WNBA Stars Announce New Winter League as Alternative to Playing Abroad After Brittney Griner's Arrest
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Unrivaled is set to tip off in January, and will offer the WNBA's top players a domestic option to make money during the offseason
Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated via Getty
WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier are starting a women’s basketball winter league, according to a report, as an alternative to playing abroad in the offseason.
The New York Liberty forward, 28, and Minnesota Lynx forward, 26, told ESPN their league called Unrivaled would offer the WNBA’s top players an offseason option to play domestically.
The new league would begin this winter and run from January through March in Miami, per ESPN.
"It's the ability for players to stay home, to be in a market like Miami where we can just be the buzz and create that with the best WNBA players," Stewart told the outlet.
Unrivaled came about partly in a response to the WNBA’s prioritization rule which requires players who were playing internationally to return by the start of training camps. Frequently, the international teams’ seasons last through May, which overlaps with the WNBA’s start.
"We can't keep fighting [the WNBA's prioritization rule],” Stewart said. “It is a rule that takes away our choices, which should never be a thing, especially as women, but it is still a rule."
David Sherman/NBAE via Getty
The former UConn teammates were also motivated to start the new league due to another type of prioritization — their families.
Stewart played overseas last year in Turkey but is expecting a second child with her wife Marta Xargay Casademont this fall.
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Collier, who welcomed her first child last year with husband Alex Bazzell, told USA Today that logistics also played a role in creating another option for her fellow top athletes.
"The idea of having a family trying to figure out child care overseas, that was kind of the main reason (for founding a new league)," Collier said.
The plans for the new league also come months after Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner was released from Russian custody. She was arrested in a Moscow airport in Feb. 2022 while traveling with her usual winter league, Russia's UMMC Ekaterinburg.
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