Unrivaled Basketballs luxury touches raising the bar for womens pro sports

The dry heat radiating within the sauna caused sweat to drip down Courtney Williams’ brow.Williams had plopped herself onto the wooden bench as part of her recovery from Lunar Owls practice.She had plans to get a massage, too, after she wrapped up her Unrivaled media obligations.Life as a player in the new 3-on-3 women’s basketball league appears to be quite swell.“They literally are laying out the red carpet,” said Williams, who’d likely be playing in China this offseason from the Minnesota Lynx had Unrivaled not called.

“We have everything available to become the best versions [of ourselves], the best basketball players we could be.”Unrivaled Basketball is the latest sports league launching during this unprecedented surge of interest in women’s sports and has already had an impact on the women’s professional basketball ecosystem.Co-founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, Unrivaled is set to tip off its inaugural season in Miami on Friday with many of the best 36 WNBA players in tow, including Sabrina Ionescu, Brittney Griner and Angel Reese.The biggest takeaway from Unrivaled’s preseason has been about the luxury offerings for participants.And several players, including Griner, said the league’s setup is going to “put pressure” on the WNBA.“Unrivaled is showing that you don’t need a lot of time to pull resources together to be able to put a good product out there,” Griner said.

“Being happy with what we already have is not gonna fly here at Unrivaled and I think that’s what’s going to help the W — or it should, hopefully … help the W push forward.”Unrivaled was not only created to offer players another offseason avenue to supplement their WNBA income, but it was also constructed with skill development and the player experience as top priorities.One of the aims of Unrivaled is to set a standard for how women professional athletes should be treated.

Additionally, keeping some of the WNBA’s biggest stars state...