‘Feel and hear everything.’ Inside opening night of Unrivaled, the new 3-on-3 women’s hoops league

A walk-off bucket to end every game.

At least that’s how Unrivaled co-founder Napheesa Collier put it.

“The fourth quarter is just so exciting no matter what because you end on a game-winner,” Collier said after her Lunar Owls bested the Mist in a comeback 84-80 victory. A Skylar Diggins-Smith three-pointer punctuated the Lunar Owls win, sending the entire building into a frenzy.

Unrivaled, the new 3-on-3 league co-founded by Collier and fellow WNBA star Breanna Stewart, made its triumphant debut Friday night in front of sold-out crowd at Wayfair Arena in the heart of west of Miami-Dade. The choice of the 305 was obvious — sunshine, beaches, luxury — but also the ability to build out a compound in Medley that includes everything from the arena itself to practice courts to workout facilities to childcare.

Rising star Angel Reese was one of the first to voice her joy via X.

“We get to workout, use the weight room, create new bonds/friendships, get treatment, get massages, use the sauna, getting 2 meals a day, and then a facial before I leave for the day???,” tweeted Reese whose Rose team took a close 79-73 loss to the Vinyl in the second matchup of Friday’s doubleheader.

Despite its already historic strides in the sport of women’s basketball, Friday night’s game itself provided a unique brand of excitement from tip-off.

“It’s really intense and the fans were giving us great energy,” said Mist star and Olympic Gold-Medalist Jewell Lloyd.

Added Diggins-Smith: “This atmosphere was electric.”

The fast-paced nature of the game had a lot to do with this. All games are played on a condensed, 49.2-by-72-foot full court, very different from the 36-by-49-foot half court used during the Olympic 3-on-3 games. Foul shots yield only one free throw worth either one, two or three points depending on if the field goal was made and where it was taken. Case in point: the Lunar Owls and Mist took a combined 130 shots by game’s end. For comparison, Wednesday evening’s game between the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers yielded a combined 163 shots — except with an additional 16 minutes of game time.

“It’s 3-on-3 so you’re going to have lot more shots, a lot more reps,” Lloyd said, likening the style to pickup.

That’s not to say it wasn’t competitive. Both Dijonai Carrington of the Mist and Rae Burrell of the Vinyl found themselves seated courtside after each dove for a loose ball at various points of their respective games. Plus the target score, which is derived from adding 11 points to leading team’s total at the end of the third quarter, gives the game yet another element.

“The winning score forces you to play hard; 11 points can come and go just that quick,” said Vinyl star Rhyne Howard.

In a facility that sits just 870 people, the energy in the building far surpassed that of just an inaugural game. Every cheer or jeer could be heard on the court. DJ Heat matched the crowd’s intensity, intricately weaving through tracks like an expert seamstress. And the fans themselves, which included everyone from NBA legend Steve Nash to FIFA World Cup winner Alex Morgan, acted as if they had the hottest ticket in town

“It’s a very intimate setting,” Lloyd said. “You can feel and hear everything. It’s a good vibe to play basketball.”

Few people embodied the excitement that more than Miami native Valencia Gunder. The founder of the Smile Trust, Gunder doesn’t happen to be the biggest basketball fan. She didn’t even plan to go until one of her friends invited her. But by the fourth quarter, she was hooked.

“It was way better than I expected because I feel like, especially in basketball, women are not given as much energy, money and resources as men,” said Gunder who admitted that she thought this league would be “cheap” with them. That was certainly far from the case.

“When I first walked through the gate, I was like ‘Whoa,’” Gunder said, adding that she can’t way to come back with more people.

Comments like that couldn’t make Collier any happier.

“We worked really hard to make this an entertaining product,” she said. “We have the best players in the world and we want to do them justice. We want to expose everyone’s talent and put them on display.”