Unrivaled basketball is a new league made up of entirely WNBA stars, and it’s changing the way people view the game.
Unrivaled basketball is a womens 3 on 3 league that was founded in 2023 by Naphessa Collier and Breanna Stewart. Unrivaled basketball was created as a way for WNBA players to play during the offseason and earn a salary. The league was founded by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, there was an arena specifically built for the league in Miami, Florida known as the Wayfair Arena. Unrivaled doesn’t have teams, it has six clubs each made up of six players and one coach. The six clubs are Laces, Lunar Owls, Mist, Phantom, Rose, and Vinyl. Each Unrivaled game contains three seven-minute periods and a fourth quarter that is known as “winning score.” The winning score is determined by adding 11 points to the leading teams score through three quarters. The first team to reach that score is the winner.
This year was Unrivaled premiere season, with its first game being held on January 17th 2025, the game between clubs Lunar Owls and Mist ended with Lunar Owls beating Mist 84-80. The six clubs played in a round-robin schedule with the top four teams at the end of the regular season going on to the playoffs. The two teams that did not make it to the playoffs were Mist and Phantom, which left Laces, Lunar Owls, Rose, and Vinyl to duke it out in the playoffs. The championship game of Unrivaled was held on March 17th, 2025, the game was between Rose and Vinyl and ended with Rose beating Vinyl 62-54, putting an end to the league’s two month season.
However, that’s not all unrivaled has done, there was also a 1-on-1 tournament that started on February 10th and ended on February 14th. The tournament consisted of four pods; pods B and C both have eight players, but pods A and D have seven players because the first seed in both has a first round bye. All rounds were single elimination except for the final round which was a best of three. There was a $350k prize pool, where the winner won $200k, and each clubmate of the winner won $10k, the runner up won 50k, and both of the players that made it to the semi finals won $25k. The winner of the tournament was Napheesa Collier who played for the club Lunar Owls.
Unrivaled basketball is still in its infancy, only time will tell what it becomes in the future.