Unrivaled’s Second Season Promises to Showcase an Even Larger Pool of Talent and the Power of Player-Driven Media

Almost three months after the Las Vegas Aces clinched the WNBA championship, women’s professional basketball fans finally got relief from their sports drought this Monday with the tip-off of Unrivaled’s second season. Unrivaled is a 3-on-3 women’s basketball league co-founded by Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier and fellow WNBA icon Breanna Stewart. The league provides a domestic option for women’s professional basketball players, who have historically had to go overseas to play during the WNBA off-season.

This season, Unrivaled added two new teams, Breeze Basketball Club and Hive Basketball Club, to its original six clubs. This expansion, which comes a year earlier than originally planned, takes the league up to 54 players between the eight teams and the player development pool. 

“Expanding a year earlier than planned is a testament to the strong business model we’ve built and the potential Unrivaled has for long-term success,” Unrivaled President of Basketball Luke Cooper said in a press release ahead of the season. “We outperformed every goal we set for the league in year one, and with the incredible talent we have returning paired with the influx of new stars, it was a no brainer to add two more clubs this season.”

To accommodate the two additional teams, Unrivaled has added a fourth night of games each week for a total of 56 games in the regular season. The playoff structure has also been expanded to include six clubs, with the top two seeds earning byes to the semifinals.

Unrivaled’s second season features a plethora of Minnesota talent, including the return of Lynx players Courtney Williams, Natisha Hiedeman and, of course, the league’s co-founder, Collier. All three, as well as every single 2025 Lynx player besides Anastasiia Olairi Kosu and Dorka Juhász, are free agents in a chaotic 2025-26 WNBA offseason that will also feature an expansion draft. 

Hiedeman and Collier both had impressive first seasons in Unrivaled. After being signed on as a relief player, Hiedeman played with Rose Basketball Club throughout the playoffs, ultimately helping the team earn the inaugural championship title. This season, she is signed on as a full-time player with Hive Basketball Club. As for Collier, she won the league’s 1-on-1 tournament and earned the title of Unrivaled 2025 Most Valuable Player. 

“I couldn’t do any of this without my teammate,” Collier said after being named MVP. “This has been such an incredible season and everyone played a part in our success, from the coaches and training staff to the staff behind the scenes. I’m so proud of this club and am honored to be the first-ever Unrivaled MVP.” 

Notably, Lynx guard Kayla McBride did not return to Unrivaled for season two. Last year, McBride was third in the league in scoring with an average of 22.2 points, earning her a spot on the 2025 First Team All-Unrivaled. McBride will instead be returning to Turkish club Fenerbahçe, where she has played during offseasons since 2020, including finishing the 2024-25 offseason there after playing the 2025 Unrivaled season. 

However, there are two new Minnesota names to watch for this season in Alanna Smith and Paige Bueckers. Lynx forward Smith is coming off a career year after earning the title of 2025 WNBA Co-Defensive Player of the Year. 

Hopkins, Minn. native Bueckers also had an impressive season, being named WNBA Rookie of the Year after being selected by the Dallas Wings as the No. 1 draft pick. That being said, Bueckers actually decided to invest in Unrivaled before even playing her first WNBA game.

“I feel like the return on investment (for women’s sports) has been amazing,” Bueckers said on “Good Morning America” last April when she confirmed her investment with the league. “Even the first year (of Unrivaled), the numbers were shocking. They blew it out of the water.”

What’s not shocking, however, is Bueckers’ decision to play with Unrivaled given their player compensation scheme. In its first season, the league reportedly paid its players an average salary of over $220,000, with every player earning at least six figures. Bueckers’ rookie contract with the Dallas Wing will total less than $350,000 over the course of the next four years. 

This is despite the WNBA’s regular season including 30 more games than Unrivaled did in 2025. Since the inception of the league, Collier and Stewart made it very clear that improving player compensation was a major priority for Unrivaled. 

“For years, women have relied heavily on off-court sponsorships for a majority of their income,” Stewart said when the league was first unveiled back in 2024. “With Unrivaled, we’re revolutionizing the game by prioritizing investments in our stars and ensuring their on-court performance is reflected in their pay.” 

Conversations around player compensation have heightened in recent months, as it has been a major point of contention in the ongoing Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations between the Women’s National Basketball Player Association (WNBPA) and the WNBA. At the end of November, the WNBPA and WNBA agreed to extend the current CBA to January 9, 2026, just days after the Unrivaled tip-off. 

Unrivaled co-founders Collier and Stewart both serve on the executive board of the WNBPA, and Collier in particular has become one of the main faces of advocacy for improving player compensation throughout negotiations. Given the circumstances, it’s not a stretch to think Unrivaled’s competitive player compensation scheme has put additional pressure on the WNBA throughout negotiations.

Of course, the long-term impacts and viability of the young league remain unknown and will likely continue to be so even after the conclusion of its second season. Nonetheless, Unrivaled’s ability to attract and retain high-caliber talent, all while growing its business model, appears promising. And, in the meantime, it certainly is shaping up to be an electric, star-powered season.