January 6, 2025 • 40 mins
We’re starting 2025 with our “New Year, New Leagues” series of shows, bringing you everything you need to know about the new professional women's leagues kickin' off, tippin' off, first pitchin' and first servin’ their way into our hearts in 2025. First up, Unrivaled Basketball president Alex Bazzell joins Sarah to talk about the stars, stakes, stats and stories in the new 3-on-3 league.
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Follow Unrivaled Basketball here, and follow the basketball clubs too!
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Watch the Unrivaled roster selection here
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Follow Alex @alexbazzell on IG
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Follow Unrivaled player and co-founder Napheesa Collier here
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Follow Unrivaled player and co-founder Breanna Stewart here
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Follow Unrivaled player Sabrina Ionescu here
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're wondering
what sort of video hint the Unrivaled social team would
post to tease our announcement as a player in the league.
Maybe folks high fiving and then a middle finger. You know,
good game, Good game for you. It's Monday, January sixth,
and today kicks off our new year, New league's series
of shows serving up everything you need to know about
(00:20):
the new professional women's leagues. Kicking off tipping off, first pitching,
and first serving their way into our hearts in twenty
twenty five. Today's league unrival a new professional three on
three women's basketball league founded in twenty twenty three by
WNBA stars Nafisa Collier and Brianna Stewart in part to
allow WNBA players to play domestically in the offseason. President
(00:42):
of Unrivaled Alex Bazell joins the show to give us
the stakes, stars, stories and stats we need to be
ready for tip off. It's all coming up right after this,
(01:04):
All right, slices, Welcome to new Year, New leagues today,
Unrivaled joining us to tell us everything we need to
know about the league. He's the president of Unrivaled, basketball
at WNBA and NBA skills coach and co founder of
Through the Lens, a subscription based video product and education
platform featuring WNBA and NBA stars. He's one half of
(01:25):
a power couple with WNBA superstar wife Defisa Collier and
dad Slash bee Keeper.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
To daughter Mila, it's Alex Bizell. What's up, Alex?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
How you doing?
Speaker 4 (01:35):
That was a great introduction, and it's very kind to
say I'm half of a power couple. I'm probably like
a tenth of the of the full, but I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
When you put all the transformers together, it really doesn't
matter which part is caring most of the load, right,
It's what's the end poduct?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Right?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Like, before we get into Unrivaled, let's talk about what
the pro women's basketball spaces look like during the WNBA
off season for.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
The past couple DECs.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
It's kind of tell us what the options were and
what it looked like beyond the WNBA for players.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Traditionally, these players have had to go overseas to maximize
earnings because of just the reality of the economics in
the space, and while you're playing you have basically hopefully
a ten year window If you're a great player to
maximize those earnings. So the off season, most these players
on the women's side have had to play notoriously for
(02:26):
you know, full twelve months out of the year. Now
we're getting to a point where you're seeing less players
go overseas really in the last probably like five years
or so, where you're making enough off the court to
subsidize that earning. But you still are getting a majority
of people who are playing in the off season, whether
it's with you know, athletes unlimited when they came around,
(02:49):
overseas still being a thing, but there was really no
solution in totality for the top players because even if
you were staying home, you had the luxury to stay
home because you were making enough, you weren't able to
sharpen your skills or work on your game, and you
could see a lot of that Russ come out in
real time when the season started, you know, for the
(03:11):
FISA specifically, she's played overseas. I think half of her
off seasons, other half she stayed home, whether she was
pregnant or chose to stay home. And she's always said,
you know, it's it's tough being away from family when
you go overseas, but also she's more in a groove
when the season starts and she's more in rhythm, and
(03:31):
so there's a fine balance of that. So that's why
she's always preferred to play sometime in the off season,
not the full year round. But that's what's always been
imperfect about that. You have to choose being away from family,
giving up brand opportunities, resting your body, or you know,
vice versa.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Maximizing that off season making more money.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
So that it was always just like you have to
you have to choose which side of the fence you
want to be on.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
And then, of course in recent years it got even
more serious with Britney Griner, where there were certains about
the places people were playing and the potential outcomes of
playing in places where the country doesn't operate the same
way that we do, so safety issues abound. You've been
working as a skills coach with both NBA and WNBA
players for years. I love the thinking behind through the Lens,
which is about not just creating content, but data capture,
(04:18):
which is what businesses due with the content created by athletes,
while the athletes are left without all that data when
they retire.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
To be able to use to create further business.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
But because of all that time that you've spent both
with men and women players, and then additionally your relationship
with NAFISA, I imagine that made it pretty evident to
you just how different off seasons are for both sides,
and just how different it is to expect the highest
skill level when you don't have time off to work
on things specifically outside of games, or when you aren't
(04:47):
playing year round. Was that part of the growth and
birth of Unrivaled conversations with NAFISA about that kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, I mean one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
And I've been spending most my in LA up until
this last offseason because I was working with athletes and
seeing what it takes for them to be prepared, both
through skilled workouts and also pickup games, you know, like
through the lens. We've been kind of the spot that
been showcasing these pickup games with KD and Kyrie and
players like that and Trey Young. It's just such a
(05:20):
vast difference, right, So, even thinking about the players who
stay home the college teams are in season, you can't
really play against them. Their peers in the WNBA are
spread out throughout the country.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Or overseas, so.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
They don't really get to come together and play pickup
games to say what the NBA players do. So it's
just such a disadvantage. And even looking at the recovery
and the PT and the strength and conditioning, you know, granted,
there's now there's organizations that are keeping these players in
market and working with them, but it's not the same
(05:54):
as a player development person. You can't just work out
all season or offseason like you have to go against
live competition, real live competition. You have to play the game.
You can still certainly improve, but that's been what has
been most adamant against some of the most skilled players
I've ever worked with, whether it's Kyrie or Carmelo or
Trey Young. You have to play a few times a
(06:17):
week to make sure you're now working or trying to
implement things that you're training on throughout the off season,
which the women, once again really don't have.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
So take us back to the first time you heard
about the idea of unrivaled first iteration and your first reaction.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
It was really it was really just about solving something
in the marketplace and understanding what candidly our family would
want to sign up for It's why we chose to
start the league in early January, where players could be
home for the holidays and be around their families. And
even when you look at the off seasons of the
(06:52):
length of off season, you know, if you play in
the WNBA finals and play in our season, you still
have four months of full off season, which is longer
than NBA players have, right, So, I think there's this
misconception that if you play in the off season, you're
not getting the ample rest, which is one hundred percent
not true. And you know, even hiring some of the
(07:13):
key strength and conditioning and recovery people that we have,
they've said it's almost a disadvantage to be resting that long.
So that's where I think we've always looked at, what
is the solution here for just the athlete. Take away
the business side of it, take away the exposure, what
is just the optimal thing for an athlete schedule, and
then start there and grow from there. And then we
(07:33):
started bringing on, you know, people who had worked at
different leagues, whether it's overtime, you know, being at ESPN
or being on the media side, and just understanding what
then the opportunity is from a business component. So it
slowly started progressing. And when you think about the league,
it's like, Okay, you're going to hire some reps, hire
some coaches, play some games, go home, and there's so
(07:55):
many complexities that go along with it, you know, whether
it's insurance and liability and making sure that the recovery
is in place and the schedules in place for six
teams to be under one roof. So there's just so
much that goes into it and just takes time naturally,
But it really just started with conversations and evolved with
more conversations over time, and now here we are.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Well and you've certainly made more than just a pickup
league that athletes can come get some games in. This
has become truly a business, an exciting business that might
be changing the way other women's leagues operate and look
at things. It's been really innovative and very cool to watch.
So let's get everyone ready for this inaugural season, a
little unrivaled one oh one. Let's start with the teams,
(08:38):
which are actually called basketball clubs, got clubs dot teams?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
How many are there? And who are they?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
You're putting me on the spot with who are they?
But we have six.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
We have six clubs which are teams, and we have
essentially six roster spots per team. You know, when we
originally started, we wanted to go with five per team.
That was kind of the optimal number, and then the
business kept progressing, like, well, let's add, you know, a
few more opportunities for players that we want and that
we know we want to progress too. So you know,
I know we have the Vinyl Basketball Club, we have
(09:10):
the Laces Basketball Club, we have the Phantom Basketball Club.
