Culture

‘What a shot’: The stories behind some of hockey’s most iconic photos from the man who took them

Published

1 month ago

December 11, 2024

‘What a shot’: The stories behind some of hockey’s most iconic photos from the man who took them

OLD BETHPAGE, New York — Bruce Bennett may have been to more NHL games than anyone in history, and the 69-year-old’s house offers glimpses into the career that’s put him rinkside so many times over more than five decades.

Signed jerseys, sticks and photos of Wayne Gretzky line the living room walls, many inscribed with notes thanking Bennett for his friendship and work. There’s a model Stanley Cup. And a closet full of camera lenses, wires and other equipment.

Bennett has a lofted office over the living room. A few of his photographs hang framed on its walls. There’s a bookshelf full of hockey and photography books, as well as a plastic rat that hit him on the head when the Florida Panthers were celebrating their 2024 Stanley Cup Final win. On the bottom shelf, there’s a shot of John Tavares’ first NHL goal.

“What a shot!” the former New York Islanders captain inscribed on the photo.

Scotty Bowman coached 2,141 NHL games. Patrick Marleau played 1,779. David Poile spent 3,075 games as a general manager, though executives don’t always attend every game. Lou Lamoriello is closing in on that record with 2,868.

Bennett has photographed more than 5,000.

“I could do a game every other day through an entire season, but I’m too greedy,” Bennett says. “So if there’s four games in four nights, chances are I’m going to take all four. Don’t want to leave anything on the table.”

As of July 2, when Bennett most recently updated his statistics, he had been to 5,240 NHL games between the regular season and playoffs. Of those, 44 have been Stanley Cup deciders. If you include preseason, he’s been to 328 more. If you count all hockey games — international, PHWL, junior, exhibitions, etc. — he was up to 6,142 over the summer.

The Islanders presented him with a customized No. 5000 jersey when he reached that mark. It’s framed right above a shelf of toys for his grandchildren.

Now the director of hockey photography at Getty Images, Bennett was born in Brooklyn and grew up on Long Island. When he was in elementary school, he borrowed his father’s Kodak Instamatic to snap pictures on school field trips. “Horrible photos,” he calls them, but they sparked a passion.

He first shot a hockey game as a 17- or 18-year-old at Madison Square Garden. He didn’t have a press credential, so he took pictures from the balcony. Around the same time, he snuck into the Islanders photo box and shot the game. He mailed a few of his pictures to the Hockey News and asked if they’d be interested in using his work. The publication said yes, which got Bennett a photography credential and kicked off what has become a legendary career — one that has given Bennett a front-row seat to some of the biggest moments in hockey history.

Whether they know it or not, sports fans’ lasting memories of those seminal hockey moments are often seen through Bennett’s lens.

How does he capture them, and what are the ones that mean the most to him?

To give a sense of it, he walked The Athletic through 10 of his favorite photos, his process of creating the shots and why he values them.

Varlamov from above

Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov as seen from above in 2023.

To get a shot from above, Bennett has to walk along the arena catwalk and attach a remote camera into the rafters. Then, while shooting a game from ice-level, he presses a button on a remote that will trigger the rafter camera to snap pictures.

Walking above the rink is not for the faint of heart, but don’t get fooled by the fact that Bennett does it. “I am scared s—less of heights,” he says.

Getty Images likes its photographers to be creative, and Bennett had the idea to set one camera above the net with a slower shutter speed. That way, if a goalie was on top of the puck during a net-front scramble, he’d appear still with a blur of action all around him. Bennett got his wish with this photo of New York Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov.

Yzerman in the box

Red Wings Hall of Famer Steve Yzerman leans on the boards in 1984.

The old photo boxes at Nassau Coliseum were positioned right between the penalty boxes, which allowed Bennett to capture a photo of the Detroit Red Wings’ young Steve Yzerman in 1984. It was an ideal position in many ways: He was close enough to smell the liniment on players’ skin and hear them trash talk.

There were drawbacks, too. Bennett got hit by plenty of pucks flung by players trying to get out of their defensive zone. Nowadays he shoots from the corner of rinks, where there are 4-by-5-inch holes for camera lenses.

