Every WNBA Player Project B Has Signed So Far

In early 2025, reports emerged of a new international basketball league that was seeking to raise billions of dollars and take on the NBA for global supremacy. LeBron James’s business partner Maverick Carter was advising the league behind the scenes, though Front Office Sports reported James himself was not involved.

That league, which was calling itself Project B in stealth and is still using that name now, originally planned to launch in fall 2026 with men’s and women’s 5-on-5 basketball, but has since pushed back its start date to December. 

As of September 2026, Project B has announced 23 women’s players, but is yet to announce any men. The league will not say how much money it has raised. 

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Carter told Front Office Sports in October that he’s no longer involved and “stepped away months ago.” In March, league cofounder Grady Burnett told The Athletic Carter is once again working with Project B, but Carter’s spokesperson told FOS he still has no formal role. 

Many of the women’s players it has signed so far are big names getting big salaries that could shake up women’s basketball across the globe. Project B was originally set to make seven total stops across Asia, Europe, and the Americas, but the league has since decreased the number of stops to six with stops in Europe and Asia. 

The league has announced three stops: Seoul, Korea; Tokyo, Japan; and Valencia, Spain. The first stop is Seoul for training camp from Jan. 6–12. 

The league’s planned January-to-April schedule conflicts with Unrivaled and European leagues, but not with the WNBA or FIBA commitments. The WNBA is on break due to the ongoing 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup, and will restart in mid-September. The WNBA Finals will start Oct. 17 and will run until Oct. 31 at the latest.

“We are focused on the highest quality of play and ensuring our players can uphold their commitments in the W and with FIBA,” a Project B spokesperson told FOS in June.

The latest player to be announced by Project B came Thursday, as the league named Minnesota Lynx guard Eliška Joklová as its 23rd signee.

The announcement came a week after it announced six new players: Valériane Ayayi, Antonia Delaere, Angela Dugalić, Brionna Jones, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, and Makayla Timpson. Three days earlier, Los Angeles Sparks forward Park Ji-Hyun was named the league’s 16th player.

Before Park, Dallas Wings rookie Azzi Fudd was the last player to be announced back in June. A Project B spokesperson told FOS that the league has already signed more than its announced players, but will roll out the announcements in the coming weeks.

The 22 players Project B has announced so far are:

• Valériane Ayayi
• Kamilla Cardoso
• Sophie Cunningham 
• Antonia Delaere
• Angela Dugalić
• Awa Fam
• Azzi Fudd
• Leonie Fiebich
• Justė Jocytė
• Eliška Joklová
• Brionna Jones
• Jonquel Jones
• Leila Lacan
• Betnijah Laney-Hamilton
• Li Meng
• Jewell Loyd
• Kelsey Mitchell
• Nneka Ogwumike 
• Park Ji-Hyun 
• Alanna Smith
• Makayla Timpson
• Alyssa Thomas
• Mai Yamamoto

Project B originally announced that it would roster 66 players—six teams with 11 players each. For several months, the league did not respond to questions about its goal number of players for its first season. However, a league spokesperson confirmed to FOS last week that they still plan to have 66 players on their roster.

The league also intends to hold a draft before the start of the season, though the details are still unknown.

Project B has put a focus on international players, and 14 nationalities are representative among its 23 announced players. Jones is from the Bahamas; Cardoso is from Brazil; Meng is from China; Ayayi and Lacan are from France; Jocytė is from Lithuania; Fiebich is from Germany; Fam is from Spain; Yamamoto is from Japan; Smith is from Australia; Park is from Korea; Delaere is from Belgium; Joklová is from Czechia; and Dugalić is Serbian–American. Ogwumike has unsuccessfully tried to gain eligibility to play for the Nigerian national team.

Golden State Valkyries forward Janelle Salaün was announced as part of the league in November, but the French player is no longer part of the league after signing a deal with Turkish club Galatasaray in May. Lacan was announced as a part of Project B a week after Salaün’s Galatasaray deal was made public.

The league has yet to announce any players for its men’s league. However, it has named a few executives: Former Hawks GM Landry Fields as head of men’s basketball; former Suns coach Igor Kokoškov as head of player development; and recently retired NBA star Russell Westbrook as co-founder and its chief strategy officer. 

Project B is luring women’s players with what FOS previously reported were annual salaries over $2 million. The WNBA supermax last year paid less than $300,000, but it’s up to $1.4 million this season under the new collective bargaining agreement. The draw with Project B is that players receive equity in addition to their salaries, as is increasingly common in emerging leagues, including Unrivaled.

Among the first few names Project B announced last year were Ogwumike, Thomas, Jones, Loyd, and Mitchell, blue-chip WNBA stars or former All-Stars. Ogwumike is the president of the players union and was crucial in getting the latest CBA over the line and avoiding delays to the 2026 WNBA season. She announced her retirement last month and will end her decade-long wrong as WNBPA president at the end of the year, but she will still play for Project B’s inaugural season, a league source told FOS. 

Mitchell’s commitment to Project B was put into question this spring during Indiana Fever media day when she told reporters that it would take a “drastic, unique situation” for her to play overseas after she signed a one-year, $1.4 million supermax deal. The three-time All-Star also said that Unrivaled would remain an option for her because it’s in the U.S. 

A Project B spokesperson told FOS that Mitchell is still signed with Project B and expected to play in its inaugural season.

Observers have noted that Project B has followed players on social media shortly before announcing they’d committed to join. The league also follows New York Liberty’s Marine Johannès and WNBA players Diana Taurasi and Chiney Ogwumike, Nneka’s younger sister. (Though Johannès signed a multiyear deal with Unrivaled starting the 2027 season.)

There has been speculation over how much money Project B has raised and where it’s coming from. When the league’s existence was first reported, the sovereign wealth funds of Singapore and Saudi Arabia confirmed they were involved. However, Project B founder Grady Burnett later told FOS the league’s funding “doesn’t include any dollars from Saudi Arabia.”

The company previously had a deal with Sela, a Saudi events company, that involved Project B paying Sela. But Burnett told Fortune in June that the partnership was no longer active.

The league’s investors include several names from sports, tech, and venture capital.

Known investors:

• Grady Burnett
• Geoff Prentice
• Quiet Capital
• Mangrove Capital
• Sequence Capital
• Steve Young
• Barry Eggers
• Gaby Sulzberger
• Sloane Stephens
• Candace Parker
• Novak Djokovic
• Ime Archibong
• Niklas Zennstrom
• Merline Saintil
• Josh Childress
• John Chambers
• Robyn Washington
• David Krane
• Laela Sturdy
• Lauren Jackson
• Craig Tiley

Serbian sports agent Miško Ražnatović, who represents NBA star Nikola Jokic, is also an advisor for the new league. 

This post will be updated as Project B announces more players and investors.