Brittney Griner to join Unrivaled: What to know about new basketball league

Brittney Griner is the latest big name to join Unrivaled, the new three-on-three basketball league that will commence its first season in January.

On Wednesday, the 10-time WNBA All-Star was confirmed as the 24th player to join Unrivaled, which has big-money backing and plans to feature 30 players across six teams. One of Unrivaled's main attractions, beyond a salary floor that starts at $100,000, is that it does not conflict with the WNBA's prioritization rule, allowing players to play in both leagues without issue.

For Griner, who was detained by Russian authorities in 2022 for over nine months after being accused of drug smuggling, Unrivaled checks a lot of boxes. The new league is offering significant salaries, while also allowing WNBA stars to spend the offseason playing in the United States.

Here's what to know about Griner's decision to join Unrivaled.

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What is Unrivaled?

Unrivaled is a new three-on-three league founded by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, with the first season set to take place in Miami starting in January 2025.

WNBA players have long supplemented their income by taking advantage of the league's relatively small footprint on the calendar. Including the preseason, the WNBA currently runs slightly under six months, leaving a substantial window for players to find other places to play and significantly bolster their salary.

The most recent WNBA collective bargaining agreement includes a controversial prioritization rule that effectively blocks players from many foreign leagues. The rule stipulates that a player who misses the start of training camp to play internationally is suspended for the entire season. That conflict forces some players to choose between a place in the world's best women's basketball league, or more lucrative contracts in leagues unbound by salary cap rules.

Unrivaled has set itself up to avoid that issue entirely, with the league's calendar set to run from January to March. In 2024, WNBA training camps opened on April 28, meaning that Unrivaled's calendar will be an avenue to make good money while playing in the U.S., all without running afoul of the prioritization rule.

Unrivaled has quickly drawn some major backing. Former NBA stars Carmelo Anthony and Steve Nash have invested, as have newly retired U.S. women's national team icons Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, golfer Michelle Wie West, UConn coach Geno Auriemma, and actor Ashton Kutcher. Two former TV network presidents, John Skipper (ESPN) and David Levy (Turner), have also signed on as investors while taking charge of media rights and sponsorship sales.

The league has yet to announce a complete rulebook, but the three-on-three format will include four quarters of seven minutes each. The court will be shortened lengthwise by 24 feet while retaining the WNBA's 50-foot width, with 2025's games taking place at a custom-built facility in Miami. In August, Collier also posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Unrivaled will have a one-on-one tournament as well, with the winner of a single-elimination format netting at least $250,000.

WNBA players participating in Unrivaled

Griner became the 24th player to sign on with Unrivaled, which has 30 total roster spots for the 2025 season. As of October 2, here's the complete list of WNBA talent in the league.

• Shakira Austin

• DiJonai Carrington

• Natasha Cloud

• Napheesa Collier

• Kahleah Copper

• Skylar Diggins-Smith

• Allisha Gray

• Chelsea Gray

• Brittney Griner

• Dearica Hamby

• Tiffany Hayes

• Rhyne Howard

• Rickea Jackson

• Jewell Loyd

• Marina Mabrey

• Kayla McBride

• Arike Ogunbowale

• Kelsey Plum

• Angel Reese

• Satou Sabally

• Breanna Stewart

• Brittney Sykes

• Courtney Vandersloot

• Jackie Young

The list does not currently include Caitlin Clark, and that fact doesn't appear set to change. During coverage of the Indiana Fever's season-ending playoff loss to the Connecticut Sun last week, ESPN reported that Clark intends to take a break this offseason.

Why do WNBA players like Griner play overseas?

Griner had spent her first two WNBA offseasons playing in China before beginning a seven-year stint alternating time with Phoenix and Russian team UMMC Ekaterinburg, a perennial EuroLeague powerhouse. However, in February 2022, she was detained by Russian customs officials and charged with drug smuggling over a small amount of medically-prescribed cannabis oil found in her luggage.

International play is common, with WNBA players being offered huge contracts in a wide range of leagues. Angel Reese may have stated that "nobody wants to go overseas" in explaining the allure of Unrivaled, but it has been very common for WNBA standouts to end up playing abroad. Some of the league's biggest stars fan out across the globe, playing for teams in Turkey, France, Spain, China and — before the invasion of Ukraine — Russia, among others.

Without salary caps in place, a team in the EuroLeague (a pan-European competition roughly equivalent to soccer's UEFA Champions League) can afford to shell out salaries that WNBA teams cannot match. Jackie Young makes $252,450 for the Las Vegas Aces, the highest wage in the league this season, while players like Griner and Stewart have been paid seven figures for one season of international basketball.

However, that may be shifting, and not just because of the emergence of options like Unrivaled or Athletes Unlimited. Griner spent over nine months in the Russian prison system and, at one point, was given a nine-year sentence before the U.S. and Russian governments agreed to free her as part of a prisoner exchange. Griner's years of playing in Russia on a successful team did nothing to prevent the center from being "wrongfully detained," in the words of the U.S. government.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: WNBA star Brittney Griner to join budding Unrivaled league