Richter and Vanbiesbrouck’s shared jersey

Rangers goalies Mike Richter and John Vanbiesbrouck pose together in 1991.

The Hockey News assigned Bennett to take a photo of New York Rangers goalies Mike Richter and John Vanbiesbrouck, who shared the net in the early 1990s. Ahead of the shoot, Bennett purchased the biggest Rangers jersey possible and cut the back of it so both could squeeze into it. He remembers feeling weird destroying an expensive jersey.

“I hope this works,” he thought to himself while making the cut.

Fortunately, both goalies were into the idea and happily posed for the photo. Afterward, Bennett didn’t know what to do with the jersey, so he had Richter and Vanbiesbrouck sign it. Now it’s in a frame in his living room, matted over a copy of the shot for which it was used.

Penguins forward Patric Hornqvist and Devils goalie Cory Schneider watch the puck enter the net in 2017.

Bennett sometimes puts a camera into the base of the net. He secures it inside a polycarbonate box, then can snap photos remotely with the same type of clicker he uses for his rafter shots. He likes this photo, which shows the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Patric Hornqvist scoring on Cory Schneider, because you can see the New Jersey Devils’ logo on the puck, as well as the symmetry of the players and the scoreboard showing New Jersey was on the penalty kill.

“It’s such a great angle,” he says. “To me, it’s a little cliched at this point. … But when you get a good one, it’s a good one.”

Crosby’s golden goal

Sidney Crosby celebrates an overtime goal on Ryan Miller in 2010.

Before the end of Olympic gold medal and Stanley Cup-clinching games, Bennett has to line up at the Zamboni corner, where he’ll get let onto the ice for the postgame presentation. He hates it.

“Horrible,” he says. “You’re standing there and you’re looking at the scoreboard. You can’t shoot.”

Bennett had a camera set up in the rafters during the 2010 Olympic gold medal game between the U.S. and Canada. During overtime, he got on his knees so he could look up at the scoreboard. As Crosby received a pass from Jarome Iginla, Bennett held down his remote button, hoping the scoreboard monitor was synchronized with real-time action. Thankfully for him, it was. He got the shot he was looking for.

“It’s the moment that Canada sighed (its) relief,” he says.

Gainey with the Cup

Bob Gainey lifts the Stanley Cup in 1979.

Bennett found himself in a predicament after the Montreal Canadiens beat the Rangers to win the 1979 Stanley Cup in five games. He couldn’t find his way onto the ice and didn’t know French, so he ran both ways around the rink trying to figure out how to get close to the celebration. Eventually, he gave up trying to get on the ice and made his way to the stands. He stood on a chair and snapped photos as best he could.

“A couple fans, instead of clapping for their hometown, were holding me up so I could take pictures, which was really nice for the Anglophone, stupid American,” he says.

He got lucky with a photo of Hall of Famer Bob Gainey. It’s a symbol, Bennett says, of the glory of winning the Stanley Cup.

Young Gretzky

Wayne Gretzky stands in the Oilers locker room in 1979.

This photo of Wayne Gretzky is the cover for the English edition of Bennett’s book, “Hockey’s Greatest Photos.” It’s from Gretzky’s final WHA game with the Edmonton Oilers. Back then, photographers were allowed in the locker room after games, which is how Bennett got this shot.

“High school shoulder pads,” Bennett says. “Skinny, scrawny guy.”

It was the first famous photo he took of Gretzky, who wrote the foreword to “Hockey’s Greatest Photos.” Bennett took the lasting image of Gretzky scoring his 77th goal of the 1981-82 season, breaking Phil Esposito’s record. He doesn’t view that photo as anything special artistically, but it captured a moment in history. A signed copy hangs in Bennett’s living room.

Bennett’s relationship with Gretzky has spanned decades now. Gretzky brought him along as the official photographer of the Ninety Nine All Stars tour, which took place during the 1994-95 lockout, and Bennett shot Gretzky’s fantasy camps, too. That’s the source of some of the memorabilia on his wall.

Bossy’s burning stick

The Islanders’ Mike Bossy poses for a portrait in 1980.

Bennett staged this picture for the Hockey News in the locker room at Nassau Coliseum. Look closely and you’ll notice Bossy is still wearing a towel from the showers. To create the image, Bennett put kerosene on the base of the stick and then lit it on fire.

