Culture
Here are four ways Unrivaled could change the WNBA
Near the end of 2022, New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart took a meeting at a New York City steakhouse to hear an idea to change the landscape of professional women’s basketball.
Stewart was preparing to spend part of another WNBA offseason abroad. Alex Bazzell, the husband of Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier, had seen his wife play multiple seasons overseas, too. He pitched Stewart on a business proposition to keep most WNBA stars in the U.S. during the winter months instead.
Over red wine, Stewart was immediately interested in the concept of Unrivaled, a professional women’s 3×3 league that would promise the highest salaries in American women’s team sports. She eventually agreed to co-found the league along with Collier.
“It’s crazy to think about that meeting to where we are now,” Stewart said as Unrivaled approaches the end of its initial 10-week season.
Four of the league’s six teams play in the semifinals on Sunday. The championship game is on Monday. Stewart, whose Mist Basketball Club has already been eliminated, said Unrivaled could elevate players’ experiences across all professional women’s basketball.
The WNBA is coming off a season of record viewership. Last year was the most-watched regular season in 24 years and Game 5 of the WNBA Finals was the most-watched finals game in 25 years. The league also set records for digital consumption and merchandise and had its highest total attendance in more than two decades.
Still, Stewart is optimistic that Unrivaled can push the landscape even further.
“We’re uplifting the standard by just showing that when you invest and get behind us, anything is possible,” Stewart said.
Playoffs are quickly approaching! ⏳How are y’all preparing? ⬇️👀 pic.twitter.com/RDX4AgwN5B
— Unrivaled Basketball (@Unrivaledwbb) March 13, 2025
Here are a few ways Unrivaled could influence the WNBA:
1. Raise salaries and provide players equity
Unrivaled launched at a critical juncture in the sport. The explosive growth coincides with negotiations between the WNBA and Women’s National Basketball Players Association on a new collective bargaining agreement, where players are expected to push for higher salaries. The players opted out of the previous agreement last October.
Unrivaled paid record salaries, an average of around $220,000 per player, and provided player equity, which the WNBA doesn’t provide. Thirty-six players signed on for Unrivaled, with six more available for injury relief.
Salaries would have been a top priority for the WNBPA no matter what. But the discrepancy between average salaries (the WNBA’s average salary was around $120,000 in 2024) kept the topic of pay at the forefront this winter.
Another part of Unrivaled’s model — giving players around 15 percent of its league equity — could also be a precursor to a change in the WNBA, which is entering its 29th season this summer. The WNBPA has stated that it wants an equity-based model that evolves with the league’s business success in the next CBA.
2. Improved amenities and added childcare
The leagues have numerous differences (operational expenses, ownership structure, game format, season length, roster sizes), but Unrivaled’s commitment to prioritizing the player experience could also influence the W.
“We’re taking the things we like here and we’re going to tell our ownership,” said Rhyne Howard, a star wing on the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream and Unrivaled’s Vinyl Basketball Club.
A WNBA arms race has been underway with several franchises building new facilities and improving their amenities. Still, the offerings can vary widely from franchise to franchise.
Unrivaled created a private professional-level training space in a matter of months, outfitting a former TV production studio in the Miami area into an all-encompassing performance center and arena.
Some of what struck Unrivaled players was relatively small. The renovated facility includes a sauna and cold tub, two amenities that aren’t a 24/7 given with all WNBA clubs. Multiple players also appreciated heating pads on the training room tables.
Unrivaled vice president and general manager Clare Duwelius, the Minnesota Lynx’s former general manager, served as a point person for player requests. No ask was too big or too small, she said. “If the players put it on our radar, we aimed to provide that,” Duwelius said.
Perhaps most importantly, Unrivaled also ensured its facility offered robust childcare options. Wayfair Arena has a nursing room, nursery room and a kids room, which has toys, books, puzzles and even a mini basketball hoop with stickers of the six teams plastered on the backboard. The league hired nannies so players could drop off their kids at their convenience, whether for games, practices or other league obligations.
