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Unrivaled and TNT Sports announced the talent lineup for the new 3-on-3 basketball league, 10 days out from opening night in Miami.
Women’s basketball legend Candace Parker is the biggest star tied to the new league, with several of TNT’s other top talents committing as well. The media team is almost entirely made up of women.
TNT host and reporter Lauren Jbara will helm the Atlanta studio show alongside Parker and two-time WNBA champion Renee Montgomery, with occasional appearances from Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie.
Connecticut Sun play-by-play broadcaster Brendan Glasheen will hold the same position for Unrivaled, joined by Leslie and NBA analyst Sarah Kustok as analysts. TNT is enlisting its current reporters Taylor Rooks, Allie LaForce, and Stephanie Ready, and also bringing back Ros Gold-Onwude.
TNT’s multiyear deal with Unrivaled, accompanied by a separate undisclosed investment, gave the new league a big boost of legitimacy when it was announced in October. Friday and Monday night games will air on TNT, while Saturday night matchups will be on truTV. Every game will be streamed on Max. (TNT primarily airs the NBA on Tuesdays and Thursdays.) TNT will also release a follow-along docuseries every Saturday. While Unrivaled didn’t snatch ratings wizard Caitlin Clark, it did sign other big names like Angel Reese and Sabrina Ionescu to play in the upstart league.
The relationships that players-turned-analysts like Parker, Montgomery, and Leslie have with current Unrivaled hoopers will be key to the network’s coverage, says TNT studio director Morgan Thomas. That’s because Unrivaled’s six basketball clubs are not only entirely new groupings of players, but are also untethered to a home market.
“The tie is in the players themselves and the individuals and who you’re a fan of. And I think that has been the most intriguing part of it because there is so much access [to the players] contractually, let alone that the players are just really excited to do this,” Thomas tells Front Office Sports. “Having equity in something creates so much more drive than the biggest paycheck ever could because there’s a long term there.”
Thomas said at Unrivaled’s media day last week, the network was granted access to every single player they requested, which the TNT exec called “unheard of.”
“ And while we do have [international WNBA] games and we do have a weekly show in the summer currently, this has a lot more weight to it in the sense that we own it,” Thomas says. “I talk to people at Unrivaled on an hourly basis, let alone a daily basis.”
The league is leaning into TNT in more ways than one. Unrivaled built a facility with a tiny 850-person arena to house its games, meaning fans are far more likely to catch a game on TNT than in-person. The off-the-court content on Warner Bros. Discovery platforms like Bleacher Report and House of Highlights is also a major part of the deal. When announcing its new facility, Unrivaled said it will have an area specifically designated for making content, and it also has a makeup studio.
Katie Arkins, who leads Bleacher Report’s social strategy, tells FOS the WBD platforms will use their existing content series and strategies for Unrivaled, like having celebrities record their experience at the game courtside, mic’ing up players, and the “Never Been Asked” interview series.
“It’s making sure that people outside of those who are working on it and those who are already fans of the WNBA know that this is happening and that we can create those different entry points,” Arkins says.
While TNT is excited about Unrivaled, it wasn’t the only one interested in carrying the league.
“I’ve been in this business a while,” David Levy, the former president of Turner who helped negotiate the deal for Unrivaled, told FOS in October. “It was nice to see the demand for this product, meaning the amount of suitors that were looking and kicking the tires on it.”
Last month Unrivaled announced $28 million in Series A funding from a slew of sports celebrity investors, including Michael Phelps and his wife Nicole, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Dawn Staley, and JuJu Watkins. On Monday, Unrivaled announced tennis star Coco Gauff joined the league as an investor. Unrivaled’s kickoff game will be Jan. 17 and end March 17.