“We had a bucket of water there, but it eventually burnt up the cotton and then dissipated on its own,” he says.

Bossy was part of the Islanders four-peat from 1980 to ’83. That era of hockey came at a good time for Bennett.

“I think it was a moment that helped turn my career a bit,” he says. “Not only that you had a dynasty growing on Long Island, but the fact that I was smart enough or able enough to turn off the fan switch in my head and focus on the task of doing the job.”

Potvin hits Lafleur

The Islanders’ Denis Potvin upends the Canadiens’ Guy Lafleur in the early 1980s.

This photo of Denis Potvin hitting Guy Lafleur is one of Bennett’s early-career favorites.

“It was one of the first best shots that I had,” he says.

He says he would have considered using it as the cover photo for his book, had it worked horizontally. It’s similar to a photo he took in the 2024 playoffs of Carolina’s Dmitry Orlov hitting the Rangers’ Jonny Brodzinski and leaving him in a similar position as Lafleur. But, he says, “Slight difference in Hall of Fame status. No offense to Jonny.”

Martinez’s Cup-winning goal

The Kings celebrate Alec Martinez’s Cup-winning goal in 2014.

When Bennett lectures on sports photography, he stresses the power of capturing celebration and dejection in the same frame. That’s exactly what he got when Alec Martinez scored on Henrik Lundqvist to win the 2014 Stanley Cup Final.

“It’s gold,” Bennett says. “Lundqvist was a guy who, his emotions, even with a mask and everything, you could just tell by body language.”

The Kings celebrating so close to him added to the impact of the image, which he took with a remote camera positioned in the rafters.

“I’m getting ready to be pushed out on the ice, so I’m just blindly holding that button,” he says.

More than two hours before the Rangers game Nov. 30 against Montreal, Bennett is crouched in the bowels of Madison Square Garden, attaching his camera into place at the base of the game net. His plan is to shoot the 1 p.m. Rangers game, then take a train to UBS Arena to take photos of Islanders-Buffalo Sabres in the evening.

Bennett’s proximity to multiple teams in the New York area has always allowed him to shoot lots of games, and the passion that carried him as an 18-year-old doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

“It’s hard to walk away,” he says. “It’s like a professional athlete.”

Bennett starts his work days in his office looking at the photos Getty shooters took the night before. He’ll send out emails, some complimentary, some constructive and some sarcastic. He watches NHL Network and will download media notes for the next game he’s shooting. He’ll note which players are coming up on milestones so he’s prepared to catch the big moments.

During hockey’s summer hiatus, Bennett keeps himself busy with … photography. He enjoys going on day trips around Long Island and shooting pictures of wildlife. He has one of his favorites, an eagle in Centerpoint catching a fish, blown up and framed in his office.

Then, when the season starts up, he’s always ready to go.

“The expression a golfer would say — one great shot brings you back the next day — that’s how I feel about a hockey game,” he says. “If you’re not there, you’re not getting it.”

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic. Photos: Peter Baugh / The Athletic; Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)

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Culture

The Most Anticipated Book Adaptations of 2025: Movies and TV Shows

Published

7 hours ago

January 21, 2025

Press Room

The Most Anticipated Book Adaptations of 2025: Movies and TV Shows

New Year, new reading goals. It’s that season again when anything feels possible: Maybe this is the year you’ll finally tackle that dust-laden copy of “Infinite Jest” sitting on your shelf, or earn your “I finished ‘The Power Broker’” mug. And for binge watchers, it’s also the perfect chance to study up by diving into the books that are being adapted into movies and TV shows in 2025. Here are some of the thrillers, romances, sci-fi page turners and detective novels coming soon to a screen near you.

This is a running list. Check back for more updates as the year goes on.

By Matthew Quirk

Peter Sutherland is an F.B.I. agent who works at the White House, monitoring an emergency phone line that seldom rings. One night, he receives a distressing call from a woman named Rose Larkin, who reports that two people have just been murdered. What follows is a whirlwind of action and suspense as the two become entangled in a conspiracy involving high-level corruption and espionage.

Season 2 of “The Night Agent” premieres on Netflix on Jan. 23.

