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WNBA All-Star Nneka Ogwumike has signed with Project B.
According to The Athletic, she is the first high-profile player to ink a deal with the latest professional basketball league. But it may be just the beginning for the league.
Alana Beard, the chief basketball officer for Project B, said the league has signed several other players, too, noting that “multiple current All-WNBA players who have received those honors, young superstars who are on the rise, and players from four different continents.”
Each player will receive equity in the league and a salary that Beard said “cannot be matched elsewhere in the sport.”
“I’m not going to get into the numbers on any of this stuff, but I can say this deal surpasses anything in the market today,” Beard said in a phone interview. “It’s consistent with the trajectory and the explosion of what we’re seeing in women’s basketball. … Nothing comes close to what we are offering these players. It’s not to be arrogant, it’s to basically position these women to receive what they absolutely deserve for the value they have created and create on a daily basis.”
Project B is expected to launch in 2026 and play its debut season from November 2026 through April 2027, which would be during the WNBA offseason. There will be six teams of 11 players competing in seven two-week tournaments across Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
Ogwumike is one of the most decorated and efficient players in professional basketball history, building a career defined by both individual accolades and team success. Drafted first overall in the 2012 WNBA Draft, her most dominant year came in 2016, when she was unanimously named the WNBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) and led the Los Angeles Sparks to the WNBA Championship, famously sinking the game-winning shot in the Finals. She is a perennial star, having earned 10 WNBA All-Star selections and multiple All-WNBA and All-Defensive Team honors.
