Getty Caitlin Clark takes a shot as Breanna Stewart defends during a May 18 WNBA game.
WNBA star Breanna Stewart’s new 3-on-3 women’s basketball league, Unrivaled, is “setting the record for paying the highest average salary in pro female team sports history,” according to a tweet from The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
The top salary in the league will be “significantly higher” than the $241,000 supermax salary found in the WNBA, Charania said during his May 30 appearance on FanDuel TV’s “Run It Back.” Charania said the average WNBA salary is about $120,000.
“They’re going to spend a lot more on the top players than that amount of money,” Charania added.
Stewart, the WNBA’s reigning MVP, announced the league, co-founded with Minnesota Lynx teammate Napheesa Collier, during a May 30 appearance on “Good Morning America.” The league, which will debut in January in Miami, is financially backed by a group of investors that includes former star athletes Megan Rapinoe, Carmelo Anthony and Steve Nash, according to a press release.
Charania wrote on X that “notable signings to be announced in near future.” He also said on “Run It Back” that the first 30 players to sign will “get an equity ownership stake in the league as well.”
Breanna Stewart & Napheesa Collier Detail Reasons for Creating Unrivaled
During her May 30 “Good Morning America” appearance, Stewart said on “Good Morning America” that one of the reasons she and Collier founded the league was so WNBA stars can “just be home” during the WNBA’s offseason.
“In a typical women’s basketball life, you play in the WNBA and you go overseas,” Stewart said. “And there’s a seven-month gap where, you know, our W[NBA] players aren’t home, aren’t in market.
“It’s going to be the top 30 athletes, where we’ll play 3 on 3, 1 on 1, and just be home,” Stewart said. “Be in market, and be able to be in a market that isn’t a W[NBA] team. But continue to grow the game and grow brands.”
Stewart said the court would be “a little bit smaller. Like, 60 feet, in comparison to 94. But full-court 3-on-3, so we’ll have to make sure our cardio is up.”
When “Good Morning America” host Robin Roberts asked Stewart what set Unrivaled apart from other 3-on-3 leagues, she said, “I think what sets Unrivaled apart is, especially in the women’s world, this has never happened before. This is the largest average salary in women’s sports.”
Collier told The Athletic that the idea for a new league sprung from a casual conversation she had with her husband, former basketball skills coach Alex Bazzell, who is the league’s president.
“It just kind of budded from there,” Collier said, according to Sabreena Merchant. “Why wait for someone else to do something when we can do it ourselves? It formed from one little seed, one little thing said, and it blooms into a revolutionary thing.”
Collier told Merchant that women weren’t benefiting financially from WNBA’s growing popularity, saying she hopes Unrivaled creates “generational wealth for these women.”
“From the beginning, (Stewart) and I really set out to create a league that was founded on that principle that players deserve compensation and ownership that reflect their value,” Collier said, according to Merchant.
Breanna Stewart & Napheesa Collier’s UConn Background
Unrivaled’s co-founders played at UConn together under head coach Geno Auriemma during the 2015-16 NCAA women’s basketball season.
Stewart averaged 19.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and 3.4 blocks per contest during that season. And Collier, who was a freshman, averaged 6.8 points and 5.2 rebounds.
UConn finished that season with an undefeated 38-0 record, and defeated Syracuse University by a score of 82-51 in the NCAA National Championship game.