By Arthur Conan Doyle

There have been no shortage of screen versions of Sherlock Holmes, Doyle’s beloved British detective: According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the persnickety genius is the second-most portrayed literary character in the history of film. In “Watson,” the latest adaptation, however, the focus is on Dr. John Watson, Holmes’s loyal confidant and the frequent narrator of his escapades. Though the series is not inspired by a specific book or story, “A Study in Scarlet” is a delectable primer on the two men’s longstanding friendship.

“Watson” premieres on CBS and Paramount+ on Jan. 26.

By Dav Pilkey

In this spinoff of Pilkey’s “Captain Underpants” universe, Dog Man — a part-dog, part-human police officer — and his eccentric friends battle villains and solve crimes. Blending humor, action and heart, the graphic novel series teaches young readers about friendship and bravery — all brought to life through colorful illustrations and quirky anthropomorphic characters. It has already been adapted into an Off Broadway musical. Now it heads to the big screen.

“Dog Man” premieres in theaters on Jan. 31.

By Helen Fielding

In this third installment of Fielding’s series about an endearingly hapless British diarist, Bridget Jones is adjusting to widowed life after the death of her husband, Mark Darcy. Raising her two young children as a single mother now in her 50s, she juggles her career and navigates romantic mishaps with characteristic wit and self-deprecating humor. The book, our critic wrote, “is not only sharp and humorous, despite its heroine’s aged circumstances, but also snappily written, observationally astute and at times genuinely moving.”

“Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” premieres on Peacock on Feb. 13.

By Michael Bond

Paddington was still in Peru when he first appeared on the big screen in 2014. Now, over a decade later, he returns to his home country with his adopted Brown family in the third installment of this fan-favorite film series, inspired by Bond’s beloved books. Dozens of titles, including novels, picture books and short story collections, have been published since the clumsy brown bear made his print debut in 1958, but “A Bear Called Paddington” remains a perfect introduction to the marmalade enthusiast.

“Paddington in Peru” premieres in theaters on Feb. 14.

By Giuseppe di Lampedusa

In this 1958 novel, now being given the mini-series treatment, Prince Don Fabrizio Corbera grapples with the decline of his aristocratic family’s status in 1860s Sicily, as Giuseppe Garibaldi leads the Risorgimento campaign to overthrow the monarchy and unite Italy as one nation-state. Lampedusa was himself the last in a line of Sicilian princes, and he drew heavily on his own family’s story to craft this tale about the rise of a new bourgeois class and Prince Fabrizio’s struggles to find his place in a rapidly changing world.

“The Leopard” premieres on Netflix on March 5.

By Edward Ashton

Mickey, an “expendable” worker on a remote ice planet, knows he will most likely die on the job. But no matter: Cloning exists in this space colony and, after one version of Mickey dies, a new one will regenerate. After Mickey7 goes missing on a space mission, Mickey8 is immediately created. The only problem? Mickey7 is still alive. (And in case eight regenerations weren’t enough, the director Bong Joon Ho takes it 10 steps further in his film adaptation, “Mickey17,” starring Robert Pattinson as Mickey.)

“Mickey17” premieres in theaters on March 7.

By Dennis Tafoya

Ray and his best friend, Manny, met in a juvenile detention facility. Nearly two decades later, they’ve found a way to make a living by posing as D.E.A. agents and raiding drug houses in Philadelphia. It’s a simple and lucrative grift — until a poorly chosen mark puts them in the cross hairs of a dangerous kingpin. High-speed car chases, bloody violence and many flying bullets ensue.

“Dope Thief” premieres on Apple TV+ on March 14.

By Hilary Mantel

“The Mirror and Light” is the final book in Mantel’s “Wolf Hall” trilogy, which chronicles Thomas Cromwell’s rise to power in Henry VIII’s capricious court. It’s a sinewy, imaginative work of historical fiction that delights in the psyche of a man whose political maneuvering and ambitions lead him to the pinnacle of power — and to his own undoing. The actor Mark Rylance, who won a BAFTA for his portrayal of Cromwell in the 2015 mini series that covered the trilogy’s first two novels, returns for this final chapter.

“Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light” premieres on PBS on March 23.

Culture

Unrivaled’s an instant hit, but can the new women’s basketball 3×3 league sustain?

