Angel Reese is the latest player to join Unrivaled Basketball, the offseason 3-on-3 league founded by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier.
The league, which is set to kick off in January 2025, already features such names as Arike Ogunbowale, Jewell Loyd, Kelsey Plum, Rhyne Howard, and Chelsea Gray, among others.
Reese, a WNBA rookie this season with the Chicago Sky, became the 10th player to join, as per a Wednesday announcement.
A total of 30 players will be part of the league, which will see games played in Miami and take place during the WNBA offseason.
Unrivaled will also offer big salaries to players, with each player receiving a minimum of $100,000 for the season. The total payout for the league will be around $3 million. The six-figure salaries are likely to be the highest average in professional women’s sports.
Unrivaled has a strong investor base, with a star-studded list of investors that includes USWNT stars Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, retired NBA players Carmelo Anthony and Steve Nash, LPGA’s Michelle Wie West, UConn women’s basketball head coach Geno Auriemma and actor Ashton Kutcher.
Offseason play is common among WNBA players, who still make considerably less than some professional athletes. WNBA players currently make an average of around $122,000 per year, with salaries as low as $64,154. (Compare this to the NBA, where the average salary is more than $10 million.)
As a result, players typically use offseason or international leagues as a way to supplement their income. Many players play overseas, where leagues can be incredibly lucrative. Unrivaled, however, offers an opportunity to stay in the United States, which is especially welcome in the wake of Brittney Griner’s 10-month imprisonment in Russia.
Another perk of Unrivaled is that it does not overlap with WNBA training camp — an issue that arose with the addition of a “prioritization clause” in the latest collective bargaining agreement, which went into effect this spring. The clause, which is controversial among players, requires players to arrive to training camp on time or risk suspension for the rest of the season.
Given that the restriction can affect players who spend the offseason overseas, Stewart and Collier announced the creation of Unrivaled ahead of the 2023 WNBA All-Star game in part to offset the new requirement. Unrivaled was originally planned to debut last January, but the ambitious goal fell short.
Now, as the league continues announcing players, Unrivaled is capitalizing on the talent and popularity of their players in order to generate buzz for the new league. With 20 players left to announce, Unrivaled is sure to offer up some more exciting names before the league starts next winter.
Source Agencies