Those are three of them. We have the Lunar Owls
Basketball Club.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I'm gonna throw you one.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I'm gonna throw you the mist which I only remember
because of my team's not gonna be one letter off voice,
so that's not gonna be my squad.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
And the Rose Basketball Club.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
There we go.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Those are the six, right, So obviously I'm not exactly
the creative within our team, but it was fun seeing
that process unfold, and I think what the reason we
went with the namings that we did in basketball club
specifically is because we don't have city affiliations, right These
aren't New York, LA Chicago based for right now, we
do leave open the opportunity to sell these these franchises
(09:53):
in the next year two three years, But we wanted
to build a sense of community still where you could
identify with this club and be a part of something
that's still a community without it being city affiliated.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
And we know ultimately that people are coming because of
the names on the back, not necessarily the names on
the front. So it's knowing that and leaning into that
and trying to morph these teams personalities with the players
that are coming in.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
You mentioned six players per team.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
For those listening that aren't aware of the format, they
might think, wow, that's not a lot of subs, but
this is a three x three league. Tell folks what
to expect when it comes to rules and format because
it's not quite the same as the three x three
that they might have watched at the Olympics.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
I think one thing we've always talked about for the product,
and this is where I really had to dive deeper,
was what would be a great product for the fans,
And three on three half court for me is just
it's tougher to watch just for me, right, And that's
just my that's my feedback.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
It could be different for other people.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
But I think basketball is meant to have flow in
terms of a little bit of up and down. You
should be able to walk the ball, should be was
run the ball. You should be able to choose opportunities
based on the game and how it flows. Whereas half
court is more hectic, right, it's get the ball out,
come right back. And I think for us it was
about that number one to Our court is seventy feet
(11:15):
not ninety four feet, so it's about two thirds the
size of a regulation court, and it's more spacing.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Right, So think about the WNBA.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
The WNBA is a great game, but I hear all
the time, you know, from Stewey Fee, from these stars,
it's like I wish I had more space, Right, I'm
always I'm always double teamed. Every time I try to dribble,
There's three people around me, and we would just wanted
to open the court up to showcase just how talented
these players are. So it's it's still basketball. It's still competitive.
(11:45):
There's still defensive orientation, but imagine Brandon Stewart with a
little bit more freedom, Imagine Rique with a little bit
more freedom. Like there's still that element of teamwork, but
it's going to be exciting to watch where we're really
leaning into the.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Talent of the of the best.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, you get to see the handles, you get to
see working in space, you get to see some of
the pickup elements that aren't as prevalent in a regular
W game. I'm also I was always the center who
could run, so I would hate a half court because
then I couldn't be beating the other bigs on the
breakwads exactly, So I love that aspect. So the court size,
is there any other league that uses that size quarter?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
How did you come up with those dimensions?
Speaker 1 (12:22):
No?
Speaker 4 (12:22):
What's funny is you know my home gym that I
used to run my academies out of in Saint Louis,
it was about that to mention. So we had played
three on three, four on four, five on five. So
I've spent a lot of time on that size gym,
and even the WNB and mbpa's gym in New York
is a little bit shorter, but it's it's you see
it all the time. You see it at parks. You
(12:43):
know they're not full ninety four feet courts, and you
can see how the game flows and works. So it
was just over time and then testing it with NBA players,
college players, WNBA players, seeing what the what it looked like,
testing out shot clock length and quarter length and things
like that. So people are going to be surprised where
(13:04):
most three on three games are anywhere from you know,
twenty one points to the winner, sixteen points depending if
the clock runs out. You know, our games are going
to be in the sixties, seventies, eighties, which will surprise
a lot of people, but it'll still be basketball. You know,
we didn't want to make it a gimmick. We didn't
want to turn it into like this, you.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Know, allsto rocking.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
No one's trying. Yeah, so it'll be fun for people.
I think they'll be really shocked once they see the
product in a good way.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Was there any reticence to having to adjust to shots
and spaces that will change when they get back.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
To the W No, Because basketball is played in actions
of three, right, So you always have three people within
an action, whether it's a ball screen, ball handler, screener,
and then the first person off the ball that's going
to rotate like that's generally how basketball actions work. Or
off the ball, you have a pin down, you have
the person with the ball, and you have someone coming
off the curl or screen or whatever it might be,
(13:59):
and that's where the other two players are usually spacing.
You very rarely have four or five all in an
action at one time. So what we think this will
do to prepare players for five on five is open
up that decision making in freedom right where the reads
are a little bit more simple. But it builds confidence
(14:19):
over time to where you get into this habit to
when you put two extra players on the court. Now
it's more of a seamless transition. So quite honestly, if
you ask most player development people, three on three is
the best form of development because the balls.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
In your hand more right, you're a part of these
actions more consistently. As opposed to a five on five.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
Game, you may get one fourth of those opportunities where
you still have to just get reps in all players
just need reps to keep growing their game.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
We got to take a break.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
When we come back with Alex, we're going to talk
about who the players are, who the coaches are, and
those crazy rollouts given us hints about which player was
going to be named next.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
It's coming up.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
We're back with Alex talking about Unrivaled. Let's talk about
these creative rollouts for players. We've got the full list
of participants at our fingertips, so we don't have to
name all of them, but I want to hear how
those players were selected. Who's the brain trust that thought
these are the few players from the w that we
really want to go after.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Initially I was heavily involved in that process where I
spent a lot of time on the women's side watching it,
being around the feast, so working with a number of
these players on the court, because our game's a little
bit different than five on five, right, you have to
be a little bit more skill oriented, probably more.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Mobile in our game.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
But it was really just identifying it's pretty obvious, right,
who are the top ten twelve players in the world.
You can just look at the pool of Team USA
who made the team, a few players who didn't make
the team, and it's like, okay, let's start there, and
then from there then you start identifying who's in, who's out,
and then morphing these teams.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Right.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
So the way we looked at it is we wanted
at least two bigs or hybrid bigs on each on
each team, right, So once you fill those spots out,
then you can identify who would be perfect in these spots, right,
and you look at you know, Vee and Stewie and
Satu more hybrid post and then you go into the
Beg's of the world, who are obviously more traditional posts
(16:20):
and trying to find that mixture and balance. So, you know,
we really looked at in three buckets. Number one is
if you had to rank who the top players in
the world on traditionally, what.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Does that look like?
Speaker 4 (16:30):
Then if you had to put that into our format,
how did the name start shifting on the board? And
then third is there's a business side of this, right
who is driving fan interest? You look at jersey sales,
you look at shoe sales, you look at attendance and
viewership of those team specific games, and then you look
at their social media following how active they are, what
their engagement is. All these play a factor into what
(16:53):
this ranking looks like and spits out, okay, who are
the top you know, thirty thirty six targets that we
would want to identifying after and then over time, thankfully
I got to get out of that realm and step
back where we hired Claire Deuilius from the links, you know,
Luke Cooper, who's our president of basketball Operations, who came
over from Overtime, the lead who was a heavy part
(17:14):
of the formation of this league. And then it's just
about filling who we think, not necessarily who is the
best best player we can get, but who fits into
these openings and these teams, right, because you need a balance.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
When you were making those picks, you sort of were
assigning people to clubs as you went.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
We did mocks right, so we don't assign the players
that went through the coaches, but we wanted to mock
out making sure you know, who are the primary ball
handlers the posts, and then doing our own layout and
then from there then the.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Pool gets set.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Got it, okay, So we'll get to the coaches selecting players.
There was a lot of rumors and my former boss,
John Skipper, who's one of the investors in Unrivaled, was
on his show talking about the push for Caitlin Clark.
How disappointing was it that she didn't end up deciding
to play at least this season.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
I don't you know, like listen, disappointment would be a
bit of a stretch. I think we wanted Caitlin, right,
I think that's very clear. I think anyone who is
in our shoes would one hundred percent one. Caitlyn gets
clear the data, the numbers she brings. It's an outlier situation.
She's incredible, and she's a great talent too, like and
(18:24):
I think that's somewhat was lost in translation sometimes of like,
of course Caitlyn moves the needle, but Caitlyn's also one
of the best players in the world. She was first
team All WNBA as a rookie, and you want those
players one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
And her passing in the three x three would be
fun as hell.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
She would be.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
She's really built for this style. Like she's she's the
perfect hybrid of speed. She's much faster than people think.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Right.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
She can shoot it from deep, which stretches out the
court even more in this system. So yeah, like listen,
she was she was a heavy, heavy priority for us.
We had to find a balance, candidly to give her time.
Right she was rushed from college to draft to pros
to then you know, she was in conversations every day.
(19:08):
Some of these conversations were very unfortunate conversations that were
going out throughout social media right then, then it was
about Team USA and then you went through all that
like there was really never a downtime unfortunately, and for her,
she ultimately just wanted this off season to take a break,
which we get, you know for sure. I think for us,
if you ask us, like, Okay, what's the plan moving forward,
(19:29):
I've said this multiple times, like we're going to be
a league that always has a spot for Caitlin.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Now, at the same time, we have to we have
to build out rosters.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
We got to be fair to our collective roster space,
and we want to we want to work with players
who also want to be in the league. And I
think we're very hopeful she wants to play in the
league after seeing this season and resting, but for now,
you know, unfortunately.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
She's not in the league.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
But yeah, I think we're really pumped about the rosters
we've built.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Yeah, maybe hard to be disappointed when you're outperforming expectations
in terms of investors, outperforming expectations in terms of the
number of players you can have on rosters, because you're
already performing better than you thought you would in this
first iteration. So it's been really cool to watch and
to see y'all be very transparent about that stuff via
social so that people can see that this league is
(20:18):
really building in a way that maybe was unexpected.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Right off the top, what.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Is the scale of pay based on who's deciding how
much each player is getting paid? Is it basketball folks,
is it marketing folks? And then what's the sliding scale
sort of based.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
On So I think essentially we number one, are really
proud of how much we're able to invest into the
players in it being a really sound decision, you know,
like if you think about we have thirty six roster spots, right,
our advantages we have low overhead, We don't have twelve
teams soon to be what sixteen fifteen sixteen in the
WNBA in twelve different markets with travel and all those things.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
That really lead to a lot of cost.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
And then too we have a shortened season, you know,
so the cost of staffing and simple stuff security referees,
game day operations like those start shrinking to where now
you can invest more aggressively for the athletes. So in
terms of how those decisions were made, what we try
to always be is like our keyword here is being
fair to each player, you know, like what is their
(21:17):
market value? What are they commanding overseas, are they playing overseas?