Published

15 hours ago

January 21, 2025

Press Room

Unrivaled’s an instant hit, but can the new women’s basketball 3×3 league sustain?

MEDLEY, Fla. — Outside a custom-built arena on the outskirts of Miami, a line of fans waited to sit on a throne composed largely of basketballs. They wrote personal answers on a sign asking, “What does Unrivaled mean to you?” Empowerment. Leadership. Community. Future. Not even some evening rain could extinguish the buzz that had been building since 2023, when fans learned about the creation of this new 3×3 women’s basketball league.

As fans filed into the 850-seat Wayfair Arena on Friday night for the opening night of Unrivaled, they sported a tapestry of WNBA gear. But many wanted new apparel, too, crowding into the gift shop an hour before tipoff. The least expensive single ticket cost north of $300, but fans flocked to support their favorite WNBA stars and witness a new chapter of women’s basketball history.

At tip-off before the first game of a doubleheader, co-founders Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart posed at center court for a photo to capture the moment before they competed against each other.

The nationally televised contests aired back to back on TNT, highlights replayed on SportsCenter, and a clip of Skylar Diggins-Smith sinking the league’s first game-ending shot amassed millions of views across various social media platforms.

In its opening weekend of games, Unrivaled has undoubtedly commanded attention. But to carve out a permanent space in women’s basketball, it needs to accomplish what many other start-up sports leagues have historically failed to do: sustain.

Unrivaled executives say the league’s long-term success has been set up by its stable foundation — signing renowned WNBA stars, attracting big-brand sponsors, capitalizing on lucrative investments and inking a multi-year television deal.

“I think we put ourselves in a great position to be successful right away, but it’s a marathon,” said league president Alex Bazzell, a basketball skills trainer and Collier’s husband. “We’re not running out there from Day 1 trying to get millions of viewers out of the gate. It would be tremendous, but we’re gonna be here for a little while.”

Phee with the steal and Sky got it done 😮‍💨🔥 pic.twitter.com/CtpkLUnznR
— Unrivaled Basketball (@Unrivaledwbb) January 18, 2025

Before Unrivaled filled its rosters with 22 WNBA All-Stars, it started with just two — Stewart and Collier. Like many of their WNBA peers, the star forwards share a history of spending months overseas during the offseason and competing professionally abroad to supplement their WNBA incomes and sharpen their games.

The routine sparked brainstorming between them. Bazzell first pitched Unrivaled to Stewart in late 2022. “(We were) trying to make women’s basketball continue to be relevant in the offseason from a professional standpoint,” she said.

From the beginning, both players were on constant phone and Zoom calls. They met with investors, relaying their experiences from their years in countries such as Turkey, France, China and Russia. They explained why they believe top women’s basketball players should be marketed in the U.S. during the WNBA offseason and how Unrivaled could offer comparable domestic competition and salaries on par with high-paying overseas clubs.

They wanted to convince stakeholders that Unrivaled wouldn’t be just a novelty but that the league would have staying power. “(Stewart and Collier were) instrumental because when brands come in they act like founders,” Bazzell said.

The two players, alongside other Unrivaled executives, sold their idea to major brands and to deep-pocketed investors, including Gary Vaynerchuk, U.S. soccer star Alex Morgan and NBA legend Carmelo Anthony.

Bazzell said the league already has “far exceeded” the first-year revenue expectations it pitched to initial investors. “We’re focused on building a great business, but for the time being we don’t have to worry about money,” he said.

That is partially because of its media rights deal — a six-year $100 million agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery, according to a source with knowledge of the agreement — and a robust sponsorship roster.

The day before tipoff last week, Stewart paused for a moment and pointed out a banner displaying some of Unrivaled’s partners: Ally, Under Armour, Samsung Galaxy, Sephora. “People are walking that walk and also talking that talk,” she said.

The question is: Will they continue?

Unrivaled’s launch comes at a time of unprecedented attention on women’s basketball. Record-breaking viewership, attendance and media deals became commonplace for women’s college basketball and the WNBA over the last two years.

“You couldn’t have landed this at a better time,” said David Levy, an Unrivaled investor who is the former head of Turner Sports and current co-CEO of Horizon Sports and Entertainment.

