How The Unrivaled Could Define the Future of Women’s Basketball

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 14 January 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

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Summary

This weekend marks the debut of The Unrivaled, an ambitious 3-on-3 women’s basketball league loaded with WNBA talent. This new venture has spared no expense to build their cutting edge venue in Miami. And thanks to a series of A-List investors, these athletes will have every amenity they could ever ask for. But what happens when these players finally take the court? Will the players buy in? And will the fans tune in? Or will we once again find ourselves writing an obituary for another upstart sports league? Today, Kendra Andrews joins us to break down how The Unrivaled could surprise us all and why it just might be what the WNBA offseason needs. And don’t forget the playlist, featuring our favorite stories of 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Kenji Andrews, the new women's three-on-three basketball league, the unrival kicks off this week, down in Miami, down to 305.
0:08.8	What did you think when you first heard this league was happening?
0:12.0	It's fascinating, right?
0:13.9	I think I was mostly curious just because when they first announced it, there wasn't a lot of information surrounding what this was going to look like,
0:22.5	what athletes were involved,
0:23.8	a lot of questions about the finances and the money and all this stuff.
0:27.1	But at the same time, it's exciting and it's fascinating.
0:30.1	As you know, like women's basketball has just grown so much over the last year.
0:35.2	And then also with Caitlin Clark, just the wave that she brought in but at the same
0:39.3	time there were already you know before Caitlin joined the league the W had had some decisions to make
0:46.3	those athletes that were already playing wanted some changes wanted different opportunities and so to
0:52.0	see this now happening is is a product of those desires.
0:57.1	So I think it's going to be an interesting thing to watch.
0:59.6	And I'm excited to see how it plays out.
1:01.2	So we know that there are six teams, six players per team.
1:05.4	I passed like fourth grade mass.
1:07.8	There's 36 players in the league.
1:09.7	I think that's right, right?
1:11.3	And as you've covered the league's launch, what's the temperature of the people that you've
1:15.9	talked to?
1:16.3	Do people kind of outside of the league see this as a novelty or like a real sustainable
1:20.4	deal?
	...

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