And then what are their accomplishments?
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Right? What have they done today? You know?
Speaker 4 (21:24):
So what we try to do a structure it based on,
you know, w accomplishments. Where are they at in their career,
what are they averaging in real time? Like what do
their stats look like today with the accomplishments last season?
And then you put that into trying to just be
as fair as possible and knowing what would it take
to get these players. What's great about this you could
(21:46):
look at this as a positive or negative, is the
market is changing in real time. Right Like when we
started this, if we would have when we first came
up with this concept, what two years ago, our pool
probably would have been half of that. I think that's
what we had planned initially. But the space is just
progressed so much, which is great. I think the other
thing that people don't realize is we are one hundred
(22:11):
percent transforming this industry in terms of what is expected
from a pay perspective, right and it's not just here
domestically like you're seeing overseas raise you know a lot
the money's coming up. China's adding more roster spots like
you know, and we've candidly been on the inside of
a lot of conversation, is what would it take to
(22:32):
get this player and they're making a ton overseas or
you're like, you should one hundred percent do that, right,
you should one hundred percent Like So, we've been in
a lot of conversations where even we've come to mutual
agreements with a few players that someone came over the
top and threw them a ton of money overseas, and
we're like, you should one hundred percent do that, right.
So I think that's what's like really cool is we
(22:53):
are moving that needle forward for not just these players
in our league, but even players not playing in our
league during the off Season's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
It's also very cool.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
I love beyond the graphics and the teases about who
the players will be, the social also has some very
cool sort of infographics about how the players are involved.
Each inaugural athlete getting an equity stake. There's some really
cool business side things to this for the athletes. As
far as any other wrap rounds other benefits we don't
know about, whether that's healthcare, other things in addition to
that equity stake we've heard about.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
Yeah, I mean, we have insurance policies in place for
if the players get hurt, you know, we protect them
in that way. The other side of this is, yeah,
we have for the mothers in our league, which I
believe we have five or six now, we have childcare
on site for them to make sure that they're comfortable,
(23:44):
and you know during game nights of full staff, which
most w NBA teams have. Now, you know, so we've
also thought about the revenue share specifically. You know most well,
most people don't realize when it comes to even like
any major league traditionally goes through the players union, they
pay their cost and then they figure out what is
left to now distribute when it comes to jersey sales
(24:07):
or you know, if you do a deal with trading
card companies and utilize players' names and images, what is
that split? Right, So what we try to do is
upfront saying this isn't a split on profit, it's a
split on revenue. So like we don't get paid first
and say what's left to give to the athletes. If
we're selling an angel reach jersey, she should one hundred
(24:29):
percent see the benefits of that and right now, they're
really not right. You see all these Caitlin Clark jerseys
walking around, and it's a bit of a model that
needs to be fixed because they're not buying these jerseys
because they want to wear the Fever. They're buying it
because they want to wear Caitlyn Clark or Angel Reese
(24:49):
or Brienna Stewart. And that was something like from day one,
we were saying, it's great to pay him, it's great
to give him equity, but they're not buying those jerseys.
Those players are in those jerseys. So there's certain things
like that that we've tried to be really aggressive with
so that the players know that we're not trying to
take advantage of them being here. And ultimately, this ship
(25:12):
is going to go, you know, as north as it
can go if the players are all in on it,
and as long as we're taking care of them being
fair every step along the way, we're going to be
in a really good spot.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Okay, let's do a little speed roun on logistics. Where
are the games being played in Miami? In Miami and
the same kind of court and arena for every game
every game?
Speaker 4 (25:32):
In year one, year two, we will do a tour model,
will go to four different cities, but will still be
predominantly focused in Miami.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
And what are the league dates?
Speaker 4 (25:40):
We begin January seventeenth, opening night.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Players arrive January second.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
So we have a two week build up, media day,
training camp, and then the finals is on I believe
March seventeenth.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
And how does that season format work in terms of
how many teams make a playoff and then a championship.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
Yeah, so of the six teams that play throughout the
course of the year, it's basically a round robin's schedule
where you're going to see them playing different teams each week.
Top four seeds make the playoffs into a single elimination
final four, with the ultimate prize going to the last
person the last team standing.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
And it sounds like there's a coach for each team
and then sort of a basketball director who oversees the
single entity larger unrivaled.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
Yes, so we own all six teams right now. You know,
Claire Dewillias is our GM and really runs all ops
for us there on the basketball.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Side, alongside Luke Cooper and Lou Layman.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
And you know, from there, each team has a head
coach and assistant coach and a club coordinator, right, so
they all have their own many organizations they're working through,
so the players know who to communicate with, and then
it funnels up the line on things that we need
to take care of.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
And once you hired those coaches, you had a draft
of sorts from the pool of existing players.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
We did, yeah, we brought the six coaches in. We
placed the players in pods, so a lot of the
players that are similar, you know, Fisa to Stewie, they
go in a pod and then they start. Basically what
we did was all the coaches started placing these players
on different clubs without knowing who they were going to coach.
All right, So for the sake of being as fair
(27:15):
as possible for the teams and splitting them up, we
didn't want coaches knowing who they were going to coach
or who they were picking. Otherwise you could get people
who aren't very good drafters see any time in sports,
and then you have people who are just biased who
want to pull the player to their team. So it
was an interesting thing having them split it. And then
after the fact, we assigned who the head coaches would
(27:36):
be very.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Cool, very sneaky, who are some of the coaches whose
names you might recognize.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
Teresa Witherspoon, who was the head coach of this guy
last year. We're really excited to bring her in. Phil Handy,
who's been assistant coach for years and the NBA won
three different championships in three different cities. Adam Harrington who's
been on staff for the Brooklyn Nets and been in
the NBA for years, player development driven as well. Nola
(28:04):
Henry who's been an assistant previously last year and actually
took over for the game that Kurt Miller missed to
coach the Sparks. Andrew Wade at the Mystics, and then
DJ Sackman, who's one of the best trainers I've ever
been around.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Though, that's our group that we're really excited about.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
And we missed out on a few which is like,
we had a few coaches that we wanted that ended
up in different spots and organizations, which we're happy for
this year in the WNBA, But I think we're really
thrilled about the staff that we put together.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, and if folks want to watch those coaches making
those selections and figuring out the player movement, there was
actually a video of that released on YouTube, so we'll
link to it in our show notes for folks listening
if they want to watch. Okay, if we want to
be an educated viewer of the three x three game,
can we watch the Olympics to get a general idea
or is there some other place that had a more
similar to your style?
Speaker 3 (28:55):
You can't. Our style is the only style.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Right, proprietary information.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
You got to watch this January seventeenth on T and T.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Okay, so let's talk about that.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Folks can watch on TNT streaming across those platforms related channels.
Who's calling the games, doing sidelines, that kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
That's information I can't disclose yet. We have a formal
release coming out with TNT. People are going to be
really excited about our talent calling the games, even in
studio through T and T because we'll have a studio show.
But you know, before and after, I believe every game night.
What's so unique about this is we are the only
league in the world that has every single game on
(29:36):
national broadcast television. Right so for any league, including the NFL.
You know, because we have such a limited amount of games,
we're able to bring this to the fans where they
don't have to go search right, they don't find what network,
they don't have to go to the league pass, they
don't have to go anywhere. But so that was like
priority number one for us where we feel like we're
now growing the game and helping people find it pretty easily.
(29:56):
So these so these stars continue to be seen and
keep growing their brands too.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Where can folks get tickets to watch in person?
Speaker 4 (30:02):
You can go to our website, Unrivaled dot Basketball. It'll
take you through the ticket master. But I believe we
have still a few tickets left. I think we're about
ninety nine point nine percent sold out. We have not
sold our one on one tickets yet, which is the
week of February tenth, and we haven't sold for playoffs yet.
So there's going to be more releases coming shortly, and.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
The viewing experience will be different from a normal basketball game.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Huh, it will be, you know.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
That's where you know, John Skipper played a huge part initially.
