January 28, 2025
Unrivaled, Up Next: Napheesa Collier dominates the court she helped create
In week two of Unrivaled play, outside narratives threatened to dominate the scene, but Napheesa Collier brought attention back to the game
The second week of Unrivaled was filled with a lot of great basketball but also some off court narratives threatening to burst the bubble of fun in Miami. But who else would turn the attention back to basketball other than league co-founder Napheesa Collier? Watching Collier play over the weekend made it seem like she created Unrivaled just to dominate it herself. With a small sample size, there is good evidence to suggest Collier could be the league’s MVP, win the 1v1 tournament and lead her Lunar Owls to the championship game.
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On top of that, Unrivaled may have unintentionally created a WNBA free agency hotspot in Miami, with team executives traveling to meet with players.
Let’s go back to week two.
The reserves are called into action
With injuries starting to affect the original Unrivaled players, the league began to call up free agents on “relief player” contracts. The first was Natisha Hiedeman, who joined Phantom BC prior ahead of week one due to Marina Mabrey suffering a calf strain. Hiedeman stayed on to start week two, since Mabrey will be out for 2-4 weeks, but Phantom had another absence as well. It was this absence that caused a flurry of reactions online.
Sabrina Ionescu, who was a late signing to Unrivaled and the last piece added to Phantom BC, was away from Miami over the weekend. Listed on the injury report as missing due to “personal” reasons, photos were later released showing Ionescu in Paris, France. Ionescu, a Nike athlete with her own line of signature shoes with the brand, attended the NBA’s game in Paris between the San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers. Then, she was seen at Paris Fashion Week with Nike as well. Both were likely commitments made prior to her signing with Unrivaled, and also obligations of her partnership with the athletic wear brand.
Some fans online were not pleased with this reality; though, it is possible they did not understand the contractual obligations Ionescu was likely under. These fans criticized Ionescu for leaving her team and condemned Unrivaled for letting her go. Unrivaled surely knew about her contract obligations when they signed her, and, not to mention, the league is meant as a development space heading into the WNBA season. And ultimately, Ionescu’s absence simply meant Hiedeman got more time on the court, helping the Phantom secure their first win Friday night over Mist BC.
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Mist was another team that needed to call in the reserves, as both Jewell Loyd and DiJonai Carrington were ruled out of the Friday night game. The team brought on NaLyssa Smith of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever to ensure they still had four players, and she was kept on through Saturday, though Loyd returned. Funnily enough, Smith and Carrington being partners off the court led fans to speculate if DeWanna Bonner would be next to get the call up, as she is in Miami supporting her own partner Alyssa Thomas.
Going into Monday’s game, Hiedeman was then switched from Phantom to Laces BC. Jackie Young has yet to debut in Unrivaled due to injury, and Thomas suffered a injury to her hip pointer in the Laces’ last game on Friday night.
It’s likely Unrivaled team staff are being extra careful with player injuries as well, as they won’t want to take chances before the WNBA season even starts.
Unrivaled could affect WNBA free agency in unprecedented ways
The WNBA is currently in the pre-signing period of free agency, with contracts able to be signed as of Feb. 1. Many of the WNBA’s biggest free agents also just happen to be in one convenient location — Miami. Brittney Griner, Alyssa Thomas, Satou Sabally and Courtney Vandersloot are all big names on the free agency table, and are all playing in Unrivaled.
Last week, it was reported by Doug Feinberg of AP Sports that Brittney Griner would test out the free agency waters for the first time in her career. The Phoenix Mercury star was drafted No. 1 overall by the Mercury and has spent her entire career in Phoenix, winning one WNBA championship there (2014). Now, Feinberg reports that WNBA executives are heading down to Miami to meet with Griner. Griner, in return, impressed suitors with a game-winning performance for Phantom BC on Friday, scoring 29 points, 9 rebounds and nailing the final basket to secure the team with their first season win.
Her coach Adam Harrington had words of praise for her, saying that Griner “was just so solid, strong and nobody could guard her today, you could see that. The way she just persevered, that’s also really inspiring.”
