Unrivaled unveils the head coaches who will lead its six inaugural teams

On Friday, the league announced it has hired Teresa Weatherspoon, Phil Handy, Adam Harrington, Nola Henry, DJ Sackmann and Andrew Wade to fill those head coaching roles.

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Unrivaled will hold its club selection on Nov. 20, where the coaches will create team rosters. Each player in the league has been sorted into groups A through F based on their skills and positions. The coaches will then separate them into evenly balanced teams, keeping in mind having a balanced roster as well as pairs the fans would love to see.

The big twist: The coaches won’t know which roster they will coach until after the selection process is over. This will ensure there is no scheming to get certain players on their rosters.

Fans of the WNBA will know Weatherspoon’s name well. As a player, she is a league legend with New York Liberty and Los Angeles Sparks credentials. She coached at the college level after retiring from playing, before serving as an assistant coach for the New Orleans Pelicans in the NBA. In 2024, she served as the head coach for the Chicago Sky, but they let her go shortly after the season ended. Through her one season with the Sky, she formed a strong relationship with the franchise’s young star, Angel Reese, who has already been announced as an Unrivaled player.

Phil Handy comes to Unrivaled with a ton of experience as an assistant in the NBA. He coached for the Los Angeles Lakers, Cleveland Cavaliers and Toronto Raptors before returning to the Lakers. Handy was also a player in the late ’90s internationally, and this will be his first head coaching position.

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Adam Harrington is another player-turned-coach. He played for the Dallas Mavericks and Denver Nuggets in the NBA before having an expansive overseas career, retiring in 2010. He started his coaching career with the Oklahoma City Thunder as a shooting coach before a longer stint with the Brooklyn Nets. Unrivaled will also be his first head coaching gig.

Nola Henry played college basketball at College of Charleston and University of Massachusetts before working her way up as a coach from the University of Hartford to the Connecticut Sun. She started as an equipment manager for the Sun and eventually became an assistant coach. Her most recent role was as an assistant for the Sparks.

DJ Sackmann is a NBA/WNBA skills coach and the founder of HoopStudy, an online basketball education resource. He runs training events across the world and is also a motivational speaker. He spends time with college and NBA coaches, helping them with their skills as well as helping to develop their players.

Andrew Wade has a plethora of experience in the sport and even had a stint as a basketball blogger. Most recently, he coached for the Washington Mystics and the Capital City Go-Go (the Washington Wizards’ G-League affiliate). He served for three seasons as a player development coach for the Mystics, meaning he has experience coaching a few of the Unrivaled players coming into the league.

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These announcements are a part of Unrivaled’s larger rollout as the league prepares for its first season. After announcing the league would be expanding from 30 roster spots to 36 before the first season even started, it has continued revealing players. It also showed off its court and venue layout earlier this week:

The league will kick off its first season with six clubs that will be home to six players. The clubs do not have any ties to geographical locations, and the entire first season will be played in Miami, Florida. The clubs are called the Mist, the Laces, the Lunar Owls, the Vinyl, the Rose and the Phantom.

They still have a handful of player announcements to roll out before then, and players will report to Miami in early January, before the league tips off on Jan. 17. It has already been announced that TNT Sports will be the primary broadcaster for the league.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly reported where Nola Henry played collegiate basketball. The article has been updated.