Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart are both vice presidents for the WNBPA. They are also co-founders of Unrivaled. For some, that created a conflict of interest in the WNBA CBA negotiations—even though no one related to Unrivaled ever expressed any interest in competing with the WNBA or taking down the league. Both players have made that abundantly clear. Unrivaled President Alex Bazzell reiterated the same stance when he appeared on We Need To Talk.
“We want the WNBA CBA to get done,” Bazzell told host Alicia Jay. “The WNBA running and operating, continuously growing, is great marketing exposure for our league because a lot of the top players that play there, play with us.”
He also mentioned that Unrivaled’s vision was never to play year-round, but to fill a gap during the WNBA’s offseason. He added, “We benefit from [the WNBA] competing and playing and continuing to grow. We’ve always seen ourselves as someone who’s complementary in that way because we don’t need to compete to build a successful business.”
Unrivaled and the WNBA can help each other
Without the WNBA, Unrivaled wouldn’t be as successful as it is. Many fans only care about the players in the league because of what they have accomplished in the WNBA. Unrivaled builds on the reputations players build in the W and thrives by giving fans an opportunity to follow those players during the offseason and see them play a different style of basketball.
Fans can watch players when they compete in Europe, Australia, or China. But Unrivaled has a different feel to it because all of the players are in one spot and the league’s social media team provides plenty of content fans crave. That way, fans see players interacting in ways and with people that they would never get to see during the WNBA season.
Unrivaled also helps the WNBA. First and foremost, it gets fans excited for the new WNBA season. Unrivaled runs from January to March. Under normal circumstances, the season concludes just when the hype around the WNBA draft starts to reach its height and fans just cannot wait to see more of their favorite players.
Moreover, Unrivaled is a great place for players to develop. Last year, Angel Reese left Miami as a much-improved finisher around the basket, and Azurá Stevens returned to the W as a candidate for the Most Improved Player award. This season, Unrivaled even features a development pool that helps young players work on their skills and return to the WNBA more prepared.
At the same time, however, Unrivaled is part of the players’ leverage in the WNBA CBA negotiations. Without the money that many players make in Unrivaled, they wouldn’t be able to stand by their demands as firmly and even think about striking.