Unrivaled and Project B Are in an Arms Race for WNBA Talent

One year ago, Flau’jae Johnson and Azzi Fudd sat next to each other, billed as the 2025 “Future of Unrivaled” class at the 3-on-3 women’s basketball league’s pop-up event in Indianapolis during WNBA All-Star weekend.

They both participated in the league’s summer camp in Miami, then, nine months later, were drafted to the WNBA. 

But only one made it to Unrivaled. 

Despite her NIL deal with Unrivaled, Fudd signed with 5-on-5 league Project B last week. Johnson will join Unrivaled in 2027, the league announced Monday.

The split decision underscores a new reality in women’s basketball: Two winter leagues are battling each other for top WNBA talent. Unrivaled and Project B have similar schedules during the WNBA offseason, making players unlikely to participate in both leagues, though both have worked around players’ WNBA and national team obligations.

“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 Front Office Sports on Friday.

Project B has already announced 15 players for its first season, including WNBA stars Nneka Ogwumike, Jonquel Jones, and Alyssa Thomas. It has also prioritized international players, including Kamilla Cardoso (Brazil), Awa Fam (Spain), and Leonie Fiebich (Germany).

The league, which was founded by former Facebook executive Grady Burnett and Skype cofounder Geoff Prentice, has said it wants to fill out six women’s teams with 66 players. When asked by FOS in June, the league did not give its target number of players, but more names are expected to be announced soon. (The league says it also plans to launch a men’s league alongside its women’s venture, but has yet to announce a male player.)

Leading Project B’s recruiting charge is chief basketball officer Alana Beard, a two-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, who won a title with Ogwumike in 2016.

Unrivaled has already locked up more than 90% of its 54 roster spots for the 2027 season, a league source tells Front Office Sports. Many of Unrivaled’s players are signed to multiyear deals, including Johnson and other recent announcements, Gabby Williams and WNBA Rookie of the Year favorite Olivia Miles.

The league’s biggest stars include Paige Bueckers and cofounders Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier. (Collier’s husband, Alex Bazzell, is Unrivaled’s cofounder and president.) 

But there are still a few slots available—and several players have already changed sides. Kelsey Mitchell and Alanna Smith, who played in Unrivaled earlier this year, have been announced as part of Project B’s inaugural roster.

There are still several names up for grabs, including women’s basketball’s biggest stars, though significant endorsement deals—and huge pay increases in the WNBA—also give them the option to skip out on offseason basketball.

A’ja Wilson and Caitlin Clark are the two most famous players yet to play in or commit to either winter league. Clark has said that playing 5-on-5 is a priority for her, while Wilson’s sole overseas stint was four games in China more than seven years ago.

Fellow Nike signature athlete Sabrina Ionescu—WNBA teammates with Stewart—played in Unrivaled’s inaugural season, but did not return last year.

Angel Reese, the most-followed WNBA player on social media, has appeared in two Unrivaled seasons; in 2026, she played just three games after signing a contract in late February. 

Same Objective, Different Strategies

Unrivaled and Project B offer the same thing: a way to earn money playing basketball in the offseason. This isn’t a new concept; women’s basketball players have historically played basketball overseas in the offseason to supplement their often-meager WNBA earnings. But Unrivaled’s buzzy 2025 launch shook up the landscape with healthy salaries and big-name investors, including Carmelo Anthony, Michael Phelps, and Dawn Staley. It also secured a multiyear media deal with Warner Bros. Discovery to air games on TNT. 

The league guaranteed six-figure salaries; the average salary in its first season was $220,000. Unrivaled also was at the forefront of an increasing trend in pro sports in offering players equity in the league. Even some college athletes like Johnson and Bueckers received equity when they signed name, image, and likeness deals as undergraduates.  

By late 2025, Unrivaled was valued at $340 million after closing a Series B investment round.

Travel is rare at Unrivaled as most games are played at the league’s Miami headquarters. Last year, the league played a handful of games in Philadelphia and Brooklyn. It’s planning four to six tour stops next season, but the limited travel was part of its initial pitch to WNBA stars.

“I feel like sometimes when you go overseas, you lose sight on some of the perfecting of the skills that you miss out on just because you’re going to try to make a couple dollars,” Mitchell said at Indiana Fever media day in April, a few months after she had been announced as part of Project B. She has played in several foreign leagues, including in China and Israel.

“I got a soul so I’d rather make sure that I’m right before I want to keep going overseas and missing out on a lot.”

The WNBA’s new collective bargaining agreement has mitigated players’ financial issues. The minimum salary has been raised from less than $70,000 last year to $270,000 in 2026. More than 30 players are making seven figures this season. 

Offseason leagues are now less of a necessity and more of an opportunity to maximize earning potential. 

Enter Project B, which FOS reported last year is offering stars salaries around $2 million annually, $600,000 more than the WNBA’s supermax. Like Unrivaled, players also receive a stake in the league.

“When they’re offering that type of money, plus the signing bonus, plus having equity in the company, it’s a no-brainer,” Project B signee Sophie Cunningham told FOS in April.

The league was seeking $5 billion in funding, according to a Bloomberg report in January 2025. But Project B has declined to share how much money it has raised when asked by FOS.

The league has announced a slew of its own celebrity investors, including WNBA legends Candace Parker and Lauren Jackson, and tennis stars Novak Djokovic and Sloane Stephens. The Financial Times reported in February 2025 that Project B was backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, but the company told FOS in November that Saudi Arabia is not a financial backer.

Project B also confirmed to FOS this week that its relationship with Saudi events company Sela has ended.

Unlike Unrivaled, Project B will involve significant international travel. The core vision of the league is to make women’s basketball into a global product—and many women’s basketball business executives believe international fans will be key to growing the business of women’s basketball in the United States.

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has said multiple times that she wants to grow the league internationally, hinting at possible games played abroad. WNBA legend and league investor Swin Cash told FOS in April that she believes Project B is “ahead of the curve” by looking at the international market.

Project B is planning six stops across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Alana Beard, the league’s chief basketball officer, has described Project B as adapting a Formula One–style model where the league has two-week activations in each market.

“Project B gives you a chance to do both, go in and come out, whereas [with] overseas basketball you’ve gotta be over there, eight months or seven months, just to get everything you want,” Mitchell said two days after her earlier comments on overseas play.

The league has already set its media plans, announcing earlier this month that it will work with Host Broadcast Services to produce games and stream them on YouTube.

But questions remain about Project B, from the rest of its roster to the cities it plans to visit. The league has been adjusting on the fly, changing a fall start to December, and cutting the originally reported seven-city tour to six.

Unrivaled, meanwhile, came out of the gate strong in 2025 but viewership dipped in 2026, and Warner Bros. Discovery is on the verge of new ownership as the Paramount merger nears completion.

The future of the competition may hinge on how each league navigates its relationship with the WNBA. Unrivaled cofounder Alex Bazzell said he approached the WNBA “early” in the league’s development about a potential investment, but the league declined. The WNBA has not publicly commented on Project B’s plans.

Under the new CBA, the WNBA can extend its calendar into late November, further shrinking the offseason window available to outside leagues, and WNBA salaries will keep growing. By 2032, minimum salaries will be close to $400,000, and maximum salaries should breach $2 million. As the calendar window narrows and the financial pressure on players decreases, the battle between Project B and Unrivaled may come down to which league can offer the most compelling opportunity—and convince the game’s biggest stars that it’s worth their time.