Bazzell said Unrivaled operates with a “startup mentality.” Executives might create rules one day and unload boxes the next. The league, of course, is still unproven. But unlike many other short-lived start-up leagues, key to Unrivaled’s early success is that its most important members are verifiable stars.

“A lot of times leagues go away because they don’t have the best of the best playing in them,” Levy said. “Unrivaled didn’t start with names nobody knew or people that didn’t make the WNBA. This is the best of the best.”

Early on, Unrivaled executives recognized attracting top talent would be critical to creating visibility on TV, with partners and on social media. With nearly two-dozen WNBA All-Stars — Stewart, Collier, Brittney Griner, Sabrina Ionescu, Angel Reese among them — and seven No. 1 WNBA Draft picks, name recognition isn’t an issue.

To keep so many stars in the U.S., they knew the importance of paying salaries competitive with top overseas clubs. Unrivaled said it is the highest-paying American women’s sports league in history, with salaries averaging north of $200,000.

Its 36 players are more than just talent in Unrivaled, too. A substantial portion of the league’s equity — around 15 percent — is allocated to players. “We’re proud to be here also as investors,” Diggins-Smith said. “All of us being investors, (we) really care about this product and (it) really doing well… You want it to sustain.”

GO DEEPER

How Unrivaled became a welcome alternative for WNBA players’ overseas offseasons

Three-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson and rookie sensation Caitlin Clark are among those not playing in Unrivaled. The league made overtures to rookie Clark, but she elected to sit out the inaugural season, as she recovers from a nonstop last 12 months. Clark’s WNBA salary — around $75,000 — is supplemented by her countless endorsement deals, and she told Time she felt training privately in her own space would be beneficial. Clark, though, didn’t rule out playing in the league in the future. If she does, Levy said, interest in the league will “catapult,” surely propelling its long-term outlook. But he stressed that Unrivaled isn’t built around one person.

Unrivaled already has a high-profile media rights partnership, which is critical to its financial foundation and will be important in its ability to grow.

Initially, Unrivaled executives wondered if the league would need to broker a revenue-sharing deal with a potential TV or streaming partner before getting a licensing deal once the season launched. But they quickly found that multiple parties were interested in a licensing agreement with at least four companies in the final bidding, Levy said.

Bazzell relied on Levy and John Skipper, the former president of ESPN and another early Unrivaled investor, to tap into their professional networks and help find a partner.

Things crystallized this summer when Bazzell met with TNT Sports CEO Luis Silberwasser while in France for the Olympics. Having reach outside of traditional broadcast windows was important to Unrivaled, Bazzell said, as founders recognized the importance — both financially and culturally — of having broad social media reach. Warner Bros. Discovery’s portfolio including Bleacher Report, House of Highlights and HighlightHer (recently renamed B/R W) made it especially appealing.

WBD was ideal, executives said, because of everything it had under one roof: widespread TV distribution (all games will air on TNT or TruTV, and stream on Max), ancillary production, and social media strongholds, a key component of Unrivaled’s business strategy. Warner Bros. also financially invested in Unrivaled, as a sign of its deep commitment to the league’s success.

Getting WBD and Unrivaled founding partner, Ally, on board were critical in the avalanche of partnership deals that followed. (Ally has pledged a 50/50 media spend to support men’s and women’s sports equally.)

Under Armour senior lead for global sports marketing, Tamzin Barroilhet, first met with Bazzell in the summer of 2023. A former college and overseas pro player, Barroilhet said she was “hooked” on the concept and Unrivaled’s deal with WBD helped convince the apparel brand to sign on as the official outfitter. Unrivaled is Under Armour’s highest-profile women’s basketball partnership, and a number of other brands also struck deals in women’s basketball for the first time. Sephora’s agreement with the league is the beauty company’s first partnership with any sports league.

Unrivaled’s scarcity was also intriguing to prospective investors. The league runs only 10 weeks. Its $8 million salary pool is one of its two largest categorical allocation of funds. As a single-site operation, it has a lower operational cost than many other start-up leagues, which Bazzell said minimizes its burn rate.

“(When you) keep the product at a premium level and ultra-competitive, you have some opportunities to pique interest,” he said.

