Forgive Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart for not gushing over the success of Unrivaled, the three-on-three women’s basketball league they cofounded. It enjoyed hopeful ratings and positive buzz during its inaugural year. Players raved. Great, right? Well, that was winter, a lifetime ago in pro sports. It’s now early July. The UConn women hoop legends are deep into the WNBA season, where they are freshly minted All-Star starters.
They are also staunch realists. “We finished that first season,” Stewart says, “and we were like, ‘OK, what are we going to do to get better?’”
Victory means little without momentum, of course. If you’re a woman athlete, you encounter a different set of standards. To get the rights and treatment that are yawn-inducing givens in the NBA, you do more. Nobody will do it for you.
“Women’s sports, specifically, is so brand- and business-oriented,” Collier says. “You do have to build your own personal brand, and through that, you have to be your own business almost.” Being a women’s basketball player means you’re “always having to fight for more,” adds Stewart, a two-time WNBA most valuable player — you fight for yourself, for others. You fight for a bigger platform, more attention.
Creating a league and playing in it? Well, it’s a glorious accomplishment. And it represents the vexing world Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart are determined to improve.
