What is Panem?

Panem is a fictionalized, future version of the United States. People in the country’s 12 districts, which loosely correspond to regions of the U.S., toil to supply resources to the Capitol, where the rich and powerful live. (“In school, they tell us the Capitol was built in a place once called the Rockies. District 12 was in a region known as Appalachia,” Katniss says in “The Hunger Games.”)

In the poorest district, 12, people regularly starve to death or die in coal mining accidents. Capitol citizens, on the other hand, are so wealthy that some people take tonics to make themselves throw up so they can feast on even more food. They are known for their outlandish fashion and are waited on by avoxes, enslaved people who have had their tongues cut out as punishment for treason.

About 74 years before the events of the first “Hunger Games” book, the districts rebelled against the Capitol. The ensuing civil war culminated in the Capitol obliterating the most powerful district, 13. After the rebellion, the government created the Hunger Games to punish and control the remaining districts.

What are the Hunger Games?

Every year on July 4, all district children between the ages of 12 and 18 are entered into a lottery, and one boy and one girl from each region are selected to compete in the Hunger Games. The “tributes” must battle one another in an arena to the death; the one left standing is rewarded with riches, as is his or her district.

In “The Hunger Games,” Katniss competes in the 74th Hunger Games. The televised competition, which is required viewing for all citizens, includes a macabre sort of athlete’s parade, interviews, opportunities for betting on and sponsoring the tributes and technical spectacle within the arena, including planned weather events and bioengineered creatures, or “mutts.” Katniss and Peeta Mellark, the other District 12 tribute, become the first joint victors; in “Catching Fire,” they and other previous winners must return to the arena to compete in the 75th Games, also called the third Quarter Quell.

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.”

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)

There were always those who did not conform: Krist’s wide canvas is peopled with intriguing minor figures like Ah Toy, a Chinese immigrant sex worker; a French frog-catcher, Jeanne Bonnet, who fell afoul of restrictions on cross-dressing; and Mary Ellen Pleasant, a civil rights pioneer who fought to desegregate the city’s streetcars. But these individuals rarely had the means to bend the city to their own tastes and notions of justice.

And when one of the men in power — a married lawyer named Alexander Parker Crittenden — was brazenly killed by his lover, the younger, licentious, murderous woman became the scapegoat, bearing all the sins of the city.

Except for brief vignettes from the trial, Krist’s narrative does not return to the scene of the crime for more than 200 pages. This structure demands a fair amount of investment in people whose motives and morals are muddled, at best. Crittenden, his wife and his lover, Laura Fair, had all migrated to San Francisco from the antebellum South, and carried with them the prejudices of those origins: They were pro-slavery, anti-Lincoln and, in due course, Confederate sympathizers (a cause for which the Crittendens’ eldest son died). “Unfortunately,” as Krist puts it rather mildly, it was Crittenden who, while briefly serving in the California State Legislature, was responsible for writing a “notorious statute” banning the testimony of nonwhite defendants from admissibility in court.

These were people who benefited from the restrictive moral code of a “mature” Victorian city, even as they chafed at its constraints. Crittenden, who is described repeatedly as “restless” or “reckless,” did not amass a great deal of actual influence: His political ambitions were thwarted, and what money he earned ran through his hands like fool’s gold. Still, he moved around the country freely, enjoying, as his frustrated lover put it, “the man’s thousand privileges,” which included leaving his wife and children for months or years on end.

During one of those extended wanderings, in pursuit of the riches flowing out of Nevada’s silver mines, Crittenden met Fair, then a 26-year-old with a young daughter, running a boardinghouse with her mother. “Thrice married — twice divorced and once (somewhat suspiciously) widowed — the hotheaded and independent Fair refused to be fixed by the feminine clichés of her time. Amid the rampant speculation in precious metals, she amassed a substantial investment portfolio and occasionally lent her lover money.