Katie Lou Samuelson, a forward on Phantom Basketball Club and the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, has used the services for her 1-year-old daughter.
“Napheesa’s daughter, (Skylar Diggins-Smith’s) daughter, they’ve all built a little friendship together (with my daughter),” Samuelson said. “When we first started out, she didn’t want me to leave, and now she’s like, all right mom, you can go.”
The WNBA’s 2020 CBA made significant strides in its parental care policy, and some organizations have similar setups to Unrivaled. The Phoenix Mercury have a kids’ playroom and provide childcare during games. The Minnesota Lynx use a local company to help provide nanny care, and they have a space in Target Center for kids to play and sleep.
“I just feel super comfortable knowing that I can go into any game, I can do any treatment I need to do after the games end and there’s going to be someone there watching her and taking care of her until it’s time to go,” Samuelson said. “I don’t feel rushed, and it’s been really nice.”
Breanna Stewart, an Unrivaled co-founder, hopes to bring some touches from the 3×3 league to the WNBA. (Megan Briggs / Getty Images)
3. More partnership opportunities
Unrivaled brokered partnerships with multiple companies new to women’s basketball. More than a half dozen of the league’s corporate sponsors are not existing NBA or WNBA partners, including Sephora, Wayfair, Samsung Galaxy, Morgan Stanley and VistaPrint. Collier said the league showed “what is possible when you have the players’ brand buy-in.” Lexie Hull, a guard on Unrivaled’s Rose Basketball Club who plays for the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, said Unrivaled’s partnerships highlighted that numerous companies are eager to work with women’s sports leagues and their athletes.
As a startup, Unrivaled can be more nimble. Because the WNBA is affiliated with the NBA, there is shared coordination on some dual sponsorship deals.
The WNBA increased its number of sponsorships by 19 percent last year, according to Marketing Brew, and the league had a record 24 sponsor activations at its All-Star Game fan fest last summer.
Jordin Canada, a guard on the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream and Unrivaled’s Rose Basketball Club, said Unrivaled’s deals “puts pressure” on the WNBA to put its players at the forefront of more arrangements. Some deals might fit better with just the WNBA than with the WNBA and NBA combined.
Already one of Unrivaled’s corporate partners that did not have a previous tie to the WNBA is getting involved with one of the league’s franchises. Sephora announced in early January it will be the Toronto Tempo’s founding partner.
“It’s important to bring in all sorts of brands and people and introduce them to new faces,” said Chelsea Gray, a star guard for the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces and Unrivaled’s Rose Basketball Club. “I would encourage the (WNBA) to look at different partnerships and bring them along as well.”
4. Upping offseason promotion
Unrivaled prompted more than 30 of the WNBA’s top players to live in one area, leading to more publicity as they interacted with one another. Photo and video content was pumped out on official Unrivaled channels and on individual player platforms, keeping players more frequently in conversations among WNBA fans.
“That was a missing piece because you wouldn’t know what was happening for seven months because you were overseas,” Stewart said.
In recent years, the WNBA has stressed the importance of relevancy during its offseason. The league signs a few players each season to marketing agreements, which compensate players as brand ambassadors. But Unrivaled has boosted those efforts.
Shakira Austin, a center for Unrivaled’s Lunar Owls Basketball Club and the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, said Unrivaled has been a “10 out of 10” in capturing player personalities, creating social content that is timely to online trends. That’s something she hopes to see more of in the WNBA season.
“We’re used to being overseas in God knows what country and you’d be lucky to even get some good internet service,” Austin said. “So to be able to have 24/7 almost access to the WNBA players while we’re playing year-round now, it’s dope and I think it’s something that can continue to move forward.”
Unrivaled’s players and executives said they hope the winter venture complements the WNBA, which holds its annual draft in April and tips off its season in May.
“This league is meant to be an aid to the WNBA,” Hull said. “They’re supposed to live in cohesion.”
During the Unrivaled season, WNBA officials, including commissioner Cathy Engelbert and head of league operations Bethany Donaphin, visited the league in Florida. Stewart said she hoped they observed all aspects of the new venture.
