In huge news for girls, gays, and especially gay girls who love basketball, there’s a new hoops league in town, and a full 50% of the players are LGBTQ+. Unrivaled, a new 3-on-3 women’s basketball league, was founded back in 2023 by WNBA icons Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, and it officially tips off in Miami on January 17, 2025. The only way it could get any better is if Ellie the Elephant could moonlight for it, too, but we can’t get everything we want.
If this is the first you’re hearing about Unrivaled, and about why you should be extremely excited about it, I’m here to recruit you. The new league is made up of six teams with six players each, 36 total, who will compete during the WNBA off-season, giving some of the best professional athletes the opportunity to stay home and continue playing in the states rather than traveling abroad in the offseason for better pay.
To make matters even better, Unrivaled is setting a record by paying their athletes the highest average salaries in women’s sports history (!) and giving its 36 initial players equity ownership. This is huge news given that the average WNBA salary was reportedly just over $147K ahead of the 2023 WNBA Draft, forcing many players to enter overseas leagues to make ends meet.
Diana Taurasi is the GOAT, a.k.a. the biggest Gemini of All Time.
In case that isn’t enough incentive for you to tune in and support the new league, let me just inform you that 18 of the 36 players are out as LGBTQ+ according to my own tally, ranging from Stewie and Stefanie “Big Mama” Dolson to Jewell Loyd and Brittney Griner. It’s also worth mentioning that the one and only Teresa Weatherspoon, a.k.a. TSpoon, a five-time WNBA all-star, will be coaching the Vinyl Basketball Club for Unrivaled in its opening year.
While I am a die-hard New York Liberty fan — sorry to my hometown team, the Seattle Storm, but have you seen Ellie? — there is still plenty of room left in my heart for a new favorite team during the WNBA off-season. (Mist BC, I’m looking at your roster!)
Starting January 17, the league’s first season will officially begin with two livestreamed games Mist vs Lunar Owls (7 pm ET on January 17) followed by Rose vs Vinyl (8:15 pm ET). All games will be played in Miami and will be streamed on Max. This season will last nine weeks of total play, with the top four teams in the standings at the conclusion of the regular season making the playoffs. As far as game format goes, there will be 4 quarters of play — the exact length of the quarters has yet to be announced, but they are currently 10 minutes each in the WNBA — with three players from each team on the court at a time.
If you want to know more, you can follow Unrivaled on Instagram to learn about the league, watch some thirst traps (important to me, personally), and befriend fellow fans in the comments. As for me, I’m hoping that we get to see a little bit of sapphic drama, that we can spot some wives and girlfriends cheering in the stands, and that maybe we can witness the beginning of a new era in women’s sports. Is that too much to ask?
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