He was one of our first big investors, and I've
spent a lot of time with John on going through
what does this need to look like? You know, how
why would media be excited about hosting something like this,
So I think the way I always like to refer
to it, there's two sides. There's an in person experience
(30:49):
and then there's the viewer at home. In person, you
can kind of expect like a Broadway show on steroids.
I'm a big Broadway show person in New York. I've
spent a lot of time there with the FISA. And
then you know, when you're watching at home, it's going
to feel faster, it's going to feel a little bit
more intimate because you know, we have a rail cam
that follows on the court. We're shooting from much closer
as opposed to section two fifty like most big arena
(31:11):
shoot from. So you're going to feel a little bit
closer to the to the action. And you know, we
have a great partner and turner where you're going to
have so many different views of cameras, whether it's on
top of the backboard or on the baseline. So I
think people are going to be really excited about the
experience they get at home.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
I'm pumped for that.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
I'm very excited about everything you guys have rolled out,
have just been super impressed by, including some of the
young stars investing before they're even eligible to play. What
was the impetus for getting folks like Flaw and pagebackers
to kind of commit already.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
I think we always have an emphas to usher in
the new star, you know, the stars of tomorrow, like
the future in our case, really focusing on Page and
flage A and obviously Juju. You know, Juju's a little
further out. But you know, we want to be a
spot where any star in college they have aspirations to
(32:04):
eventually try to make it into the WNBA, and we
want to have that same mindset with us. So it
was important for us to have a touch point early
to work on marketing deals andil deals, even bring them
into the player ownership group. So it's not a secret
we want these players in our league and we want
to make sure that we let them feel like they're
(32:24):
a part of this from day one, not when they're
eligible to play in the league, when that time comes.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Okay, last couple here.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
You've got the players, you've got the units, you've got
the court, you've got the TV deal. What about behind
the scenes in terms of support staff, doctors, HR, physical therapist's,
ability for players to report if there's issues with coaches
or not a safe environment. How did that all get
laid out?
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Yeah, we so very early.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
We hired Susan Borchard, who's head of performance and recovery
for Team USA Women's basketball, work with a number of
WNBA players for years, so she helped us build out
the staff and.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
What was the what the standard should be.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
And then honestly, you know, we've built a million and
a half dollar extension of the building we're at right
now to make sure we have more room for the
players to recover and strength train and have the space
they needed to really maximize their off season. And then
we've been able to partner with a lot of great
recovery brands that will be announced shortly, and even one
of the prominent hospitals here in Miami to make sure
(33:23):
we have all the things that we need to on
game days on off days. So, you know, we're really
proud of that side. And again, like we we can't
cut corners when it comes to the player experience because
we want them to leave here and become now part
of that routine where they're like, oh my god, I
can't every off season I have to be here. Yeah,
you know, because I was just so prepared for what
(33:44):
I'm trying to do and you know, be out throughout
the WNBA season.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Like an effective and well paying summer camp that you're like,
I can't wait to.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Get back, can't wait do That's what we say.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Okay, my not yet trademarked, but should be trademarked approach
to telling folks about a new league, or taking someone
to a game they've iver benge you before, or even
sometimes just thinking about how I want to tell stories
on the show is summed up by the four US's stars,
stake stats, and stories. I think if you give people
those four things, they're much more interested and invested.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
In whatever you're going to try to get them to watch.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
So let's close with the speed round of those for
Unrivaled Stars, we could start with Fee and Brianna Stewart.
Couldn't have been a better way to tee up Unrivaled
first season than to have those two battling it out
in the WNBA finals.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
I imagine we.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Expect some fireworks from that to start off this inaugural season.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
I think, so there's still a bit of a I
think good tension between that or if I've had to
kind of like manage both sides of it, but I
think inevitably, like they're really excited for it. But yeah,
we wanted to start off the season and kind of
address the elephant in the room, which is a finals rematch.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Will you have the same officials for their first match?
Speaker 3 (34:50):
We won't.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
We won't.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Let's not do that any other stars or any other
names because a couple folks unfortunately due to injury or
otherwise had to drop out, leaving a couple open spots.
We saw cam Brink get announced, but you know, with
a futures contract, she won't be playing till twenty six.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Who else should we keep it out for?
Speaker 4 (35:09):
Yeah, well, you know, I think part of our initial group.
You look at you know, Khalia Copper, you look at
Jackie Young, Satu, Sabli Angel Reese, Chelsea Gray. You know,
we're really excited about kind of the core we built
on each club. Jewel Lloyd anytime you like Jewel Lloyd's
are throwing after the fact that it's.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Such a marigue a gunbawallee in this format is going.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
To go off, right Like yeah, yeah, So that's where
like you look at just the teams, like we have
all stars coming off the bench in our league, right
players who are top two three on their WNBA teams
are kind of they're part of this ecosystem, but they're
not the same go to player, which is going to
be somewhat interesting to see. And I think, uh, you know,
(35:52):
the big announcement that's that's coming out that'll be out
by the time this airs, is Sabrina and Escu joining
the league, so that will be our final player and
is our final player announced and having a sab come
in I think just puts kind of a stamp on this.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
To roll this out in year one.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
So we're really excited about the team and the club
that she's joining, which is the phantom in playing for
Adam Harrington, who she's close with, but playing for with
a former college teammate in Satu Sabai.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
So it's going to be really interesting to see.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Love that.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Okay, quickly stakes, How important is one regular season game
when you've got a short season like this in terms
of setting teams up to make the playoffs win it all?
Speaker 3 (36:33):
It's huge.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
You know, each team plays fourteen regular season games, so
there's not a lot of room for air.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Which I think for us.
Speaker 4 (36:40):
You look at like the NFL schedule right where they play,
what eighteen regular season games you get to really focus
in on locking in on one game where you're going
to get the highest competition possible as opposed to players
trying to pace themselves over the course of a fifty
or eighty game season like the NBA does.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Okay, stats, what's a great stat line in a single
game for a player in three on three?
Speaker 3 (37:00):
Great question that I don't know yet. Okay, you know,
we know what.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
The score totals will be, somewhere sixties and seventies and
outlier situation eighties. I think where you're still going to
see similar you know, high teams of leading scores, maybe
low twenties. But what I'm most curious about is what
does the assist and rebound totals look like? Because you
still have technically the same amount of possessions, but two
(37:26):
less people on each court to take those stats up.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
You keep saying, you know the score totals, is that
based on practice games that you've run?
Speaker 3 (37:34):
Yep, exactly.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
We've been testing this for the last couple of years,
and we even in our facility this week we had
three days of game testing for broadcast referees and our
practice players that we're bringing in cool?
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Is there a shot clock?
Speaker 3 (37:46):
There is?
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Okay, stories, give us a story or two to follow
besides fee versus three in the in the rematch, how
about a player coming back from injury, maybe representing an
underrepresented group.
Speaker 4 (37:58):
Britney Sykes was out mostly ye, people are going to
be really excited to see her back, especially in this format,
with how athletics she is. I think seeing that, seeing
the dynamics of just players, how they mix together, because
what we try to emphasize what the coaches was, can
we have different players playing together that aren't WNBA teammates
as much as possible and then trying to figure out
(38:20):
whose games compliment who? And it's like it's a roll
the dice, right you look at even what happened with
the Links last year. They didn't grab the biggest names
on the free agency market, but they grab players that
mix perfectly for each other and really compliment in each other.
So that's where I'm most interested to see how to's
all unfolds.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Me too, I'm super pumped.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
I also love that the teams are not city based,
because that's allowing our show to have a fake draft
where we're going to use a variety of qualities to
help us whittle down who our teams are.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
And then that.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Wants to talk some shit to each other. So I
love I love that, Alex, Thanks so much for the time.
Congratulations on all the success already before the league is
even started.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Appreciate you giving us a couple of minutes.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
Yeah, of course, thanks, Sarah.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Welcome back, slices.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
We love that you're listening, but we want you to
get in the game every day too, So here's our
good game play of the day. Follow Unrivaled on social
and follow some of the players Alex mentioned, like co
founders Nafisa Collier, who happens to be Alex's wife in
case you didn't catch that connection, Brianna Stewart and Sabrina
and Escu. Plus follow a reporter and content creator Aleah Funschell,
who'll be cranking out content for this inaugural season. One
(39:36):
of the best ways to learn about a new league,
get to know the players and the storylines, and keep
up with games is to have them show up right
in your social timeline.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
So hit that follow button.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
Links to all those accounts are in our show notes,
and don't forget to subscribe or rate and review like this.
The Unrivaled player rollouts rating five out of five clever
hints review. Take a moment to scroll back through the
Unrivaled social feeds and watch all the hints, teasing player announcements,
so much good content. The Unrivaled team has absolutely killed
(40:06):
it from the jump with all the clever teases and
the cool infographics. So go take a look before the
season starts. Now it's your turn, subscribe, rate and review.
Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow. Good Game, Alex, Good Game,
Unrivaled you this super badass league arriving twenty years too
late for yours truly to dream of being unrivaled. Good
(40:28):
Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production
in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can
find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network, our
producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive producers
are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan, and Emily Rudder.
Our editors are Emily Rudder, Britney Martinez, Grace Lynch, and
(40:49):
Lindsay Cradowell. Production assistants from Lucy Jones and I'm Your
Host Sarah Spain.
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're wondering
what sort of video hint the Unrivaled social team would
post to tease our announcement as a player in the league.
Maybe folks high fiving and then a middle finger. You know,
good game, Good game for you. It's Monday, January sixth,
and today kicks off our new year, New league's series
of shows serving up everything you need to know about
(00:20):
the new professional women's leagues. Kicking off tipping off, first pitching,
and first serving their way into our hearts in twenty
twenty five. Today's league unrival a new professional three on
three women's basketball league founded in twenty twenty three by
WNBA stars Nafisa Collier and Brianna Stewart in part to
allow WNBA players to play domestically in the offseason. President
(00:42):
of Unrivaled Alex Bazell joins the show to give us
the stakes, stars, stories and stats we need to be
ready for tip off. It's all coming up right after this,
(01:04):
All right, slices, Welcome to new Year, New leagues today,
Unrivaled joining us to tell us everything we need to
know about the league. He's the president of Unrivaled, basketball
at WNBA and NBA skills coach and co founder of
Through the Lens, a subscription based video product and education
platform featuring WNBA and NBA stars. He's one half of
(01:25):
a power couple with WNBA superstar wife Defisa Collier and
dad Slash bee Keeper.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
To daughter Mila, it's Alex Bizell. What's up, Alex?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
How you doing?
Speaker 4 (01:35):
That was a great introduction, and it's very kind to
say I'm half of a power couple. I'm probably like
a tenth of the of the full, but I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
When you put all the transformers together, it really doesn't
matter which part is caring most of the load, right,
It's what's the end poduct?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Right?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Like, before we get into Unrivaled, let's talk about what
the pro women's basketball spaces look like during the WNBA
off season for.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
The past couple DECs.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
It's kind of tell us what the options were and
what it looked like beyond the WNBA for players.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Traditionally, these players have had to go overseas to maximize
earnings because of just the reality of the economics in
the space, and while you're playing you have basically hopefully
a ten year window If you're a great player to
maximize those earnings. So the off season, most these players
on the women's side have had to play notoriously for
(02:26):
you know, full twelve months out of the year. Now
we're getting to a point where you're seeing less players
go overseas really in the last probably like five years
or so, where you're making enough off the court to
subsidize that earning. But you still are getting a majority
of people who are playing in the off season, whether
it's with you know, athletes unlimited when they came around,
(02:49):
overseas still being a thing, but there was really no
solution in totality for the top players because even if
you were staying home, you had the luxury to stay
home because you were making enough, you weren't able to
sharpen your skills or work on your game, and you
could see a lot of that Russ come out in
real time when the season started, you know, for the
(03:11):
FISA specifically, she's played overseas. I think half of her
off seasons, other half she stayed home, whether she was
pregnant or chose to stay home. And she's always said,
you know, it's it's tough being away from family when
you go overseas, but also she's more in a groove
when the season starts and she's more in rhythm, and
(03:31):
so there's a fine balance of that. So that's why
she's always preferred to play sometime in the off season,
not the full year round. But that's what's always been
imperfect about that. You have to choose being away from family,
giving up brand opportunities, resting your body, or you know,
vice versa.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Maximizing that off season making more money.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
So that it was always just like you have to
you have to choose which side of the fence you
want to be on.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
And then, of course in recent years it got even
more serious with Britney Griner, where there were certains about
the places people were playing and the potential outcomes of
playing in places where the country doesn't operate the same
way that we do, so safety issues abound. You've been
working as a skills coach with both NBA and WNBA
players for years. I love the thinking behind through the Lens,
which is about not just creating content, but data capture,
(04:18):
which is what businesses due with the content created by athletes,
while the athletes are left without all that data when
they retire.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
To be able to use to create further business.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
But because of all that time that you've spent both
with men and women players, and then additionally your relationship
with NAFISA, I imagine that made it pretty evident to
you just how different off seasons are for both sides,
and just how different it is to expect the highest
skill level when you don't have time off to work
on things specifically outside of games, or when you aren't
(04:47):
playing year round. Was that part of the growth and
birth of Unrivaled conversations with NAFISA about that kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, I mean one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
And I've been spending most my in LA up until
this last offseason because I was working with athletes and
seeing what it takes for them to be prepared, both
through skilled workouts and also pickup games, you know, like
through the lens. We've been kind of the spot that
been showcasing these pickup games with KD and Kyrie and
players like that and Trey Young. It's just such a
(05:20):
vast difference, right, So, even thinking about the players who
stay home the college teams are in season, you can't
really play against them. Their peers in the WNBA are
spread out throughout the country.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Or overseas, so.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
They don't really get to come together and play pickup
games to say what the NBA players do. So it's
just such a disadvantage. And even looking at the recovery
and the PT and the strength and conditioning, you know, granted,
there's now there's organizations that are keeping these players in
market and working with them, but it's not the same
(05:54):
as a player development person. You can't just work out
all season or offseason like you have to go against
live competition, real live competition. You have to play the game.
You can still certainly improve, but that's been what has
been most adamant against some of the most skilled players
I've ever worked with, whether it's Kyrie or Carmelo or
Trey Young. You have to play a few times a
(06:17):
week to make sure you're now working or trying to
implement things that you're training on throughout the off season,
which the women, once again really don't have.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
So take us back to the first time you heard
about the idea of unrivaled first iteration and your first reaction.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
It was really it was really just about solving something
in the marketplace and understanding what candidly our family would
want to sign up for It's why we chose to
start the league in early January, where players could be
home for the holidays and be around their families. And
even when you look at the off seasons of the
(06:52):
length of off season, you know, if you play in
the WNBA finals and play in our season, you still
have four months of full off season, which is longer
than NBA players have, right, So, I think there's this
misconception that if you play in the off season, you're
not getting the ample rest, which is one hundred percent
not true. And you know, even hiring some of the
(07:13):
key strength and conditioning and recovery people that we have,
they've said it's almost a disadvantage to be resting that long.
So that's where I think we've always looked at, what
is the solution here for just the athlete. Take away
the business side of it, take away the exposure, what
is just the optimal thing for an athlete schedule, and
then start there and grow from there. And then we
(07:33):
started bringing on, you know, people who had worked at
different leagues, whether it's overtime, you know, being at ESPN
or being on the media side, and just understanding what
then the opportunity is from a business component. So it
slowly started progressing. And when you think about the league,
it's like, Okay, you're going to hire some reps, hire
some coaches, play some games, go home, and there's so
(07:55):
many complexities that go along with it, you know, whether
it's insurance and liability and making sure that the recovery
is in place and the schedules in place for six
teams to be under one roof. So there's just so
much that goes into it and just takes time naturally,
But it really just started with conversations and evolved with
more conversations over time, and now here we are.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Well and you've certainly made more than just a pickup
league that athletes can come get some games in. This
has become truly a business, an exciting business that might
be changing the way other women's leagues operate and look
at things. It's been really innovative and very cool to watch.
So let's get everyone ready for this inaugural season, a
little unrivaled one oh one. Let's start with the teams,
(08:38):
which are actually called basketball clubs, got clubs dot teams?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
How many are there? And who are they?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
You're putting me on the spot with who are they?
But we have six.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
We have six clubs which are teams, and we have
essentially six roster spots per team. You know, when we
originally started, we wanted to go with five per team.
That was kind of the optimal number, and then the
business kept progressing, like, well, let's add, you know, a
few more opportunities for players that we want and that
we know we want to progress too. So you know,
I know we have the Vinyl Basketball Club, we have
(09:10):
the Laces Basketball Club, we have the Phantom Basketball Club.
