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USC Superstar JuJu Watkins Invests in Unrivaled Women's Basketball League

Women of Troy All-American joins Dawn Staley, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Michael Phelps in Series A investment round.

Michael Ehrlich

USC Trojans guard JuJu Watkins (12) celebrates during a NCAA Women’s Tournament 2nd round game against the Kansas Jayhawks at Galen Center.
USC Trojans guard JuJu Watkins (12) celebrates during a NCAA Women’s Tournament 2nd round game against the Kansas Jayhawks at Galen Center. / Robert Hanashiro / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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Basketball superstar, NIL trailblazer and now investor, USC sophomore All-American JuJu Watkins has already established herself as one of the most influential athletes in sports today. With women's basketball at every level exploding in popularity, viewership and sales, Watkins joins the latest investment round for women's 3-on-3 league Unrivaled.

Watkins has invested her own money alongside South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo and Olympics legend Michael Phelps in Unrivaled's Series A round, totaling $28 million, according to Sportico. The league announced that their total capital raise is $35 million.

Unrivaled recently secured NIL deals with fellow college stars Paige Bueckers of UConn and Flau’Jae Johnson of LSU, but only a sophomore, Watkins has a few years until she could potentially participate on-court. According to Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell, Watkins could make similar arrangements to play in the league, but “she was adamant in investing,” he told Sportico.

Watkins - who is currently staring in NBC's docuseries "On the Rise: JuJu Watkins,” has historic NIL deals with the likes of State Farm, Nike, Gatorade, Beats by Dre, Funko and NYX Professional Makeup, among others.

A season ago as an All-American freshman, Watkins led the Women of Troy to the Elite Eight, while finishing the year as the nation's second-leading scorer - behind Iowa legend and WNBA rookie of the year Caitlin Clark - setting the all-time scoring mark for a freshman. She is curently the third-leading scorer (24.7 points per game) for the 10-1 Women of Troy.

Watkins and No. 7 USC next face-off against Bueckers and No. 4 UConn - in one of the most highly-anticipated matchups of the season - on December 21.

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Michael Ehrlich
MICHAEL EHRLICH

Michael Ehrlich is a seasoned sports marketing executive with experience across the global sports brand, athlete representation, media and education sides of the business. The Founder and CEO of Playbook Marketing, Ehrlich consults with brands on all things NIL and athlete partnerships, advises student-athletes on their personal brand building endeavors and is an adjunct professor at his alma mater, the University of Southern California where he teaches a course on athlete communications and marketing. As a writer, his previous bylines include Boardroom, Business of College Sports, DIME Magazine and UPROXX, among others. You can follow him across social media at @MichaelEhrlich and reach out via michael@playbook-marketing.com