Unrivaled Announces Captains for Basketball Clubs
The women's basketball community is now about six weeks away from the start of Unrivaled, the 3x3 women's basketball league whose having its inaugural season begin in Miami, Florida, on January 17.
Given the star-studded roster that Unrivaled currently boasts (which is now unfortunately without Las Vegas Aces superstar Kelsey Plum), there will surely be a ton of eyes and attention on this brand-new 3x3 league.
In November, the rosters for all six teams (Laces Basketball Club, Mist Basketball Club, Phantom Basketball Club, Lunar Owls Basketball Club, Rose Basketball Club, and Vinyl Basketball Club) were revealed, and there were some fascinating pairings of star players.
Given that almost every player in Unrivaled is among one of the best players and primary leaders in their respective WNBA squads, seeing who would emerge as a leader within each Unrivaled team was an added bit of intrigue.
And fans received an answer to this intrigue on Wednesday, as the six captains for the six Unrivaled teams were announced.
USA Today's Meghan L. Hall wrote on X, "Unrivaled announced team captains today:
"Rose BC - Chelsea Gray
"Mist BC - Breanna Stewart
"Laces BC - Alyssa Thomas
"Phantom BC - Satou Sabally
"Vinyl BC - Arike Ogunbowale
"Lunar Owls BC - Napheesa Collier".
Unrivaled announced team captains today:
— Meghan L. Hall (@ItsMeghanLHall) December 4, 2024
Rose BC - Chelsea Gray
Mist BC - Breanna Stewart
Laces BC - Alyssa Thomas
Phantom BC - Satou Sabally
Vinyl BC - Arike Ogunbowale
Lunar Owls BC - Napheesa Collier
Most of these captains aren't very surprising. Collier and Stewart were destined to be captains because they're Unrivaled co-founders and Alyssa Thomas. Chelsea Gray, and Arike Ogunbowale are all seen as leaders on their WNBA teams.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is Satou Sabally being deemed captain of Phantom BC, which is only surprising because she's 26 years old and veterans Tiffany Hayes, Brittney Griner, and Jackie Young are also on the team.
Time will tell what roles these captains will have once Unrivaled begins games.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.