung	4	Plum	2
Cloud	3	Tiff Hayes	4	Court Williams	1
Allisha Gray	4	Marina Mabrey	5	KMcBride	2
Phee	2	Satou	4	Alyssa Thomas	3
Shakira	3	Griner	2	Moma Stef	6
Pod D		Pod D		Pod D
Total	17	Total	19	Total	14

When and where is Unrivaled taking place?

Unrivaled is taking place exclusively in Medley, Florida, where all games will be hosted in an Unrivaled facility. The season will kick off Friday, January 17th, 2025, with a TNT doubleheader as the Mist face off against the Lunar Owls at 7:00 pm EST, followed by a matchup between the Rose and Vinyl basketball clubs at 8:15 pm EST. The regular season will span eight weeks, with the semifinals taking place on March 16th and the Championship on the 17th. 

Let’s circle back to the WNBA Draft Lottery…

The Dallas Wings won the WNBA draft lottery last week, and the feeling inside the Wings front office is undoubtedly ecstatic. The Wings beat out the Sparks(the odds favorite to win the #1 selection) and the Sky and Mystics in the draft lottery to secure the top pick in the 2025 WNBA draft. The Dallas Wings will now have the chance to select Paige Bueckers first overall this upcoming spring. The prize for this respective draft lottery seems to be written in ink, and Paige Bueckers will be playing for the Dallas Wings in April. The order of the first round is below:

1. Dallas Wings
2. Los Angeles Sparks
3. Chicago Sky
4. Washington Mystics
5. Golden State Valkyries
6. Washington Mystics
7. New York Liberty
8. Indiana Fever
9. Seattle Storm
10. Chicago Sky
11. Minnesota Lynx
12. Phoenix Mercury

**The Las Vegas Aces forfeited their first-round pick

To wrap a bow on this update and in lieu of knowing the WNBA draft order, here is the current top 12 on my personal WNBA 2025 Draft Big Board:

1. Paige Bueckers, Combo Guard, UConn
2. Kiki Iriafen, Big Forward, USC
3. Ajsa Sivka, Big Forward, Slovenia
4. Olivia Miles, Point Guard, Notre Dame
5. Janiah Barker, Big Forward, UCLA
6. Dominique Malonga, Big, France
7. Te-Hina Paopao, Combo Guard, South Carolina
8. Shyanne Sellers, Combo Guard, Maryland
9. Saniya Rivers, Small Forward, NC State
10. Sonia Citron, Off Guard, Notre Dame
11. Aneesah Morrow, Big Forward, LSU
12. Raven Johnson, Point Guard, South Carolina

More on the WNBA, WNBA Draft(and my personal board), WCBB, and Unrivaled soon!

Cheers, hoop heads!