Duwelius said players are relaying feedback to her on Unrivaled’s first season. Stewart wants more space for the in-person fan experiences and for training rooms. How Unrivaled handles injuries is worth watching as well, along with its plans for some touring games next year. Bazzell said previously that the league would visit no more than four cities — targeting non-WNBA cities and college towns — and still have a home base next season.
Unrivaled’s impact, however, could be felt in just a few weeks when players return to their WNBA markets.
“From what we did in the W, to now flipping switches to Unrivaled to soon flipping back to the W, we’re just continuing to have people know what these players are doing constantly,” Stewart said. “We just want to make sure we’re growing the sport as a whole.”
(Top photo of Napheesa Collier defending Angel Reese: Rich Storry / Getty Images)
Where do you turn when you need advice? A chatbot? A life coach? A wise and trusted friend?
How about a poet? Poets may not be famous for making the best life choices, but because they subject the mess of human existence to the discipline of language, they can be as helpful as any therapist or mentor.
Good poets know the rules and when to break them, which is something they can teach the rest of us.
To wit:
Giving advice is a peculiar literary undertaking. It flourishes in certain popular genres — graduation speeches, newspaper columns, country and western songs and poems like this one — but what, in these contexts, is it really for?
I’m thinking of situations when you don’t urgently need help but nonetheless enjoy reading answers to questions you may not have thought to ask. What interests you isn’t the content of the advice — you could get all the life hacks you want from A.I. — so much as the voice of the person dispensing it.
Wendy Cope is an English poet, born in 1945, who has been a fixture of her country’s literary scene since the 1980s. More recently, her short, buoyant poem “The Orange” has been widely memed online, bringing her to the attention of new readers beyond Britain.
Cope favors rhyme, meter, brisk jokes and tart aperçus. She addresses romance, friendship and the petty absurdities of modern life with disarming good humor. The last line of “The Orange” is “I love you. I’m glad I exist.” Somehow she makes it the opposite of cringe.
This isn’t the kind of poetry you would describe as “confessional.” And yet …
Question 1/7
Stop, if the car is going “clunk”
Or if the sun has made you blind.
Don’t answer e–mails when you’re drunk.
Tap a word above to fill in the highlighted blank.Want to learn this poem by heart? We’ll help.
Fill in the missing words below. You can always refer to the reading by A.O. Scott and full
text above.Let’s start with the first stanza.
A strong sense of place can deeply influence a story, and in some cases, the setting can even feel like a character itself. This week’s literary geography quiz highlights places where authors were born (or lived) that later became locations in their books. To play, just make your selection in the multiple-choice list and the correct answer will be revealed. At the end of the quiz, you’ll find links to the works if you’d like to do further reading.
AMERICA, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries, by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
For those of us in the national memory-keeping business, anniversaries hold near-totemic power. Satisfyingly round units of time, ideally bearing fancy, Latin-derived names, serve as the overburdened pegs on which to hang think pieces and museum exhibits, revisionist documentaries and maudlin public ceremonies. The arbitrary nature of such occasions is precisely what gives them their charge, inviting us to set aside complacency and submit to a comprehensive check-in.
In his new book, “America, U.S.A.,” Eddie S. Glaude Jr. presents an intriguing variation on the genre, seeing the country’s 250th birthday as an anniversary of anniversaries: 50 years since the malaise-ridden, schlock-heavy Bicentennial. A century since the subdued Prohibition-era Sesquicentennial. A century and a half since telegraphed reports of George Armstrong Custer’s defeat by the Lakota and Cheyenne at Little Bighorn rudely interrupted the Gilded Age Republic’s 100th birthday party.
If an anniversary offers a snapshot of a moment, the core of Glaude’s book is an old-timey photo album, a collection of notable episodes from earlier national reckonings, long-ago glances in the mirror. An estimable scholar of Black history, politics and religion at Princeton — best known for “Begin Again,” his 2020 meditation on James Baldwin’s relevance for our times — Glaude focuses, as his subtitle puts it, on “how race shadows the nation’s anniversaries.”
