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2025 Unrivaled League Recap: 3x3 Changing Women's Basketball?

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The inaugural season of the Unrivaled League has concluded with Rose Basketball Club crowned champions, showcasing the success of this innovative 3-on-3 format created by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart.

• League formed with $35 million in funding, creating six teams of WNBA-caliber players
• Unique selection process where coaches drafted players before knowing which team they'd lead
• Rose Basketball Club won the championship with stars like Angel Reese, Chelsea Gray, and Kahleah Copper
• Players averaged $220,000 in the Unrivaled League compared to $147,000 in WNBA
• 3-on-3 format and 1-on-1 tournament created exciting, high-energy basketball
• Championship trophy design praised as innovative and visually striking
• Games available on Max streaming platform and YouTube highlights
• Potential impact on 2025 WNBA season includes higher player expectations and possible fatigue concerns
• Questions remain about how the league will adapt during Olympic years and if expansion is coming
• Format differences between 3-on-3 and traditional 5-on-5 may affect how performance translates

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Speaker 1:

What's up everybody. It's your favorite show's favorite show. Get a Bucket. I'm your host, trayton, as usual. Hope you're all having a wonderful day today.

Speaker 1:

Now, today we're going to talk about the Unrivaled League. It did end, but it was a good one I'm not going to lie to you guys and it does entice you for the upcoming 2025 WNBA season. So we've got a lot to talk about. But before we do that, make sure you please like, subscribe, comment to anyone who's anyone about the show. I'm trying to get the ratings up a little bit, you know, just a little bit. But what we're going to talk about today is, of course, the unrivaled, like I said, the overall product, the unrivaled cons, if you will right, and the next the streaming and marketing aspect of it. How did they do from my perspective? And then the effects on the WNBA season. So we got a lot of things to talk about.

Speaker 1:

Let's start it off with about the Unrivaled League. So quick little recap this was a league formed by Nafisa Collier and Brianna Stewart. For those of y'all who don't know, those are two of the stars in the WNBA, two of the faces I call of the WNBA. You got to list Asia Wilson as the third face of the WNBA, but they formed it. They got $35 million in funding right and, as a result, they formed six teams for WNBA rosters of WNBA roster caliber players, for WNBA rosters of WNBA roster caliber players. Now they got a pool of 34 players selected and they divided it into six teams. Like I said, that was split between guards, wings and bigs. Again, this does entice you for the WNBA season and the unrivaled league kind of showed me you know what I do like how they selected these players, because we got to see them selecting the players, the coaches, the actual coaches of the Unrivaled League, selecting the players before they knew which team they were going to coach. That means that they wanted to make the best teams possible and you see the breakdowns, you see the comparisons, you see the formations and it was wonderful to behold and that's why the pairings look as well as they did. And in fact, we got to give a shout out to the Rose Basketball Club because they did win the inaugural season for the unrivaled league. So we got to give a shout out to Brittany Sykes, azrae Stephens, kalia Copper, angel Reese, lexi Hull, Chelsea Gray and their head coach, nola Henry.

Speaker 1:

So, again, the unrivaled league. It was encompassing WNBA players, but the head coaches got to select the teams. I got to create the teams, got to form the teams. Ladies and gentlemen, I love that formation. I truly do. It gives you all-star vibes, right? Except we had more entertainment in the unrivaled league. That's why I'm looking forward to seeing the nba adapt wmba has it? Unrivaled league did pretty well, so that's about the unrivaled league real quick right now.

Speaker 1:

The overall product, like I said, it was good games, it was good energy. Ladies and gentlemen, this was a good entertainment and I can't wait to see the second season. How does it form? Do we get more than six teams? Would they encompass five on five? Like, I'm curious, two on two maybe?

Speaker 1:

Like it was a one-on-one and three-on-three event, mainly three-on-three, with a one-on-one tournament during the season. This was good basketball. There's no ducking. You got to be able to defend it ain't no easy peasy, limit squeezy. Whether you're a guard, whether you're a big, you got to be able to hoop and, yes, you don't have to have the most skill, but you got to want it more so than anybody else. Like Aaliyah Edwards actually beat Breanna Stewart. Ladies and gentlemen, aaliyah Edwards was just a rookie last year. Breanna Stewart is a what? Multiple-time MVP, finals MVP as well, multiple-time champion on her way to a GOAT conversation and Aaliyah Edwards beats her and it's no slight to Stewie either Like that's just what happens in one-on-one that can happen. So again, ladies and gentlemen, this was a good entertainment game.

