Unrivaled co-founder and player Napheesa Collier is giving $100,000 — half of her prize money for winning the league’s first one-on-one tournament — to her training and performance staff and assistant coaches working with her team, the Lunar Owls, sources told ESPN on Friday.
Collier wanted to make sure she found a way to show appreciation to the staff members pouring hard work into her startup league, a source close to Unrivaled told ESPN. Through the first half of the season, Collier has made a point to continuously mention the personnel working with the players, calling them the “best in the world.”
Almost immediately after she won the Unrivaled 1-on-1 Tournament title and the cash prize, she thought sharing it was the right thing to do.
Collier and Breanna Stewart founded the 3-on-3 Unrivaled league to give WNBA players an offseason alternative to playing overseas. Quickly, the amount of money and resources being poured into the league took center stage.
Unrivaled claims to be offering the highest average salary of any women’s sports league. It also built a custom arena and practice and training facilities in Miami.
Many Unrivaled players believe what the league has done will have a direct impact on upcoming WNBA collective bargaining negotiations and has already played a role in how some players approached free agency — finding teams that have these kinds of resources in their home markets.
