Brittney Griner Joins Unrivaled: What You Need to Know About the New Basketball League

Brittney Griner is the latest big name to join Unrivaledthe new three-on-three basketball league which will begin its first season in January.

On Wednesday, the 10-time WNBA All-Star was confirmed as the 24th player to join Unrivaled, which has strong support and plans to feature 30 players across six teams. One of Unrivaled’s main attractions, beyond a salary floor that starts at $100,000, is that it does not conflict with the WNBA’s prioritization rule, allowing players to play in both leagues without problem.

For Griner, who was detained by Russian authorities in 2022 for more than nine months after being accused of drug trafficking, Unrivaled checks a lot of boxes. The new league offers big salaries, while allowing WNBA stars to spend the offseason playing in the United States.

Here’s what you need to know about Griner’s decision to join Unrivaled.

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What is unmatched?

Unrivaled is a new three-on-three league founded by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, whose first season will take place in Miami starting in January 2025.

WNBA players have long supplemented their income by taking advantage of the league’s relatively small footprint on the schedule. Including the preseason, the WNBA currently lasts just under six months, which leaves a substantial window for players to find other places to play and significantly increase their salaries.

The WNBA’s most recent collective bargaining agreement includes a controversial prioritization rule that effectively blocks players from many foreign leagues. The regulations state that a player who misses the start of training camp to play internationally is suspended for the entire season. This conflict is forcing some players to choose between a spot in the world’s top women’s basketball league or more lucrative contracts in leagues not subject to salary cap rules.

Unrivaled has set up to avoid this issue entirely, with the league schedule scheduled to run from January to March. In 2024, WNBA training camps opened on April 28, meaning Unrivaled’s schedule will be a way to make big money playing in the United States, all without breaking the prioritization rule .

Unrivaled quickly attracted major support. Former NBA stars Carmelo Anthony and Steve Nash invested, as did newly retired U.S. women’s national team icons Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, golfer Michelle Wie West, UConn coach Geno Auriemma and actor Ashton Kutcher. Two former presidents of the television network, John Skipper (ESPN) and David Levy (Turner), have also signed on as investors while taking charge of media rights and sponsorship sales.

The league has yet to announce full rules, but the three-on-three format will feature four quarters of seven minutes each. The court will be shortened by 24 feet lengthwise while maintaining the WNBA’s 50-foot width, with games in 2025 taking place in custom-built facilities in Miami. In August, Collier also posted on

WNBA players participating in Unrivaled

Griner became the 24th player to sign with Unrivaled, which has 30 total spots for the 2025 season. As of October 2, here is the league’s full roster of WNBA talent.

• ShakiraAustin

• DiJonai Carrington

• Natasha Cloud

• Napheesa Collier

• Kahleah Copper

• Skylar Diggins Smith

• Allisha Gray

• Chelsea Gray

• Brittney Griner

• Dearica Hamby

• Tiffany Hayes

• Rhyne Howard

• Rickea Jackson

• Jewell Loyd

• Marina Mabrey

• Kayla McBride

• Arike Ogunbowale

• Kelsey Plum

• Angel Reese

• Satou Sabally

• Breanna Stewart

• Britney Sykes

• Courtney Vandersloot

• Jackie Young

The list does not currently include Caitlin Clark, and this fact does not seem ready to change. During coverage of the Indiana Fever’s playoff loss to the Connecticut Sun last week, ESPN reported that Clark intended to take a break this offseason.

Why do WNBA players like Griner play overseas?

Griner had spent her first two WNBA offseasons playing in China before beginning a seven-year stint alternating with Phoenix and Russian team UMMC Ekaterinburg, a perennial EuroLeague power. However, in February 2022, she was arrested by Russian customs officials and charged with drug trafficking due to a small amount of medically prescribed cannabis oil found in her luggage.

International play is common, with WNBA players being offered huge contracts across a wide range of leagues. Angel Reese may have stated that “no one wants to go abroad” to explain the appeal of Unrivaled, but it’s very common for WNBA stars to end up playing overseas. Some of the league’s biggest stars fan out across the world, playing for teams in Turkey , in France, Spain, China and – before the invasion of Ukraine – Russia, among others.

Without a salary cap, a team in the EuroLeague (a pan-European competition roughly equivalent to soccer’s UEFA Champions League) can afford to shell out salaries that WNBA teams can’t match. Jackie Young earns $252,450 for the Las Vegas Aces, the highest salary in the league this season, while players like Griner and Stewart received seven-figure salaries for one season of international basketball.

However, that could change, and not just due to the emergence of options like Unrivaled or Athletes Unlimited. Griner spent more than nine months in the Russian prison system and, at one point, was sentenced to nine years in prison before the U.S. and Russian governments agreed to release her in a prisoner exchange. Griner’s years playing in Russia on a successful team did nothing to stop the center from being “wrongfully detained“, in the words of the American government.

This article was originally published on USA TODAY: WNBA star Brittney Griner to join fledgling Unrivaled league