Those are three of them. We have the Lunar Owls
Basketball Club.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I'm gonna throw you one.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I'm gonna throw you the mist which I only remember
because of my team's not gonna be one letter off voice,
so that's not gonna be my squad.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
And the Rose Basketball Club.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
There we go.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Those are the six, right, So obviously I'm not exactly
the creative within our team, but it was fun seeing
that process unfold, and I think what the reason we
went with the namings that we did in basketball club
specifically is because we don't have city affiliations, right These
aren't New York, LA Chicago based for right now, we
do leave open the opportunity to sell these these franchises
(09:53):
in the next year two three years, But we wanted
to build a sense of community still where you could
identify with this club and be a part of something
that's still a community without it being city affiliated.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
And we know ultimately that people are coming because of
the names on the back, not necessarily the names on
the front. So it's knowing that and leaning into that
and trying to morph these teams personalities with the players
that are coming in.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
You mentioned six players per team.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
For those listening that aren't aware of the format, they
might think, wow, that's not a lot of subs, but
this is a three x three league. Tell folks what
to expect when it comes to rules and format because
it's not quite the same as the three x three
that they might have watched at the Olympics.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
I think one thing we've always talked about for the product,
and this is where I really had to dive deeper,
was what would be a great product for the fans,
And three on three half court for me is just
it's tougher to watch just for me, right, And that's
just my that's my feedback.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
It could be different for other people.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
But I think basketball is meant to have flow in
terms of a little bit of up and down. You
should be able to walk the ball, should be was
run the ball. You should be able to choose opportunities
based on the game and how it flows. Whereas half
court is more hectic, right, it's get the ball out,
come right back. And I think for us it was
about that number one to Our court is seventy feet
(11:15):
not ninety four feet, so it's about two thirds the
size of a regulation court, and it's more spacing.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Right, So think about the WNBA.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
The WNBA is a great game, but I hear all
the time, you know, from Stewey Fee, from these stars,
it's like I wish I had more space, Right, I'm
always I'm always double teamed. Every time I try to dribble,
There's three people around me, and we would just wanted
to open the court up to showcase just how talented
these players are. So it's it's still basketball. It's still competitive.
(11:45):
There's still defensive orientation, but imagine Brandon Stewart with a
little bit more freedom, Imagine Rique with a little bit
more freedom. Like there's still that element of teamwork, but
it's going to be exciting to watch where we're really
leaning into the.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Talent of the of the best.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, you get to see the handles, you get to
see working in space, you get to see some of
the pickup elements that aren't as prevalent in a regular
W game. I'm also I was always the center who
could run, so I would hate a half court because
then I couldn't be beating the other bigs on the
breakwads exactly, So I love that aspect. So the court size,
is there any other league that uses that size quarter?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
How did you come up with those dimensions?
Speaker 1 (12:22):
No?
Speaker 4 (12:22):
What's funny is you know my home gym that I
used to run my academies out of in Saint Louis,
it was about that to mention. So we had played
three on three, four on four, five on five. So
I've spent a lot of time on that size gym,
and even the WNB and mbpa's gym in New York
is a little bit shorter, but it's it's you see
it all the time. You see it at parks. You
(12:43):
know they're not full ninety four feet courts, and you
can see how the game flows and works. So it
was just over time and then testing it with NBA players,
college players, WNBA players, seeing what the what it looked like,
testing out shot clock length and quarter length and things
like that. So people are going to be surprised where
(13:04):
most three on three games are anywhere from you know,
twenty one points to the winner, sixteen points depending if
the clock runs out. You know, our games are going
to be in the sixties, seventies, eighties, which will surprise
a lot of people, but it'll still be basketball. You know,
we didn't want to make it a gimmick. We didn't
want to turn it into like this, you.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Know, allsto rocking.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
No one's trying. Yeah, so it'll be fun for people.
I think they'll be really shocked once they see the
product in a good way.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Was there any reticence to having to adjust to shots
and spaces that will change when they get back.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
To the W No, Because basketball is played in actions
of three, right, So you always have three people within
an action, whether it's a ball screen, ball handler, screener,
and then the first person off the ball that's going
to rotate like that's generally how basketball actions work. Or
off the ball, you have a pin down, you have
the person with the ball, and you have someone coming
off the curl or screen or whatever it might be,
(13:59):
and that's where the other two players are usually spacing.
You very rarely have four or five all in an
action at one time. So what we think this will
do to prepare players for five on five is open
up that decision making in freedom right where the reads
are a little bit more simple. But it builds confidence
(14:19):
over time to where you get into this habit to
when you put two extra players on the court. Now
it's more of a seamless transition. So quite honestly, if
you ask most player development people, three on three is
the best form of development because the balls.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
In your hand more right, you're a part of these
actions more consistently. As opposed to a five on five.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
Game, you may get one fourth of those opportunities where
you still have to just get reps in all players
just need reps to keep growing their game.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
We got to take a break.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
When we come back with Alex, we're going to talk
about who the players are, who the coaches are, and
those crazy rollouts given us hints about which player was
going to be named next.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
It's coming up.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
We're back with Alex talking about Unrivaled. Let's talk about
these creative rollouts for players. We've got the full list
of participants at our fingertips, so we don't have to
name all of them, but I want to hear how
those players were selected. Who's the brain trust that thought
these are the few players from the w that we
really want to go after.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Initially I was heavily involved in that process where I
spent a lot of time on the women's side watching it,
being around the feast, so working with a number of
these players on the court, because our game's a little
bit different than five on five, right, you have to
be a little bit more skill oriented, probably more.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Mobile in our game.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
But it was really just identifying it's pretty obvious, right,
who are the top ten twelve players in the world.
You can just look at the pool of Team USA
who made the team, a few players who didn't make
the team, and it's like, okay, let's start there, and
then from there then you start identifying who's in, who's out,
and then morphing these teams.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Right.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
So the way we looked at it is we wanted
at least two bigs or hybrid bigs on each on
each team, right, So once you fill those spots out,
then you can identify who would be perfect in these spots, right,
and you look at you know, Vee and Stewie and
Satu more hybrid post and then you go into the
Beg's of the world, who are obviously more traditional posts
(16:20):
and trying to find that mixture and balance. So, you know,
we really looked at in three buckets. Number one is
if you had to rank who the top players in
the world on traditionally, what.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Does that look like?
Speaker 4 (16:30):
Then if you had to put that into our format,
how did the name start shifting on the board? And
then third is there's a business side of this, right
who is driving fan interest? You look at jersey sales,
you look at shoe sales, you look at attendance and
viewership of those team specific games, and then you look
at their social media following how active they are, what
their engagement is. All these play a factor into what
(16:53):
this ranking looks like and spits out, okay, who are
the top you know, thirty thirty six targets that we
would want to identifying after and then over time, thankfully
I got to get out of that realm and step
back where we hired Claire Deuilius from the links, you know,
Luke Cooper, who's our president of basketball Operations, who came
over from Overtime, the lead who was a heavy part
(17:14):
of the formation of this league. And then it's just
about filling who we think, not necessarily who is the
best best player we can get, but who fits into
these openings and these teams, right, because you need a balance.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
When you were making those picks, you sort of were
assigning people to clubs as you went.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
We did mocks right, so we don't assign the players
that went through the coaches, but we wanted to mock
out making sure you know, who are the primary ball
handlers the posts, and then doing our own layout and
then from there then the.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Pool gets set.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Got it, okay, So we'll get to the coaches selecting players.
There was a lot of rumors and my former boss,
John Skipper, who's one of the investors in Unrivaled, was
on his show talking about the push for Caitlin Clark.
How disappointing was it that she didn't end up deciding
to play at least this season.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
I don't you know, like listen, disappointment would be a
bit of a stretch. I think we wanted Caitlin, right,
I think that's very clear. I think anyone who is
in our shoes would one hundred percent one. Caitlyn gets
clear the data, the numbers she brings. It's an outlier situation.
She's incredible, and she's a great talent too, like and
(18:24):
I think that's somewhat was lost in translation sometimes of like,
of course Caitlyn moves the needle, but Caitlyn's also one
of the best players in the world. She was first
team All WNBA as a rookie, and you want those
players one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
And her passing in the three x three would be
fun as hell.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
She would be.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
She's really built for this style. Like she's she's the
perfect hybrid of speed. She's much faster than people think.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Right.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
She can shoot it from deep, which stretches out the
court even more in this system. So yeah, like listen,
she was she was a heavy, heavy priority for us.
We had to find a balance, candidly to give her time.
Right she was rushed from college to draft to pros
to then you know, she was in conversations every day.
(19:08):
Some of these conversations were very unfortunate conversations that were
going out throughout social media right then, then it was
about Team USA and then you went through all that
like there was really never a downtime unfortunately, and for her,
she ultimately just wanted this off season to take a break,
which we get, you know for sure. I think for us,
if you ask us, like, Okay, what's the plan moving forward,
(19:29):
I've said this multiple times, like we're going to be
a league that always has a spot for Caitlin.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Now, at the same time, we have to we have
to build out rosters.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
We got to be fair to our collective roster space,
and we want to we want to work with players
who also want to be in the league. And I
think we're very hopeful she wants to play in the
league after seeing this season and resting, but for now,
you know, unfortunately.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
She's not in the league.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
But yeah, I think we're really pumped about the rosters
we've built.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Yeah, maybe hard to be disappointed when you're outperforming expectations
in terms of investors, outperforming expectations in terms of the
number of players you can have on rosters, because you're
already performing better than you thought you would in this
first iteration. So it's been really cool to watch and
to see y'all be very transparent about that stuff via
social so that people can see that this league is
(20:18):
really building in a way that maybe was unexpected.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Right off the top, what.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Is the scale of pay based on who's deciding how
much each player is getting paid? Is it basketball folks,
is it marketing folks? And then what's the sliding scale
sort of based.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
On So I think essentially we number one, are really
proud of how much we're able to invest into the
players in it being a really sound decision, you know,
like if you think about we have thirty six roster spots, right,
our advantages we have low overhead, We don't have twelve
teams soon to be what sixteen fifteen sixteen in the
WNBA in twelve different markets with travel and all those things.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
That really lead to a lot of cost.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
And then too we have a shortened season, you know,
so the cost of staffing and simple stuff security referees,
game day operations like those start shrinking to where now
you can invest more aggressively for the athletes. So in
terms of how those decisions were made, what we try
to always be is like our keyword here is being
fair to each player, you know, like what is their
(21:17):
market value? What are they commanding overseas, are they playing overseas?
