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With the end of 2025 fast approaching, the new year is around the corner, which means Unrivalled will tip off its second season. Last year, WNBA All-Stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier created Unrivalled, a 3-on-3 league, as an alternative to playing overseas during the winter. Played on a condensed full court, the league’s first season saw six teams of six players compete in a 10-week season, with a 1-on-1 tournament during a midseason break. The idea was to give players the chance to stay in the United States for the winter, develop their skills in a competitive environment, and get paid well. Fans were treated to a winter women’s basketball season that was accessible to watch as well.
Starting earlier this season than they did in their first year, the first games tip on Jan. 5, 2026. After seeing success in 2025, Unrivaled is back with two new expansion teams, more players, and is even making a trip to Philly this year.
Yet, with all the news coming out about the ongoing WNBA Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations, you can’t help but think… is this the last we will see of some of these basketball stars for a while?
The current CBA expires on Jan. 9, 2026, and at the beginning of last week, it felt like getting a deal done by that date was relatively likely. Now, with the continued news of various, frankly unnecessarily aggressive, proposals the league has put forth, the idea of both sides agreeing on a contract in a few weeks seems less possible. Everything from cutting the housing program, the ongoing hesitancy to expand revenue sharing, and ideas to shift the season up into March all seem like things the players will not be pleased about.
Unrivaled is meant to be a developmental offseason league, a way for players to make good money in the offseason without having to play outside of the United States. They accomplished that goal in 2025, with players making an average salary of around $220,000 with plenty of chances to win bonuses through playoff wins and the 1-on-1 tournament. Those salaries and bonuses will increase in 2026 as well, per Unrivaled front office staff.
The idea of players and former players going off and creating these new leagues to generate more income for themselves, as well as being able to have more control over where they spend their winters, has blown up in the past few years. It started with Athletes Unlimited, grew with Unrivaled, and is now going even further with Project B.
These varying avenues of offseason play and revenue are growing so much that the WNBA almost seems to be throwing out these CBA prioritization proposals in response to these new leagues. The WNBA trying to start the season in March, as well as introducing stricter rules on when players need to show up for camp, seemingly in an effort to make sure players can only play in the WNBA.
Right now, players with more than two years of WNBA experience are expected to be on time to their team’s training camp, or else they risk a season-long suspension. Rules like this are supposed to work so that players don’t miss any WNBA time, and they choose the WNBA over any other team or league.
Instead, it has put a bad taste in players’ mouths.
Ideally, they’d probably love the public narrative to be “the WNBA is the premier league in the world, and players would rather play here than anywhere else.” Yet, you can’t force players to choose between the WNBA and these newer leagues, and not compete with the salaries those competitors are offering players.
These leagues are attracting big WNBA names as well. Unrivaled’s second season brought back names from last year like co-founders Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, but will also welcome younger stars like Paige Bueckers and Cameron Brink onto the court this winter. Other big WNBA names include Jackie Young, Skylar Diggins, Chelsea Gray, Kahleah Copper, and Rhyne Howard.
The WNBA icing out names like this by not only trying to stop them from playing in a league like Unrivaled, but also lowballing their salary and revenue-sharing chances, isn’t going to bode well.
For now, though, we have Unrivaled hoops to satisfy us through the winter, and fans better enjoy it while they can. In an expansion and subsequent draft by the Unrivaled coaches, the teams were shaken up and will be different from last season. Bueckers will be playing on the brand new Breeze Basketball Club, while Collier returns to Lunar Owls BC in an attempt to win another MVP award and maybe even take the 1-on-1 crown again.
Unrivaled also signed WNBA All-Rookie team stars Kiki Iriafen and Sonia Citron from the Washington Mystics, who will be playing for Phantom BC and the other new expansion team, Hive BC. Unrivaled is also expanding to four nights per week on TNT Sports from the three they did last year.
And with the way these CBA negotiations have been unfolding over the last week, this Unrivaled season has the potential to be the last professional women’s basketball we get to watch in 2026, so we should savor it while it lasts.
