rewrite this content and keep HTML tags (remove this from content : rewrite this content and keep HTML tags)
At some point, WNBA players signing with Project B will no longer be news. If things go according to plan, the league will have 66 players, filling out the proposed six 11-player teams that will compete in the seven two-week tournaments that will begin in November 2026.
For now, however, the new international league, which has aimed to overshadow its still-specious sense of sportswashing with high salaries and equity stakes for players, will continue to spark conversation when its latest signees are announced.
Since sharing the four initial tent-pole stars in Nneka Ogwumike, Alyssa Thomas, Jonquel Jones and Jewell Loyd, Project B revealed five more players: the Chicago Sky’s Kamilla Cardoso, former Washington Mystic Li Meng, the Golden State Valkyries’ Janelle Salaün and the Indiana Fever’s Kelsey Mitchell and Sophie Cunningham. Then, Justē Jocytē, the first-ever draft pick of the Golden State Valkyries who was selected No. 5 overall in the 2025 WNBA Draft, announced that she is also signing on with the league.
Mitchell gives Project B another superstar-caliber player. A three-time All-Star, Mitchell is coming off the best season of her career, earning MVP votes as she took home an All-WNBA First Team honor for serving as a the stabilizing stalwart for the injury-ravaged Fever.
Notably, after spending the 2025 WNBA offseason playing in the Women’s Chinese Basketball Association (WCBA) and the 2024 offseason participating in Athletes Unlimited. Mitchell has chosen Project B over Unrivaled. A member of Hive FC, it appears the 2026 offseason will be her first and only stint with Unrivaled.
Both Jocytē and Cardoso fulfill the “young superstar” archetype promised by Project B chief basketball officer Alana Beard. Although Jocytē has yet to make her WNBA debut, her recent play for the Lithuanian National Team and Spar Girona, which competes in EuroLeague Women and Spain’s Liga Femenina, has done nothing to discourage her star projection.
A national champion at South Carolina who was selected No. 4 overall in the 2024 WNBA Draft, injuries and organizational incompetence have stunted the still-positive start to Cardoso’s WNBA career. Currently, she is playing in the WCBA for the second-straight offseason.
Salaün, Ming and Cunningham are the types of younger and more experienced WNBA veterans likely to fill out the rosters of Project B’s six proposed clubs. While Project B has grabbed headlines with its $2 million salaries, it’s unclear if all players, or just those with star-level resumes, will earn an annual salary approaching that number.
Speaking to Front Office Sports before announcing her commitment to Project B, Cunningham said of the league’s rumored lucrative salaries, “But, you know, if people are going to be paying you multi-million dollar deals, why would you not?“ Upon joining the new league, Cunningham shared:
Excited to join Project B’s athlete roster as they launch a new chapter in women’s basketball. Our game is exploding in popularity, and I’m all in on carrying that momentum forward in any way I can, both at home in the US and beyond.
For all that Project B is promising to players, the success of the league ultimately will be determined by how successfully it engages fans. That’s something that Unrivaled did instantly, inspiring fans to pledge their affiliation to their preferred club and favorite players. Unrivaled also has a regular, fully-televised game schedule that has made it easy for fans to incorporate Unrivaled into their basketball-consumption routine.
Can Project B likewise provoke the passions of fans? How will the fact that the games will played in international cities and inconvenient time zones influence North American fans’ ability to access games and, in turn, invest in teams and players?
The more we learn about Project B, the more questions arise.