And then what are their accomplishments?
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Right? What have they done today? You know?
Speaker 4 (21:24):
So what we try to do a structure it based on,
you know, w accomplishments. Where are they at in their career,
what are they averaging in real time? Like what do
their stats look like today with the accomplishments last season?
And then you put that into trying to just be
as fair as possible and knowing what would it take
to get these players. What's great about this you could
(21:46):
look at this as a positive or negative, is the
market is changing in real time. Right Like when we
started this, if we would have when we first came
up with this concept, what two years ago, our pool
probably would have been half of that. I think that's
what we had planned initially. But the space is just
progressed so much, which is great. I think the other
thing that people don't realize is we are one hundred
(22:11):
percent transforming this industry in terms of what is expected
from a pay perspective, right and it's not just here
domestically like you're seeing overseas raise you know a lot
the money's coming up. China's adding more roster spots like
you know, and we've candidly been on the inside of
a lot of conversation, is what would it take to
(22:32):
get this player and they're making a ton overseas or
you're like, you should one hundred percent do that, right,
you should one hundred percent Like So, we've been in
a lot of conversations where even we've come to mutual
agreements with a few players that someone came over the
top and threw them a ton of money overseas, and
we're like, you should one hundred percent do that, right.
So I think that's what's like really cool is we
(22:53):
are moving that needle forward for not just these players
in our league, but even players not playing in our
league during the off Season's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
It's also very cool.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
I love beyond the graphics and the teases about who
the players will be, the social also has some very
cool sort of infographics about how the players are involved.
Each inaugural athlete getting an equity stake. There's some really
cool business side things to this for the athletes. As
far as any other wrap rounds other benefits we don't
know about, whether that's healthcare, other things in addition to
that equity stake we've heard about.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
Yeah, I mean, we have insurance policies in place for
if the players get hurt, you know, we protect them
in that way. The other side of this is, yeah,
we have for the mothers in our league, which I
believe we have five or six now, we have childcare
on site for them to make sure that they're comfortable,
(23:44):
and you know during game nights of full staff, which
most w NBA teams have. Now, you know, so we've
also thought about the revenue share specifically. You know most well,
most people don't realize when it comes to even like
any major league traditionally goes through the players union, they
pay their cost and then they figure out what is
left to now distribute when it comes to jersey sales
(24:07):
or you know, if you do a deal with trading
card companies and utilize players' names and images, what is
that split? Right, So what we try to do is
upfront saying this isn't a split on profit, it's a
split on revenue. So like we don't get paid first
and say what's left to give to the athletes. If
we're selling an angel reach jersey, she should one hundred
(24:29):
percent see the benefits of that and right now, they're
really not right. You see all these Caitlin Clark jerseys
walking around, and it's a bit of a model that
needs to be fixed because they're not buying these jerseys
because they want to wear the Fever. They're buying it
because they want to wear Caitlyn Clark or Angel Reese
(24:49):
or Brienna Stewart. And that was something like from day one,
we were saying, it's great to pay him, it's great
to give him equity, but they're not buying those jerseys.
Those players are in those jerseys. So there's certain things
like that that we've tried to be really aggressive with
so that the players know that we're not trying to
take advantage of them being here. And ultimately, this ship
(25:12):
is going to go, you know, as north as it
can go if the players are all in on it,
and as long as we're taking care of them being
fair every step along the way, we're going to be
in a really good spot.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Okay, let's do a little speed roun on logistics. Where
are the games being played in Miami? In Miami and
the same kind of court and arena for every game
every game?
Speaker 4 (25:32):
In year one, year two, we will do a tour model,
will go to four different cities, but will still be
predominantly focused in Miami.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
And what are the league dates?
Speaker 4 (25:40):
We begin January seventeenth, opening night.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Players arrive January second.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
So we have a two week build up, media day,
training camp, and then the finals is on I believe
March seventeenth.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
And how does that season format work in terms of
how many teams make a playoff and then a championship.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
Yeah, so of the six teams that play throughout the
course of the year, it's basically a round robin's schedule
where you're going to see them playing different teams each week.
Top four seeds make the playoffs into a single elimination
final four, with the ultimate prize going to the last
person the last team standing.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
And it sounds like there's a coach for each team
and then sort of a basketball director who oversees the
single entity larger unrivaled.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
Yes, so we own all six teams right now. You know,
Claire Dewillias is our GM and really runs all ops
for us there on the basketball.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Side, alongside Luke Cooper and Lou Layman.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
And you know, from there, each team has a head
coach and assistant coach and a club coordinator, right, so
they all have their own many organizations they're working through,
so the players know who to communicate with, and then
it funnels up the line on things that we need
to take care of.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
And once you hired those coaches, you had a draft
of sorts from the pool of existing players.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
We did, yeah, we brought the six coaches in. We
placed the players in pods, so a lot of the
players that are similar, you know, Fisa to Stewie, they
go in a pod and then they start. Basically what
we did was all the coaches started placing these players
on different clubs without knowing who they were going to coach.
All right, So for the sake of being as fair
(27:15):
as possible for the teams and splitting them up, we
didn't want coaches knowing who they were going to coach
or who they were picking. Otherwise you could get people
who aren't very good drafters see any time in sports,
and then you have people who are just biased who
want to pull the player to their team. So it
was an interesting thing having them split it. And then
after the fact, we assigned who the head coaches would
(27:36):
be very.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Cool, very sneaky, who are some of the coaches whose
names you might recognize.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
Teresa Witherspoon, who was the head coach of this guy
last year. We're really excited to bring her in. Phil Handy,
who's been assistant coach for years and the NBA won
three different championships in three different cities. Adam Harrington who's
been on staff for the Brooklyn Nets and been in
the NBA for years, player development driven as well. Nola
(28:04):
Henry who's been an assistant previously last year and actually
took over for the game that Kurt Miller missed to
coach the Sparks. Andrew Wade at the Mystics, and then
DJ Sackman, who's one of the best trainers I've ever
been around.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Though, that's our group that we're really excited about.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
And we missed out on a few which is like,
we had a few coaches that we wanted that ended
up in different spots and organizations, which we're happy for
this year in the WNBA, But I think we're really
thrilled about the staff that we put together.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, and if folks want to watch those coaches making
those selections and figuring out the player movement, there was
actually a video of that released on YouTube, so we'll
link to it in our show notes for folks listening
if they want to watch. Okay, if we want to
be an educated viewer of the three x three game,
can we watch the Olympics to get a general idea
or is there some other place that had a more
similar to your style?
Speaker 3 (28:55):
You can't. Our style is the only style.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Right, proprietary information.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
You got to watch this January seventeenth on T and T.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Okay, so let's talk about that.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Folks can watch on TNT streaming across those platforms related channels.
Who's calling the games, doing sidelines, that kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
That's information I can't disclose yet. We have a formal
release coming out with TNT. People are going to be
really excited about our talent calling the games, even in
studio through T and T because we'll have a studio show.
But you know, before and after, I believe every game night.
What's so unique about this is we are the only
league in the world that has every single game on
(29:36):
national broadcast television. Right so for any league, including the NFL.
You know, because we have such a limited amount of games,
we're able to bring this to the fans where they
don't have to go search right, they don't find what network,
they don't have to go to the league pass, they
don't have to go anywhere. But so that was like
priority number one for us where we feel like we're
now growing the game and helping people find it pretty easily.
(29:56):
So these so these stars continue to be seen and
keep growing their brands too.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Where can folks get tickets to watch in person?
Speaker 4 (30:02):
You can go to our website, Unrivaled dot Basketball. It'll
take you through the ticket master. But I believe we
have still a few tickets left. I think we're about
ninety nine point nine percent sold out. We have not
sold our one on one tickets yet, which is the
week of February tenth, and we haven't sold for playoffs yet.
So there's going to be more releases coming shortly, and.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
The viewing experience will be different from a normal basketball game.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Huh, it will be, you know.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
That's where you know, John Skipper played a huge part initially.
He was one of our first big investors, and I've
spent a lot of time with John on going through
what does this need to look like? You know, how
why would media be excited about hosting something like this,
So I think the way I always like to refer
to it, there's two sides. There's an in person experience
(30:49):
and then there's the viewer at home. In person, you
can kind of expect like a Broadway show on steroids.
