Unrivaled announces expansion to 36 players after outperforming financial projections
Unrivaled is already expanding its rosters before the inaugural season of the 3-on-3 women’s basketball league begins.
Co-founder Napheesa Collier announced on social media on Thursday the league will increase from 30 players to 36, allowing each team to have six players.
“We’re able to do this because we outperformed our financial projections, and so now we get to do something that we wanted to do in the future, which is give more people spots in Unrivaled,” Collier said in a social media video. “This is such an amazing time in women’s sports and we’re so thankful to all the positive people who have come out and supported us.”
Over the past few months Unrivaled has unveiled a roster full of WNBA talent through social media. Aliyah Boston of the Indiana Fever was the 30th player announced Thursday, joining players such as Brittney Griner, Jewell Loyd and Angel Reese.
One player who has not signed yet is Caitlin Clark, although the league is open to having the WNBA Rookie of the Year join.
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“We’re always going to have a roster spot for Caitlin Clark,” Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell told Sportico. “We’re not applying a full-court press the way people think. We are letting her decompress from basketball. ... She knows that we have a spot for her when she’s ready.”
Earlier in October, the league announced a multiyear partnership with TNT and its sports platforms to show more than 45 games when the season begins in January. Matchups will be shown three nights a week with twice-weekly games on TNT on Mondays and Fridays. Games that are played on Saturday will be shown on truTV.
Games begin on Jan. 17 and will be played in Miami.
The league also announced earlier in the month the names of the six teams: Laces Basketball Club, Mist Basketball Club, Phantom Basketball Club, Lunar Owls Basketball Club, Rose Basketball Club and Vinyl Basketball Club.
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