Speaker 1:

And also, I got to say, too, the trophy, like the championship trophy, wnba and really NBA hell. A lot of sports need to follow what they did, because I like the way the trophy looked. The trophy was nice, bro, it was a cool crown. I'm not a Game of Thrones fan, but I definitely thought, dang, maybe I should watch Game of Thrones now. It looked pretty good. I can't hold y'all, but again, this league was good. It was extremely well organized.

Speaker 1:

And then, not to mention, the additional means for women to get paid too you got to talk about that. Like, the women average two hundred and twenty thousand dollars in the Unrivaled League. That's pretty good. And in comparison, the WNBA averages one hundred and forty seven. Now, keep in mind too, you do have way more players and teams in the WNBA. It's actually 13 teams in the WNBA as opposed to six. And then you got 15, I'm sorry, 12 women rosters as opposed to what? Five, maybe six. So again, it is a little bit of a disparity.

Speaker 1:

That's why I'm curious to see how the second season goes, because if we can get another team or two, this unrivaled team could start rivaling the WNBA, and I wonder if the unrivaled league would be unrivaled eventually. I've said that it could possibly happen. Second season would be interesting to see. So I'm putting my eyes on this.

Speaker 1:

But now, with all this good aspects of the unrivaled league, what are some of the cons? Well, I kind of hinted to them, right, because, again, the pay disparity yes, you get paid more in the unrivaled league, but it's only a couple of players. Some players do get to play overseas as well too, though. So that is. That is one thing to note. So it's not like players are just left out in the cold. But still, it would be cool to see the unrivaled league expand.

Speaker 1:

We're talking about six total teams again, in comparison to 13 WNBA, so that's one sixth of the WNBA. Wnba so that's one sixth of the WNBA. And then you got one third of the WNBA roster or, I'm sorry, half the WNBA roster, I'm sorry. Now that $35 million funding that does help out. Can we get more? Again, three on three is cool. One-on-one tournament was nice. I did appreciate that.

Speaker 1:

As fans, as as as spoiled fans, we will start to get a little, you know, itchy to see what happens, what's new. So I would like to see the Unrivaled League start to do something new soon, because you do have to captivate the audience while it's here, especially when you know that stars like Asia Wilson didn't play, kaitlyn Clark didn't play Right Like people want to see Kaitlyn Clark, and I understand why Kaitlyn Clark did't play. Caitlin Clark didn't play right Like people want to see Caitlin Clark, and I understand why Caitlin Clark did not play. You do have that aspect and worry of oh, is it going to affect the season from the WNBA perspective? Meaning, will players be tired Because there is an off season? They do need to rest. You know what I'm saying. So that is a potential con as well too. But again, ladies and gentlemen, not too many cons, because the unrivaled league for me it was good across the board and again, some of those were even spoiled cons like like saying you got it, you have to improve soon. That's a little sport, that's a little sport, but again, that's what they got to do at some point in time, and I'm thinking the sooner the better. But let's go ahead and move on down from the cons and talk about the streaming and marketing platform real quick, because you might not know where to find it. You can actually watch it on Max, the Max app. It's pretty easy to watch, to be honest with you. And then you can also catch it on YouTube. The highlights were pretty captivating, not going to lie to you all and again, it's very easy to catch. So you cannot say oh ain't catching, I ain't have time, I ain't know. You know, you heard from here, you've seen it across the board on espn and other platforms. Please show the ladies some love, ladies and gentlemen, because it was, it was, it was, it was good. I can't lie to y'all again. Three on three format, primarily with a one-on-one tournament, captivating and, I could say, game-changing at this point, to be honest with you. But let's go ahead and move on that because, again, I'm not going to talk too too much about the treatment and marketing. I thought it was all right, it was cool.

Speaker 1:

The effects of the WNBA season. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not going to lie to you guys, I'm a little torn because, yes, women play overseas, but you might be playing more games over here too, in this unrivaled. You could be, you could be. Um, what if injuries happen? Right? No bump that expectations.

Speaker 1:

I mentioned Aaliyah Edwards beating Brianna Stewart in the unrivaled league tournament. Right? So the expectations of Aaliyah Edwards beating Brianna Stewart in the Unrivaled League tournament? Right? So the expectations of Aaliyah Edwards might be high. Will Aaliyah Edwards perform to those expectations? See, we give grace when we see injuries occur, but if we have expectations now, there's not as much grace. So there's there's more pressure now on some of these players like Aaliyah Edwards, like Azrae Stephens, like Nafisa Khalil. When you say you're the best player in the tournament, you have Brianna Stewart in there. All right, cool, that means you now have to beat a Brianna Stewart.