Such celebrations, he contends, have never really been the moments for honest self-reflection they are often advertised to be. Instead, the nation usually shatters the mirror, refusing to accept what it prefers not to see. “American anniversaries are often moments to turn a blind eye to the evils of the past and the present,” Glaude writes, “to suppress the fact of America’s divided soul.”
It’s a clever concept, and, needless to say, perfectly timed. Last year, Glaude notes, the Trump administration executed a hostile takeover of the government’s studiously bipartisan 250th anniversary planning. It is now preparing a program that is certain to conceal more than it reveals about the country ostensibly being celebrated.
Glaude, in no mood for celebration, argues that such omissions and evasions also defined commemorations in the past. In 1875, Frederick Douglass predicted “one grand Centennial hosannah of peace and good will to all the white race of this country.” He was right: The nation reached 100 years old at a crucial moment in the post-Civil War fight over racial equality, with white Northerners ready to give up on Southern Reconstruction. The occasion would help the once-warring sections to reunite around a shared commitment to white supremacy. On May 10, 1876, at the opening of the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, the police tried to bar Douglass from the grandstand, until a white politician vouched for him.
The 150th anniversary came soon after a resurgent Ku Klux Klan successfully pushed for a restrictive immigration law aimed at keeping America a “Nordic” nation. At the lavishly funded, lightly attended celebrations in Philadelphia, Black veterans of World War I were excluded from marching in the opening parade. A writer with The Associated Negro Press wondered “what was in the breast of those black men who fought to make America safe for Democracy and on Monday stood on the sidelines, forgotten, as the Nordic strode by in all his vain pride.”
By 1976, when the nation marked its Bicentennial, the violence of the ’60s had destroyed any semblance of consensus. Vietnam and Watergate had eroded trust in the government. The commission initially tasked with organizing the anniversary was disbanded amid reports of corruption. Corporations filled the vacuum, Glaude explains, with “star-spangled whoopee cushions; patriotic toilet seats; Liberty hamburgers; red, white and blue beer cans.” The author, around 8 years old at the time, dimly remembers donning a pair of tricolor trousers.
A half-century later, Glaude is refreshingly honest about the depths of his despair. “I do not love America, and never have, especially now,” he writes in one of the more startling opening sentences I’ve read in some time. He dismisses this year’s Semiquincentennial as reaching back “to a storybook America that requires either the banishment of Black people from view or the reduction of our role in the country’s history, so as to affirm America’s ongoing quest to be a more perfect union.”
Undoubtedly true. But Trump doesn’t own the country, at least not yet, nor the 250th anniversary of one of the most radically liberatory and confusingly contradictory events in world history — an inspiration, as Glaude shows, even to critical observers of the American experiment, like Douglass. Far from the revanchist MAGA-palooza in Washington, I suspect this summer’s unasked-for invitation to national soul-searching may surprise us yet.
Despite his despair, Glaude concludes that “the past still offers resources for us to freedom-dream.” So, too, does this book.
AMERICA, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries | By Eddie S. Glaude Jr. | Crown | 270 pp. | $31
-
Los Angeles, Ca1 hour agoRescued sea lion pups released in Manhattan Beach
-
Detroit, MI1 hour agoSunda New Asian brings bold flavors to Detroit
-
San Francisco, CA2 hours agoDriver Arrested After Pedestrian Killed, Three Injured In Mission District Crash
-
Dallas, TX2 hours agoMcAllen Welcomes Texas Hockey | Dallas Stars
-
Miami, FL2 hours agoPair arrested in connection with armed home invasion robbery in Miami, cops say
-
Boston, MA2 hours agoSaturday storm will bring bursts of rain, strong winds, and… snow?
-
Denver, CO2 hours agoVon Miller lobbying Broncos to bring him back (here’s the latest update)
-
Seattle, WA2 hours agoSeattle travel alert: Massive road closures, light rail shutdowns this weekend
