A number of top WNBA players will be in action this weekend in Miami, as part of Unrivaled, a three-on-three league started by a pair of players. Saturday is also the first day free agent contracts can be signed and trades can be finalized. That means there’s a lot of wheeling and dealing going on around these games — including by the Phoenix Mercury.
Ben Pickman, a writer for The Athletic, covers the WNBA and joined The Show to talk more about it.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: Good morning, Ben.
BEN PICKMAN: Hey, good morning.
BRODIE: So for folks who maybe aren't familiar with this, can you sort of break down what exactly is Unrivaled?
PICKMAN: Sure, Unrivaled is a brand new winter 3 on 3 league that, as you mentioned, is co-founded by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier of the Minnesota Lynx and Breanna Stewart of the New York Liberty. And it is a full court game, despite it being 3 on 3, with just a modified 3 quarter or quart size. Games are played, you know, 10 minute 3 quarters, but it looks a lot of like normal kind of 5 on 5 basketball, just a little bit more condensed and has a lot of excitement in a very intimate environment in Miami.
Players get equity in the league. They're paid on average more than $200,000 a season, and it runs just 10 weeks. So it is kind of a sprint towards the finish, but the feedback on it has been overwhelmingly positive so far.
BRODIE: Yeah, well, and, and part of the goal, right, was to keep WNBA players in the U.S. and not basically force them to go play overseas in the offseason to make extra money, right?
PICKMAN: Exactly, a lot of players historically have to go play abroad in the winter to supplement their WNBA incomes, and so this league serves as an alternative to that. It really does have almost all of the WNB's top players participating in it, and as I mentioned, That, you know, that average salary of more than $200,000, plus league equity, is allowing players to, you know, financially supplement what they make during the summer season.
And so, that certainly is one of the big appeals and, you know, player experience is really important in this new league and so they have a great weight room. They have, you know, facilities for child care, they have a sauna, they have a steam room, they have kind of everything you would want at a professional, you know, a full time, we'll call a professional team or a high level professional team, but they just put it all in one place. So that was another big draw for players in deciding to participate.
BRODIE: So you mentioned a 10 week during the offseason. So obviously, you know, the schedule, you know, there's not a ton of time in the offseason. Is it fair to say it was just kind of a happy coincidence that all these top WNBA players would be in one place right around the time that free agency started?
PICKMAN: I mean, it was not exactly, it was not the intended purpose of the league to to have it launched right around the start of WNBA free agency, but I think that's an absolutely fair way to put it, that this is a kind of convenient piece of scheduling for the buzziness and for Unrivaled to generate even more interest and also a convenient piece of scheduling for WNBA franchises who so many of whom have already passed through kind of the Miami area to both support their players, and support the launch of this new league, but also take free agency meetings in person in one place. That is definitely one of the benefits of so many people being gathered in one place at one time.
BRODIE: Yeah, so like what's it been like down there? How, how have teams and players been sort of handling handling this, you know, sort of meeting face to face, which sounds like wasn't always the way that that WNBA free agency went.
PICKMAN: Yeah, that's correct. I mean, historically you think about in say WNBA free agency, there's this culture of, you know, maybe flying a player out and really wining and dining them. That's pretty new in the WNBA context in part because so many players would go overseas in the winter, and so, you know, suddenly you're having to maybe board a plane if you want to recruit a player in person firsthand.
So, yeah, there's definitely an added convenience factor and a lot of players, you know, too, they're all in the same quarters interacting with each other, building these relationships and friendships, and talking in a way that maybe they haven't in the past either, right? Some of them are teammates with teammates, with other players they're not normally teammates with. And so there have been these conversations, again, in the weight room, in the meal room, in the sauna people told me, right?
There was a lot of joking heading into the launch of Unrivaled, saying from players we're free and saying, you know, if you buy me coffee, like I might be more likely to join your team or, you know, well I'll only talk to you once you buy me a six-pack of IPAs. Like there was some of that kind of light-hearted chatter, but I think it has gotten a little bit more serious, you know, as these conversations have, you know, materialized and the realities of players doing their individual business and thinking about the next stages in their lives and have come about.
So, lots of meetings around the Miami area, but, yes, it is definitely the epicenter of all the chatter, gossip and deal making in the WNBA right now.
BRODIE: Right. Well, and that includes the Phoenix Mercury, right? I mean, Brittney Griner, who played here for a number of years, decided to sign with the team in Atlanta. The Mercury traded for Alyssa Thomas, who's been playing in Connecticut, like the Mercury doing some wheeling and dealing down there too, right?
PICKMAN: Yes, and the Mercury we're at, I was present, for the opening weekend's launch of Unrivaled, and the Mercury were present as well, for the start of the, the launch of the league for the first couple games.
Yeah, the Mercury have been very busy this week, as you mentioned, Brittney Griner, who's been a mainstay with the franchise, for more than a decade, she is on the move to the Atlanta Dream, leaving the franchise for the first time ever, and we should say that like she announced her decision in a video alongside three other players on the Dream who are also participating in Unrivaled, much like Brittney Griner is.
Alyssa Thomas, who's a five-time All-Star, two-time all WNBA forward with the Connecticut Sun, has been acquired by the Phoenix Mercury. They're going to finalize a trade that will be official tomorrow, to acquire her, and you know, she is one of the league's best players. She is also in Unrivaled playing alongside Kahleah Copper, who is also in that league. So, yeah, the ties between WMB franchises like the Mercury and Unrivaled are very strong, as you know, the February 1 deadline approaches.
BRODIE: Do you see this as sort of a new normal for how WNBA offseasons and free agency and trades go down, even with the new collective bargaining agreement set to be going into effect?
PICKMAN: Yeah, I mean, I do think as long as this league kind of exists. You know, it's safe to assume that Unrivaled will remain a hub of free agency. I mean, a lot is changing in the WNBA. A lot has changed over the last couple years, and there will be a new CBA that likely comes into effect and heading into next offseason, and in that new CBA the general expectation is that salaries will go way up.
And so a lot of players right now signing one year contracts and we'll hit the open market again next year. And so teams are kind of positioning themselves not only for the 2025 season, but also to try and put themselves in the best position to take advantage of what sets up to be a momentous 2026 offseason.