The league announced in December it had raised an additional $28 million (on top of the $7 million in its seed round) from investors, including Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, tennis star Coco Gauff, swimmer Michael Phelps, and South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley. A number of its initial investors, including Anthony, Morgan and UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma, committed additional capital.

“We have new people trying to rush in and now we’re getting to a point where you have to be selective,” Bazzell said.

Fans flocked to buy merchandise before Unrivaled’s inaugural games in Florida. (Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)

How Unrivaled engages and grows its audience is paramount to its future.

League officials stress TV ratings will be just one aspect of that answer. “It’s part of a puzzle,” Levy said. “How many people are following (on social media)? What are they doing? How many people are sharing? How much is the fan base interacting with it? How much is merchandise going up? There are going to be so many different metrics that I think are going to play into this.”

Part of their build involves recruiting the next generation. Aliyah Boston, the Indiana Fever center and 2023 No. 1 pick, said college players she’s talked to aim to play in the WNBA and Unrivaled. LSU star Flau’jae Johnson has an NIL deal with Unrivaled, and UConn’s Paige Bueckers, who is the presumed No. 1 pick in this April’s WNBA Draft, has an NIL deal and equity in the league. Bueckers plans to play in Unrivaled when she turns pro.

USC’s JuJu Watkins won’t enter the WNBA until 2027, but when she enters the pro ranks, Unrivaled will have a spot for her. She was among the December investors and is optimistic about the league’s future and sustainability.

When those players set foot in Unrivaled, the league will almost assuredly be different. This season, all 10 weeks of action take place at the Florida facility, but a tour model for competition is planned for next year.

GO DEEPER

Can Unrivaled’s 3×3 style benefit WNBA players?

The locations are yet to be determined but Unrivaled is targeting non-WNBA cities and college towns. Bazzell said it wouldn’t visit more than four cities and the league will still have a home base. The operational cost, Bazzell said, would be similar as it’s likely only four teams would travel to a given stop. Important to maintaining a premier player experience, the league would use charter airfare to transport its players.

“We want to go to different markets to help grow the game and bring a touch point to hopefully a lot of young girls around the country that are looking up to these players and haven’t been able to see them play in person,” Bazzell said.

Taking the league on the road will bring logistic challenges, but league executives believe it will help grow Unrivaled’s business and open it to even more fan opportunities. Barroilhet, the Under Armour executive, foresees potential youth clinics and camps in conjunction with Unrivaled’s tour. Brands could produce activations at different venues, furthering engagement and reach.

Ensuring the WNBA’s top players participate will be critical to Unrivaled’s sustainability, and perhaps some are less interested in any travel necessary for touring. WNBA salaries drastically increasing in the next CBA — the league is negotiating a new agreement with the WNBPA — could also diminish part of a player’s financial lure to the new league. Plus, while TV ratings aren’t fully indicative of overall fan interest, they still remain a datapoint that will impact the league’s viability, especially when media rights conversations begin for a second time.

Yet for now, the stars seem delighted to be in the new venture. Throughout Friday and Saturday’s action, Unrivaled athletes from other teams sat around the arena and watched their peers, enjoying the moment. Fans approached players like Jackie Young, Rhyne Howard and Natasha Cloud for selfies. Onlookers cheered not only for athletes playing, but for those wandering the aisles. “It’s a very intimate setting,” Jewell Loyd said.

Maintaining that connection will build fan loyalty. But for television audiences, the game — the appeal of watching the best players in the world perform — will have to remain at the forefront.

“At the end of the day, the product needs to be great for fans to continue to want to watch it,” Bazzell said. “You can capture people’s attention, but how do you keep people’s attention? It’s done through the most competitive product possible, which is really what we’re adamant on, day in and day out.”

(Top photo of Kahleah Copper: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)

Culture

Book Review: ‘Mona Acts Out,’ by Mischa Berlinski

Published

23 hours ago

January 21, 2025

Press Room

MONA ACTS OUT, by Mischa Berlinski

If not for the opiates in her system, or the weed she vaped to boost the pills’ effect, Mona Zahid might have handled Thanksgiving Day better — not ducking into the bedroom of her Manhattan apartment to hide from her quarreling relatives while dinner cooks, or emerging only to grab her affable beagle, Barney, and head for the front door. But in Mischa Berlinski’s novel “Mona Acts Out,” she is, fundamentally, very, very stoned.