I'm a big Broadway show person in New York. I've
spent a lot of time there with the FISA. And
then you know, when you're watching at home, it's going
to feel faster, it's going to feel a little bit
more intimate because you know, we have a rail cam
that follows on the court. We're shooting from much closer
as opposed to section two fifty like most big arena
(31:11):
shoot from. So you're going to feel a little bit
closer to the to the action. And you know, we
have a great partner and turner where you're going to
have so many different views of cameras, whether it's on
top of the backboard or on the baseline. So I
think people are going to be really excited about the
experience they get at home.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
I'm pumped for that.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
I'm very excited about everything you guys have rolled out,
have just been super impressed by, including some of the
young stars investing before they're even eligible to play. What
was the impetus for getting folks like Flaw and pagebackers
to kind of commit already.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
I think we always have an emphas to usher in
the new star, you know, the stars of tomorrow, like
the future in our case, really focusing on Page and
flage A and obviously Juju. You know, Juju's a little
further out. But you know, we want to be a
spot where any star in college they have aspirations to
(32:04):
eventually try to make it into the WNBA, and we
want to have that same mindset with us. So it
was important for us to have a touch point early
to work on marketing deals andil deals, even bring them
into the player ownership group. So it's not a secret
we want these players in our league and we want
to make sure that we let them feel like they're
(32:24):
a part of this from day one, not when they're
eligible to play in the league, when that time comes.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Okay, last couple here.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
You've got the players, you've got the units, you've got
the court, you've got the TV deal. What about behind
the scenes in terms of support staff, doctors, HR, physical therapist's,
ability for players to report if there's issues with coaches
or not a safe environment. How did that all get
laid out?
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Yeah, we so very early.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
We hired Susan Borchard, who's head of performance and recovery
for Team USA Women's basketball, work with a number of
WNBA players for years, so she helped us build out
the staff and.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
What was the what the standard should be.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
And then honestly, you know, we've built a million and
a half dollar extension of the building we're at right
now to make sure we have more room for the
players to recover and strength train and have the space
they needed to really maximize their off season. And then
we've been able to partner with a lot of great
recovery brands that will be announced shortly, and even one
of the prominent hospitals here in Miami to make sure
(33:23):
we have all the things that we need to on
game days on off days. So, you know, we're really
proud of that side. And again, like we we can't
cut corners when it comes to the player experience because
we want them to leave here and become now part
of that routine where they're like, oh my god, I
can't every off season I have to be here. Yeah,
you know, because I was just so prepared for what
(33:44):
I'm trying to do and you know, be out throughout
the WNBA season.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Like an effective and well paying summer camp that you're like,
I can't wait to.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Get back, can't wait do That's what we say.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Okay, my not yet trademarked, but should be trademarked approach
to telling folks about a new league, or taking someone
to a game they've iver benge you before, or even
sometimes just thinking about how I want to tell stories
on the show is summed up by the four US's stars,
stake stats, and stories. I think if you give people
those four things, they're much more interested and invested.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
In whatever you're going to try to get them to watch.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
So let's close with the speed round of those for
Unrivaled Stars, we could start with Fee and Brianna Stewart.
Couldn't have been a better way to tee up Unrivaled
first season than to have those two battling it out
in the WNBA finals.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
I imagine we.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Expect some fireworks from that to start off this inaugural season.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
I think, so there's still a bit of a I
think good tension between that or if I've had to
kind of like manage both sides of it, but I
think inevitably, like they're really excited for it. But yeah,
we wanted to start off the season and kind of
address the elephant in the room, which is a finals rematch.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Will you have the same officials for their first match?
Speaker 3 (34:50):
We won't.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
We won't.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Let's not do that any other stars or any other
names because a couple folks unfortunately due to injury or
otherwise had to drop out, leaving a couple open spots.
We saw cam Brink get announced, but you know, with
a futures contract, she won't be playing till twenty six.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Who else should we keep it out for?
Speaker 4 (35:09):
Yeah, well, you know, I think part of our initial group.
You look at you know, Khalia Copper, you look at
Jackie Young, Satu, Sabli Angel Reese, Chelsea Gray. You know,
we're really excited about kind of the core we built
on each club. Jewel Lloyd anytime you like Jewel Lloyd's
are throwing after the fact that it's.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Such a marigue a gunbawallee in this format is going.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
To go off, right Like yeah, yeah, So that's where
like you look at just the teams, like we have
all stars coming off the bench in our league, right
players who are top two three on their WNBA teams
are kind of they're part of this ecosystem, but they're
not the same go to player, which is going to
be somewhat interesting to see. And I think, uh, you know,
(35:52):
the big announcement that's that's coming out that'll be out
by the time this airs, is Sabrina and Escu joining
the league, so that will be our final player and
is our final player announced and having a sab come
in I think just puts kind of a stamp on this.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
To roll this out in year one.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
So we're really excited about the team and the club
that she's joining, which is the phantom in playing for
Adam Harrington, who she's close with, but playing for with
a former college teammate in Satu Sabai.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
So it's going to be really interesting to see.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Love that.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Okay, quickly stakes, How important is one regular season game
when you've got a short season like this in terms
of setting teams up to make the playoffs win it all?
Speaker 3 (36:33):
It's huge.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
You know, each team plays fourteen regular season games, so
there's not a lot of room for air.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Which I think for us.
Speaker 4 (36:40):
You look at like the NFL schedule right where they play,
what eighteen regular season games you get to really focus
in on locking in on one game where you're going
to get the highest competition possible as opposed to players
trying to pace themselves over the course of a fifty
or eighty game season like the NBA does.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Okay, stats, what's a great stat line in a single
game for a player in three on three?
Speaker 3 (37:00):
Great question that I don't know yet. Okay, you know,
we know what.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
The score totals will be, somewhere sixties and seventies and
outlier situation eighties. I think where you're still going to
see similar you know, high teams of leading scores, maybe
low twenties. But what I'm most curious about is what
does the assist and rebound totals look like? Because you
still have technically the same amount of possessions, but two
(37:26):
less people on each court to take those stats up.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
You keep saying, you know the score totals, is that
based on practice games that you've run?
Speaker 3 (37:34):
Yep, exactly.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
We've been testing this for the last couple of years,
and we even in our facility this week we had
three days of game testing for broadcast referees and our
practice players that we're bringing in cool?
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Is there a shot clock?
Speaker 3 (37:46):
There is?
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Okay, stories, give us a story or two to follow
besides fee versus three in the in the rematch, how
about a player coming back from injury, maybe representing an
underrepresented group.
Speaker 4 (37:58):
Britney Sykes was out mostly ye, people are going to
be really excited to see her back, especially in this format,
with how athletics she is. I think seeing that, seeing
the dynamics of just players, how they mix together, because
what we try to emphasize what the coaches was, can
we have different players playing together that aren't WNBA teammates
as much as possible and then trying to figure out
(38:20):
whose games compliment who? And it's like it's a roll
the dice, right you look at even what happened with
the Links last year. They didn't grab the biggest names
on the free agency market, but they grab players that
mix perfectly for each other and really compliment in each other.
So that's where I'm most interested to see how to's
all unfolds.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Me too, I'm super pumped.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
I also love that the teams are not city based,
because that's allowing our show to have a fake draft
where we're going to use a variety of qualities to
help us whittle down who our teams are.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
And then that.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Wants to talk some shit to each other. So I
love I love that, Alex, Thanks so much for the time.
Congratulations on all the success already before the league is
even started.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Appreciate you giving us a couple of minutes.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
Yeah, of course, thanks, Sarah.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Welcome back, slices.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
We love that you're listening, but we want you to
get in the game every day too, So here's our
good game play of the day. Follow Unrivaled on social
and follow some of the players Alex mentioned, like co
founders Nafisa Collier, who happens to be Alex's wife in
case you didn't catch that connection, Brianna Stewart and Sabrina
and Escu. Plus follow a reporter and content creator Aleah Funschell,
who'll be cranking out content for this inaugural season. One
(39:36):
of the best ways to learn about a new league,
get to know the players and the storylines, and keep
up with games is to have them show up right
in your social timeline.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
So hit that follow button.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
Links to all those accounts are in our show notes,
and don't forget to subscribe or rate and review like this.
The Unrivaled player rollouts rating five out of five clever
hints review. Take a moment to scroll back through the
Unrivaled social feeds and watch all the hints, teasing player announcements,
so much good content. The Unrivaled team has absolutely killed
(40:06):
it from the jump with all the clever teases and
the cool infographics. So go take a look before the
season starts. Now it's your turn, subscribe, rate and review.
Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow. Good Game, Alex, Good Game,
Unrivaled you this super badass league arriving twenty years too
late for yours truly to dream of being unrivaled. Good
(40:28):
Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production
in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can
find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network, our
producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive producers
are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan, and Emily Rudder.
Our editors are Emily Rudder, Britney Martinez, Grace Lynch, and
(40:49):
Lindsay Cradowell. Production assistants from Lucy Jones and I'm Your
Host Sarah Spain.
Host
Sarah Spain
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