The women’s basketball 3-on-3 league Unrivaled tips off its second season on Monday without several of the biggest stars from its debut year.
But those losses might not be detrimental, because Unrivaled has brought in several successful groups that women’s basketball fans already love.
Angel Reese is the flashiest player who isn’t returning to Miami this winter. The Chicago Sky forward was one of the faces of Unrivaled last season, named Defensive Player of the Year, and won the league’s inaugural championship with Rose Basketball Club. She was also vocal about her positive experience with Unrivaled’s facilities and access to training, and the pressure it put on the WNBA to step up. “It’s pivotal,” Reese said. “This is what the women deserve.”
Reese was sidelined with a back injury for parts of the WNBA season, although she competed at USA Basketball camp in December. She also posted on social media in November that her “goal for this offseason” was to lay low. Reese has still made public appearances at several Orlando Magic games in recent weeks to support her boyfriend, Wendell Carter Jr.
Last week, Unrivaled announced that league cofounder and reigning MVP Napheesa Collier will miss the upcoming season because she needs surgery on both ankles. New York Liberty superstar Sabrina Ionescu is not returning, either. Other notable players who are not starting the season on the league’s roster include Jewell Loyd, Kayla McBride, DiJonai Carrington, and Courtney Vandersloot.
With all these losses, and because the first season sparkle has worn off, it might be tough for Unrivaled to match last season’s biggest broadcasts: the 1-on-1 tournament and championship game drew average audiences of 377,000 and 364,000 viewers, respectively.
But Unrivaled has filled those gaps in several strategic ways.
Young stars Paige Bueckers and Cameron Brink were involved in Unrivaled last season—Bueckers was an owner and ambassador during her final season at UConn, and Brink was involved amid her ACL recovery—but are stepping into bigger roles this season. The two are core members of one of Unrivaled’s new teams, Breeze BC, and Bueckers is already a staple on the league’s social media pages.
The most viral sensation in women’s basketball, the StudBudz, are also playing again in the league. Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman are back (Hiedeman has a permanent spot this year after coming in for injury relief last season). The duo first launched their Twitch livestream last summer after Unrivaled had already ended, but this year, the 3-on-3 league isn’t hesitating to promote StudBudz on its official social media accounts. After the infamous WNBA All-Star weekend livestream, Unrivaled knows the StudBudz can bring huge awareness to their league, too, and are shamelessly leaning in to the brand already beloved by women’s basketball fans.
Similarly, Unrivaled has packed its second-year roster with members of the Golden State Valkyries, the WNBA’s newest expansion team that created a rabid army of women’s hoops fans in the Bay Area. The team sold out all of its home games at “Ballhalla” with more than 18,000 fans, setting a new, all-time WNBA attendance record, and stunned the league with the first playoff berth for an expansion team in an inaugural season. Kate Martin and Tiffany Hayes (replacing injured Satou Sabally) are back, and Unrivaled added Veronica Burton, Monique Billings, and Laeticia Amihere (development pool).
Other new talent for 2026 includes Kelsey Plum, who pulled out of last season to rest, and the next three WNBA draft picks after No. 1 Bueckers: Dominique Malonga, Sonia Citron, and Kiki Iriafen.
On Monday, league president Alex Bazzell said in a press conference that signing long-term deals and recruiting up-and-coming talent are how Unrivaled handles annual roster changes. League commissioner Micky Lawler said that 75% of Unrivaled’s players are committed through 2028.
“If you’re too concentrated on one or two players, then your business is in a very volatile state,” Bazzell said. “So thankfully we believe we’ve positioned ourselves that we don’t have to deal with maybe the fluctuations of inevitably what injuries bring within sports.”
Even without big names like Reese, Collier, and Ionescu—or even Caitlin Clark and A’ja Wilson—Unrivaled is an offseason dream for women’s basketball fans. Now the league needs to permanently plant its flag before some of its players, like Alyssa Thomas and Kelsey Mitchell, depart for the planned big-money international league Project B.
Aside from personnel changes in its sophomore season, Unrivaled is adding more seats to its arena and going on the road to Philadelphia. The league in September closed a Series B investment round that valued the league at $340 million.