Part of the initial report on Griner’s free agency said she wanted to show off her skills to WNBA teams as a free agent during Unrivaled. When asked, Griner mentioned “the game the other night, I think it really will [show those skills]. Tonight, not so much,” after Phantom lost 82-58 to the Lunar Owls. “But you know, there’s highs and lows. I mean, it’s basketball, there’s highs and lows. So, you know, I’m just taking them as they come,” she said after, declining to comment more specifically on free agency.
With team executives in Miami anyway, it’s likely they will meet with other free agents as well. It might be an efficient way to conduct signings, but it’s also pretty unprecedented. Prior to Unrivaled, players were scattered all over the world during the offseason, or not playing at all. Now, WNBA executives can watch the free agents’ progress live on national television twice a week. And fact that all these players are mingling and hanging out throughout this free agency period certainly has the potential to affect signings.
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The first free agency domino fell when Annie Costabile reported the incoming trade to send Jewell Loyd to the Las Vegas Aces, Kelsey Plum to the LA Sparks and assets to the Seattle Storm. Loyd can already start building chemistry with her new teammates, as many of them are playing in Unrivaled alongside her.
Alyssa Thomas and Satou Sabally’s free agency will be a little different, as they have been cored by the Connecticut Sun and Dallas Wings. Sabally has already announced via Unrivaled media availability that she will be “working with Dallas to make a trade happen.” Thomas has not announced anything to that regard, but she would also require a trade out of Connecticut if she wanted to leave.
Having the WNBA’s best all conveniently in one place during the height of free agency has the potential to really shake things up.
Player of the Week: Napheesa Collier, again
Collier started this league, and she seems to be ending any other teams’ hopes of winning it as well. The Lunar Owls have not lost a game since Unrivaled tipped off a week and a half ago, and they now sit at 4-0 after two weekends of play.
There is a lot of pressure on Collier as one of the founders of the league as well. After the Lunar Owls’ win over Rose, she said that creating this league feels like “when you throw a party … you want people show up and have fun, you know? So there’s just, like, more stress than if you’re just showing up.” The pressure on her shows up both as a player, to play well, and as a businesswoman, to help the league succeed.
She also discussed how she gets to see both sides of the Unrivaled experience, as both a player and a co-founder. Her husband, Alex Bazzell, serves as Unrivaled’s President, and now that the season is underway, she gets a sense from him of how much logistics are still going on behind the scenes. Yet, she talked about the need to “compartmentalize” when it’s time to play.
“While I’m playing basketball, I’m just playing basketball,” Collier said.
In Saturday’s game against Phantom BC, Collier scored 37 points and put up 18 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, and 1 block. Then, on Monday, she scored 19 points and made 17 rebounds over Vinyl BC.
After Phantom BC’s loss to the Lunar Owls, Phantom coach Adam Harrington spoke on Collier’s toughness. “She’s one action to the next,” Harrington said. “She’s going to make her teammates better. With somebody like that, you just want to try to make it tough for her, make it hard for her. Looking at the box score, we probably could have did a better job at that tonight.”
Collier was also the first player to reach 100 career points in Unrivaled play in just four games.
In a form of basketball she had a hand in creating, Napheesa Collier’s skills transfer well. The 3×3 format, with the spacing that comes along with it and the fact that it’s full court, has many advantages to Collier’s specific skill set.
“I think [the format] just reaffirmed my strength. I liked being the paint, and I think taking those two extra people allows me more freedom in there,” Collier said. “Also, I’ve been working on my three a lot, so getting more comfortable with that and just having the confidence to have a green light and to pull whenever I want has really, I think, catapulted my game.”
The transformation and expansion of these players’ games before another WNBA season is truly the mission statement of Unrivaled.
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League Standings:
Laces BC (4-0)
Lunar Owls (4-0)
Vinyl BC (2-2)
Phantom BC (1-3)
Rose BC (1-3)
Mist BC (0-4)
Next Week’s Slate:
Friday, Jan. 31:
Phantom BC vs Rose BC – 7:15pm
Laces BC vs Lunar Owls BC – 8:15pm
Saturday Feb. 1:
Mist BC vs Vinyl BC – 6:00pm
Rose BC vs Laces BC – 7:00pm
Monday, Feb. 3:
Mist BC vs Phantom BC – 7:30pm
Lunar Owls BC vs Vinyl BC – 8:30pm