Speaker 1:

Keep in mind your team did lose to the, to the Liberty, in the finals. Granted, it went five, it went the distance. Still, though. So we do have to say there's more pressure on some of these players. So the unrivaled league can add to the expectations on players.

Speaker 1:

Also, let's say flip side of that too, breanna Stewart, what are your expectations of Breanna Stewart? Did she dip? We heard Chelsea Gray and how she dipped, right? Well, she turned it on the Indian Rival League. So what happens if Chelsea Gray doesn't perform well in the WNBA season? That might make and that might have a not a negative implication on the unrivaled league. Oh, the unrivaled league is easier than the WNBA. Same with Breanna Stewart. If Breanna Stewart comes back and doesn't really perform well, ok with Breanna Stewart, she lost a step.

Speaker 1:

These are some of the expectations that could get placed on these WNBA players. So, again, that might be something to note. How about? Well, is Azrae Stephens undervalued? Because, again, I mentioned her earlier, right, she was on the Rose team, she played well, she did her thing, she went to the Final Four, right the semifinals in the one-on-one tournament. So you might be expecting more from Azrae Stevens.

Speaker 1:

Again, expectations are going to be wild, or could be wild, based on the Unrivaled League's production. So that's definitely something to note. Also, it is a little bit different to play in one-on-one and three-on-three in comparison to five or five on five. It's a, it's a substantial difference. So I would say, tweak those expectations because, again, the game format was a little bit different. Five on five is not the same as three on three and one-on-one. Also, let's keep in mind too, the unrivaled League does happen during Olympic play. So I would be curious what happens with that. Are they just going to be devoid of stars for one season, because that would be interesting. Are they going to move the unrivaled league? Are they going to cancel the unrivaled league? What's going to happen during that time frame? 2028 is going to be an interesting time for the unrivaled league. For me personally, I'm looking forward to seeing how that unravels.

Speaker 1:

But we also got to talk about again the impact on the WNBA season. Like this upcoming WNBA season, will the players who played in the unrivaled league be tired? Will they start to have injuries due to lack of rest? Again, we have seen women play overseas during the offseason, so maybe that doesn't happen, but I would be curious to know if injuries start to tally up. I remember when 2021 season for the NBA occurred and there was a whole bunch of injuries because there was a lack of rest due to the pushback in 2020, right, the bubble year, the BS year, for me at least. So we did see an impact on that 2021 season.

Speaker 1:

I'll be curious if the unrivaled league has a similar impact on the 2025 season. Again, maybe not, but I'm just paying attention to see if it does impact the WNBA and then also the unrivaled players, right? Well, let's talk about the WNBA players as a whole, because you do have another avenue to play, right? And I know there were a couple of players that were saying you know, you guys should pay us our worth or else we're not going to pay or we're not going to play. So what happens when new CBA talks occur? Will the unrivaled league be in the back of some of these women's heads and say, hey, we can go play here and make more money in less time? They could. That is a possibility.

Speaker 1:

I also got to see too, if the Unrivaled League just is strictly for WNBA players. Again, that's another discussion for another day, but that could be a possibility. And the funding, at least for the unrivaled league we know it at least occurred. How much more can they get? That's another discussion, but they do have funding. So maybe some WNBA players can say, hey, maybe we can do it on our own. I remember Kyrie Irving said the NBA players should form their own league. Maybe that could start with the WNBA.

Speaker 1:

We'll see what happens, but I will be curious how this impacts the WNBA's season. So again, ladies and gentlemen, overall I loved the unrivaled league. It was very good, very entertaining, and I think the women who they tails off butt cheeks are still on the flow All right. But overall, I am curious about how this will impact the upcoming WNBA season as well as going forward. How will the Unrivaled League change? How will it adjust and adapt to the Olympic Games in 2028, in 2032, et cetera, et cetera? So those are a lot of storylines that I'm looking forward to seeing, but I want to hear your thoughts as well. What do you think about the Unrivaled League? Did you like it? Are you looking forward to the WNBA season and did some of my gripes, question marks, resonate with you? Please let me know in the comments below, please. But please like, subscribe, comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show. My name is Trey. I'm the host of Get a Bucket.