MEDLEY, Fla. — For all the glitz and glam of the new 3-on-3 league Unrivaled, one practical element is standing out to a number of players: nannies.
Unrivaled is founded by WNBA players Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, both of whom are mothers. Inside Unrivaled’s Florida complex of an 850-person capacity show court, weight room, makeup room, and hallway designed for tunnel walks is also a childcare center staffed with professional nannies. It’s open to players before, during, and after their practices and games.
“That was really important to us from the beginning to make sure that there was reliable, responsible childcare for people, because we know what it’s like to not have that,” Collier, who plays for the league’s Lunar Owls Basketball Club, said Thursday. Her husband, Alex Bazzell, is the president of Unrivaled, and the father of their daughter, two-year-old, Mila.
Collier says the league worked with a company that vets nannies in advance. It’s the same one Brittney Griner said she uses.
“It shows that they care,” Griner, of Phantom Basketball Club, said Thursday. “It’s hard to be away from your kid or trust somebody to watch your kid—that’s the biggest trust you can give somebody. And for them to go out and find the right people where we feel comfortable bringing our kids here, that means a lot to me.”
The WNBA is in the midst of negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement, and players including Angel Reese have been outspoken about bringing elements of Unrivaled’s setup into the new deal.
“The nanny stuff, that’s gotta be a big thing,” Chelsea Gray of Rose Basketball Club said when asked about priorities for the new CBA. “We have a league full of mothers.”
The current WNBA CBA includes a stipend of up to $750 per month during the regular season (maximum of $5,000 annually) for any player who has a child 13 or younger living with them for a significant amount of time. The league also offers family-planning benefits for veteran players, and requires accommodations for nursing mothers. Phoenix has offered a childcare room for years, but despite all the growth in women’s sports in recent years, it’s not common for teams to offer nannies.
“It’s not that it doesn’t exist, but I think every organization should put a little bit more emphasis on it if your players have kids,” Dearica Hamby of Vinyl Basketball Club told Front Office Sports Thursday during Unrivaled’s media day.
Hamby (above) is currently suing the WNBA and her former team, the Las Vegas Aces, claiming they discriminated against her while she was pregnant after the 2022 title-winning season. Much of the suit centers on Aces coach Becky Hammon, who denies Hamby’s claims.
Hamby said her eldest, Amaya, will be traveling back and forth to Miami because she’s still in school, and the player is getting extra help from her own mother. But not every player has that setup, she said, so Unrivaled offering nannies is “incredible.”
“ I think everybody already kind of had a [childcare] system in place, so to say, but I think it’s just the [league’s] intention and the dedication to want to do it,” Hamby said. “The support is there, and I think that’s what means the most.”
