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The inaugural season of Unrivaled—the 3-on-3 basketball league founded by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart—was a rousing success, averaging 221,000 thousand viewers, 589 million earned and owned social media impressions, and reaching more than 11.9 million viewers.
The league just isn’t back for a second year, but it’s back with an additional two teams and an expanded roster pool.
The league’s six initial teams—Mist, Phantom, Vinyl, Rose, Laces, and Lunar Owls—will return, joined by Breeze BC and Hive BC.
Breeze BC is supposed to represent Miami, the homebase of the 3-on-3 league. Per the league, Breeze BC, “stays cool under pressure, finding rhythm and making the right plays when the game is on the line. The club represents basketball at its smoothest, where composure and talent beautifully flow together. With palm trees as hoops and a fuchsia hue that has come to define the 305, Breeze BC pays homage to the league’s home base in Miami.”
Hive BC, meanwhile, “embodies a unified and talented front in which collective rhythm and trust overpower individual matchups.” The idea behind the Hive BC name was to follow suit with the themes of nature and animals carried by several other Unrivaled clubs.
WIth the new teams comes roster expansion. A total of 18 new players will be added to the Unrivaled in Year 2: six for each of the new teams as well as six players in what the league is calling its season-long development pool.
“Expanding a year earlier than planned is a testament to the strong business model we’ve built and the potential Unrivaled has for long-term success,” said Luke Cooper, Unrivaled President of Basketball. “We outperformed every goal we set for the league in year one, and with the incredible talent we have returning paired with the influx of new stars, it was a no brainer to add two more clubs this season.”
Up until this past weekend, there was still confusion among players who participated in Unrivaled last year as to how club assignments would look.
“I actually don’t know,” said a player who played for Unrivaled in Year 1 who wished to remain unnamed. “I’ve been hearing mixed stuff about it. I think we will be on different teams, but I’m not sure.”
We do have some answers now, though, as a source told Winsidr that some players will remain on their Year 1 teams, while others will be moved around given the addition of two new teams.
“Clubs will still have a core identity,” the source said.
As far as the coaches from last year, Winsidr is told that “most of the coaches” are returning, and that the league is in the final stages of selecting the coaches for the two new teams.
Player announcements are expected to begin in a few weeks, with rosters being unveiled in November.
What we can confirm is that Katie Lou Samuelson and Courtney Vandersloot will not be participating this year, due to their respective ACL injuries.
Also in November, the specifics about the 1-on-1 Tournament returning this year to Unrivaled are expected to be released. The format hasn’t been finalized yet, though.
Unrivaled will be putting out an explainer about the league and how it will work later this week, but a source told me the format will stay the same, as well as the fourth-quarter rules. In the fourth quarter, 11 points are added to the team that is winning the game after three quarters. The first team to reach the target score wins.
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