Unrivaled basketball league: How new 3x3 competition is inspiring financial revolution for women players in USA

Women’s basketball players in the USA are set for a massive windfall thanks to a new 3-on-3 women’s professional basketball league, Unrivaled, which promises $100,000 for nearly all the players – making it the women’s sports league with the highest average player salary.

The ballers in the USA would say it was a revolution long overdue.

The female basketball players in the USA make a lot less than their male counterparts. Only around 10% of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) revenue goes to the players while this number stands at 50% for men who compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA). In fact, women basketball players from the USA are often forced to play overseas in off-seasons to compensate for poor salaries at home.

Unrivaled 3x3 basketball set to bring financial revolution

But things are set to change with the Unrivaled 3x3 basketball league which starts in Miami on Friday. It will feature 36 of the best players from the WNBA for a two-month season and has a total salary pool of more than $8m.

A simple math says the average salary will be $222,000 which is a lot higher than the average wage for a full WNBA season that lasts six months.

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There’s more to it.

Players have also been given an equity stake in the league and the members of the winning team will get $10,000 extra.

No wonder some of the best women’s basketball players Brittney Griner, Angel Reese, Alyssa Thomas, Jewell Loyd, and A’ja Wilson will be part of the upcoming league.

“They’re bringing something new to women’s basketball. They’re making it exciting. They’re doing something different. They’re trying to give us a different look and a different feel on how we can bring everybody together in one spot, and have it run in a way where it’s beneficial for us, on the court and off the court,” Griner, the Phoenix Mercury player who will play for the Phantom Basketball Club during the Unrivaled season, said. “They’re really pouring in a lot, and that’s what kind of excited me the most, to be honest. I just had to be a part of this.”

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Who founded Unrivaled?

The Unrivaled league was founded by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier and they have secured funding from some of the biggest athletes including Michael Phelps, Coco Gauff, Carmelo Anthony, and Alex Morgan. The league is also funded by other businesses and has managed a fund of $35m for the debut season.

Among the sponsors, some of the biggest names including Samsung, Wilson, Under Armour, Miller Lite, Sephora, and Wayfair are already on board.

The league will have two games a night and they will be broadcast on TNT or TruTv in the US.

Unrivaled venue and rules

The league will feature six teams — the Laces, Mist, Rose, Lunar Owls, Phantom, and Vinyl — with matches being played in Miami at a new 850-seat arena. The court will be 72 feet long and 49.2 feet wide. The courts in the WNBA are 22 feet longer and less than a foot wider.

A 3x3 basketball match in Unrivaled will consist of three seven-minute quarters, followed by an untimed fourth quarter. In the final quarter, teams will compete to reach a “winning score,” calculated by adding 11 points to the leading team’s total after three quarters. For instance, if Team X is ahead 60-55 after three quarters, the first team to reach 71 points will win the game.

“Every game, we will have a game-winning shot,” Unrivaled President Alex Bazzell said. “That was important for us because coming out of the third quarter, there’s no mysteries of what you need to do.”

When players commit shooting fouls, only one free throw will be taken, with its value matching the shot attempted. For example, if a player is fouled while shooting a 3-pointer, a successful free throw will count for three points. A free throw after a two-point attempt is worth two points, and any and-1 situation will be worth one point.

Additionally, the shot clock will be set to 18 seconds, compared to the 24 seconds used in the WNBA. The clock will also stop on made baskets in the final 30 seconds of a quarter, instead of the last minute as in the WNBA.