So when, on her way through the building’s lobby, she finds a postcard in her mailbox from Milton Katz, the famous Shakespearean stage director who for two decades shepherded her acting career, its piteous message grabs hold of her fuzzy mind.

“I am dying, Egypt, dying,” he scrawls, repurposing a line from “Antony and Cleopatra,” and even though she well knows the charismatic Milton’s habits of shameless self-dramatization and precision-calibrated emotional manipulation, she worries that he speaks the truth. Ever since a #MeToo article in The New York Times got him expelled from his own legendary East Village company, the Disorder’d Rabble — the name is borrowed from “King Lear” — he has lived in disgraced exile.

Mona, who was one of his leading ladies and remains at least a semi-loyalist, hasn’t seen him in nearly a year. Her imminent turn as Cleopatra for the Rabble, without him at the helm, is only stoking her anxiety. His postcard suggests he knows it.

She must go to him immediately, she decides, and she will walk. That means an hourslong odyssey from Morningside Heights to Brooklyn Heights, but again, she is quite high — and trying to avoid her Trump-voting father-in-law, who is on the wrong side of the Shakespeare authorship question, as well as her doctor husband, with whom she is in a holiday snit.

And so the plot is set in motion in Berlinski’s book, which takes inspiration from a 2017 article in The Times by Jessica Bennett, about nine women accusing the veteran playwright and artistic director Israel Horovitz of sexual misconduct.

It’s unlikely fodder for a comic novel, yet Berlinski (“Fieldwork,” “Peacekeeping”) pulls it off, laughing not at Milton’s trespasses but at the ridiculousness of being human — especially in the theater, and especially in New York. As Mona’s sidekick, the joy-seeking Barney is like a furry little clown.

Structured in five acts and an interlude, this psychologically acute, Shakespeare-steeped tale is about both the aftermath of Milton’s downfall and its plentiful causes over many years. By the time of his banishment, he is something of a Lear figure, and Mona something of a middle-aged Cordelia. But the novel’s curiosity is less about Milton than about her and other women once in his orbit, who figure in Mona’s Thanksgiving.

Like Susan Choi in “Trust Exercise,” Berlinski has an intricate understanding of the dynamics of predation, the psyches of performers and the culture of theater, particularly the grittier, convention-trampling downtown variety.

Ambitious and egregiously self-absorbed — Mona and Milton have those traits in common — Mona always tolerated his aggressive handsiness, his middle-of-the-night phone calls, his chronic inappropriateness. “He’s kissed me more than you have,” she tells her husband. To her, enduring that was the price of making great art, a condition about which Milton had been “totally clear with everyone.”

This puts her at odds with Rachel, her beloved college-student niece. A target for Milton’s unwanted kisses as an intern at the Rabble, she became an anonymous source for the reporter from The Times. There is also Mona’s erstwhile friend Vanessa, once Milton’s latest young discovery, who fell fervidly in love with him, not realizing the danger to her nascent acting career if their affair should end.

The journey of “Mona Acts Out” is insightfully, entertainingly multitudinous. Its destination is a letdown. Too neat, too complacent, too contrived, the ending feels like a cop-out not because it fails to wrap up the story in a particular way, or at all, but because it places characters with a profound and important conflict between them in the same small space and pretends it’s a cozy tableau.

Perhaps Berlinski means this outbreak of placid coexistence to be hopeful, even a metaphor for a less fractured United States: its angry old men and outraged women enjoying a moment of détente.

But it comes across as a willful skirting of confrontation — as if our storyteller had averted his gaze and stepped away, humming cheerfully. In that, though, he is merely following the master’s template. Shakespeare’s comedies often behave similarly, culminating in scenes of harmony that the playwright has essentially magicked up.

“Mona Acts Out” is a comedy, too, but its affinity for Shakespeare gravitates at least as much toward the tragedies, and there remains a swirl of stubborn trauma at the novel’s center. A smudge of complexifying darkness would not have gone amiss in its final moments, just before the Act V curtain falls.

MONA ACTS OUT | By Mischa Berlinski | Liveright | 304 pp. | $27.99