The women's 3-on-3 league where the players don't just compete - they own a piece of what they built.
Unrivaled's shield-and-crown mark, unveiled in 2024. The league branded its clubs and identity a full season before tip-off - selling a format, not a promise.
Every winter, the best women's basketball players in the world faced the same choice: sit out the WNBA offseason or fly to Europe and Asia to keep earning. In 2023, two of those players decided the choice itself was the problem. Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart - former UConn teammates and two-time Olympic gold medalists - founded Unrivaled, a domestic 3-on-3 league designed to keep elite talent home, pay it properly, and hand players something no traditional league had offered: ownership.
Unrivaled tipped off its inaugural season in the Miami area in January 2025. It is not a scrimmage circuit or an exhibition tour. Games are played on a compressed full court - roughly 72 by 49 feet - with a shot clock and an Elam-style ending that guarantees the game finishes on a made basket rather than a running-out-the-clock foul parade. The format is fast, made for television, and unfamiliar enough to feel like its own sport.
Running the business is Alex Bazzell, the league's co-founder, president and CEO - and Collier's husband. A former pro player in Germany, Bazzell spent a decade as one of the most sought-after skills trainers in basketball, working with elite NBA and WNBA talent and running camps mentored by the late Kobe Bryant at the Mamba Academy. He built the league that the players he trained kept describing to him.
The idea landed. Backed first by a $7 million seed and a $28 million Series A stacked with athlete-investors - Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Michael Phelps, Coco Gauff - Unrivaled closed an oversubscribed Series B in September 2025 led by Bessemer Venture Partners. The round lifted the league's valuation to $340 million, up from roughly $35 million nine months earlier.
Unrivaled was built so players could find a solution to stay home - not chase paychecks overseas, but build something they actually own.- The founding premise, per league leadership
The WNBA's prioritization rule made the old overseas circuit riskier for players who wanted to protect their domestic roster spots. That left a hole in the calendar - and the paycheck. Unrivaled filled it with eight weeks of high-stakes basketball, record compensation, and equity that vests over four years, turning athletes into stakeholders rather than seasonal labor. The capital markets agreed the market was real.
Most leagues hire athletes as labor. Unrivaled built the athletes into the cap table with equity vesting over four years.
The highest average salary in the history of American women's team sports - roughly $222,000 per player in 2025.
Compressed court, 3v3, Elam ending - a fast product designed for broadcast and streaming, not arena filler.
Rather than competing with the WNBA, Unrivaled slots into the winter gap the WNBA leaves open.
Where does it sit in the market? Alongside - not against - the WNBA, and squarely in the lane once occupied by overseas leagues and rivals like Athletes Unlimited. Its competitors are the alternatives that used to define a player's winter: fly abroad, sit out, or scrimmage. Unrivaled offers a fourth option that keeps players home, on television, and on the cap table.
Marquee sponsors committed before the league played a single game, a signal of how much demand was waiting for a credible women's basketball product.
Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart establish Unrivaled to create a domestic women's offseason league.
The league unveils its logo and clubs and raises a $7M seed plus a $28M Series A backed by Steph Curry, Giannis and more.
Play begins near Miami; Rose BC wins the first championship and Napheesa Collier is named first MVP and 1v1 champion.
An oversubscribed Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners values the league at $340 million and adds two clubs.
Unrivaled draws 21,490 fans in Philadelphia and grows to eight clubs for its second season.
WNBA All-Star and Olympic gold medalist; co-founder and the league's first MVP and 1v1 tournament winner.
Multiple-time WNBA champion and MVP; Collier's former UConn teammate and co-architect of the league.
Former pro player and elite skills trainer who runs the league's strategy, investors and revenue verticals.