© Jerome Miron/Imagn
If you’re a basketball fan hoping to see WNBA superstars Caitlin Clark and A’ja Wilson take their game to the 3-on-3 Unrivaled league in 2026, you might want to look away.
Both Clark, the biggest star in women’s basketball today, and Wilson, the reigning WNBA MVP, declined opportunities to play in the league’s inaugural season. And now league president Alex Bazzell, the husband of WNBA superstar and Unrivaled co-founder Napheesa Collier, says the league is happy to move on without them.
“There is always an ongoing dialogue,” Bazzell said on Wednesday. “There is no secret who the top players in the world are, and they know we have a spot for them. But we are not knocking down doors or chasing people down. I feel good about where our rosters stand.”
Unrivaled also announced the introduction of two new teams — Breeze Basketball Club and Hive Basketball Club — for the 2026 season. Additionally, Unrivaled players will receive a significant pay raise in the new season.
WNBA Turned Down Opportunity To Partner With Unrivaled
That pay raise serves as a shot across the bow to the WNBA, which is set for tense CBA negotiations in the offseason and could face a lockout.
According to Bazzell, Unrivaled executives reached out to the WNBA before its first season about a potential partnership, but the league was not interested.
“We went to the WNBA early,” Bazzell told Front Office Sports. “Number one, told them about it and were certainly open to a partnership in terms of equity and ownership. It’s really, to draw the comparison, like what’s gone on between the TGL and PGA. That’s how we looked at it and approached it. We would be the majority investors in control but they still have upside and skin in the game with women’s basketball year round. They chose not to do that.”
Both leagues now find themselves exposed to a certain degree. Unrivaled will continue to play without a handful of the biggest stars in women’s basketball. Meanwhile, the WNBA goes into CBA negotiations knowing that players have a viable alternative.
Hopefully, those pressures benefit both leagues. But only time will ltell.