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New Women's Basketball League Founded By WNBA Stars Inks Big TV Deal
Unrivaled, the new women's 3-on-3 basketball league, has found a broadcast partner according to Sportico. The new league formed by the New York Liberty's Breanna Stewart and Minnesota Lynx's Napheesa Collier will air games on TNT.
The 30-player league will launch this winter in Miami with stars like Kelsey Plum, Angel Reese, Arike Ogunbowale and even UConn's Paige Beuckers all signing on to participate.
The league will debut at an interesting time as the popularity of women's basketball is surging and 3v3 basketball has become a more mainstream version of the game than ever before. Founded and owned by the players, Unrivaled will boast the highest salaries in women's team sports.
From a media perspective, it's an interesting deal for TNT which will also invest in the league, according to Sportico. TNT is set to lose the rights to the NBA after this coming season. While Unrivaled will only run for eight weeks during the WNBA offsesason, it could fill a part of the hole created by the NBA leaving their longtime broadcast partner. It should be interesting to see how involved—if at all—the Inside the NBA crew is during the inaugural season. The addition of the greatest studio show in sports history could certainly make the new league feel like an even bigger event.
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Stephen Douglas is a Senior Writer on the Breaking & Trending News Team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in journalism and media since 2008, and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Stephen spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and has previously written for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.