Unrivaled keeps making moves, announcing tour stops, celebrity investors, and new signings as the 3×3 league prepares to tip off its third season in January.
Actor and producer Issa Rae has bought in, joining the late-August Series C fundraiser that propelled the offseason upstart to a $650 million valuation.
“Unrivaled speaks to me and everyone who wants to set new standards, and what the league has done and continues to do for the best women’s basketball players in the world is something I’m proud to invest in,” Rae said in a league statement.
Unrivaled finished rolling out its 2027 tour stops, with plans to hit eight different cities after successful 2026 showcases in Philly and Brooklyn.
Games will land in Boston, Detroit, San Francisco, Brooklyn, Minneapolis, Houston, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, spotlighting current and future WNBA markets.
The league also completed its lineup, adding Chicago rookie Sydney Taylor and Toronto standouts Kiki Rice and Aneesah Morrow.
Unrivaled Basketball is hitting the road next year. The 3×3 offseason league announced it will open its 2027 schedule on January 8th at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, as Unrivaled tips off an eight-city bus expedition.
2027 Unrivaled Basketball Schedule Expands to 8 Host Cities
The travel-focused model marks a sharp shift for the third-year league. Unrivaled played its entire 2025 debut season in a small arena outside Miami before adding sellout stops in Philadelphia and Brooklyn in 2026.
LA's slate joins a second January 8th season opener at Boston's TD Garden. The tour then runs through a January 11th doubleheader at Detroit's Little Caesars Arena and San Francisco's Chase Center, Brooklyn's Barclays Center on January 22nd, Minneapolis' Target Center on January 24th, Houston's Toyota Center on February 12th, and Philadelphia's Xfinity Mobile Arena on February 15th.
Unrivaled Tour Stops Highlight Strong WNBA Markets
Every tour stop lands in a WNBA city — a deliberate choice as Unrivaled eyes privately owned franchises down the road.
“Los Angeles is synonymous with basketball, with a rich culture and fanbase that continues to shape the sport,” said Commissioner Micky Lawler.
“We’re thrilled to bring Unrivaled to LA and become part of a basketball community that has such a strong and lasting connection to the game.”
Unrivaled has not yet named the clubs playing each tour stop, and timing could still change. The league will subsequently release its complete 2027 season schedule this fall, including ticket details for games at Miami's Sephora Arena.
Unrivaled 3×3 is gearing up, signing a multi-year deal with Adidas to make the sportswear giant its exclusive apparel partner starting next season.
Adidas will provide player uniforms, supply gear for youth offshoots, and roll out retail lines alongside the offseason upstart’s January 2027 return.
The news arrives as Unrivaled prepares for a highly anticipated third campaign, after last season saw the expanded league shatter attendance records while reaching a $650 million valuation.
“Adidas has a long history of investing in the athletes and moments that define this game,” said retired WNBA great and President of Adidas Women’s Basketball Candace Parker.
“Adidas will bring elite performance innovation to Unrivaled athletes while continuing to invest in the future of women’s basketball at every level.”
Unrivaled is cashing in, as the 3×3 league announced a $650 million valuation following an oversubscribed Series C round — nearly doubling its worth in one year.
Led by Ten Pillars Sports Fund, investors include Carmelo Anthony, Geno Auriemma, Alex Morgan, Ashton Kutcher, and more. The round blew past its initial $100 million target as the league gears up for its January 2027 return.
Players remain Unrivaled’s largest equity group with a near-$200 million pool. That stake has climbed more than 550% since its 2025 launch.
The eight-team upstart hit the road last winter. It departed its 1,000-seat Miami arena to set a pro women’s basketball attendance record in Philadelphia before selling out Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
President Alex Bazzell said Unrivaled plans to further its reach in its third year, targeting additional higher-capacity venues for its season-openers, playoff games, and more.
“Nothing is off the table,” Bazzell told ESPN. “Whether that’s format, cities, where we go next, or who we sign, we want to make sure we are making sound, long-term decisions.”
Offseason leagues are stocking up, as Wings rookie Azzi Fudd announced she’ll join Project B while Storm first-year Flau’Jae Johnson signed a multiyear deal with Unrivaled.
No. 1 draft pick Fudd follows Nneka Ogwumike, Alyssa Thomas, Jonquel Jones, and other WNBA vets to Project B, as the six-team international league prepares to launch a Formula 1-style circuit tour this winter.
“Basketball has always been global to me,” Fudd said. “Project B brings players and fans from everywhere together, and [I] can’t wait to get out there.”
Johnson became the second 2026 rookie to sign with Unrivaled, joining Minnesota’s Olivia Miles ahead of the 3×3 league’s third season.
Both standouts featured in last year’s Future is Unrivaled NIL program, alongside Washington’s Lauren Betts, LA’s Ta’Niya Latson, Toronto’s Kiki Rice, and Dallas’s Fudd.
“From signing one of the first NIL deals with Unrivaled to now joining the league as a player, it’s been incredible to see this journey come full circle,” Johnson said.
The 2026 season of Unrivaled 3x3 Basketball saw both gains and losses, with the second-year league reporting rising attendance and revenue while also experiencing a TV ratings drop.
Arguably the league's biggest successes this year were the Miami-based offseason venture's two satellite events, with Unrivaled drawing a professional women's basketball regular-season record crowd of 21,490 fans in Philadelphia last month before adding a second sellout tour stop in Brooklyn for March's semifinals.
Buoyed by those off-campus events as well as expanded fan capacity at the league's Sephora Arena home, Unrivaled earned millions in ticket sales in 2026, garnering a more than 200% increase over its debut season.
Season 2, however, also experienced a broadcast dip, as the semifinals averaged 213,000 viewers with overall playoff viewership down 9% from 2025.
This year's Unrivaled championship game did provide some bounce-back, with the Mist's trophy win delivering the third-most watched game in league history — trailing only 2025's 1v1 tournament final and the inaugural title game.
Despite the viewership decline, Unrivaled commissioner Micky Lawler reported that the league brought in $45 million in total revenue this year — up from 2025's $27 million.
"Last year, when we had projected $13.5 million in revenue, we actually ended up with $27 million in revenue, and this year, we're at approximately $45 million," Lawler told reporters. "That speaks to the financial performance, but it's a natural byproduct of putting the players and the fans first while consistently raising the bar and setting new standards."
Dallas Wings star Arike Ogunbowale is facing a misdemeanor battery charge after authorities arrested her at a Miami nightclub earlier this week.
The arrest occurred early Thursday, just hours after Ogunbowale helped Mist BC defeat Phantom to win the 2026 Unrivaled Championship. The four-time WNBA All-Star scored 19 points off the bench in the title game.
Miami court records state that Ogunbowale allegedly punched a security staff member who was escorting her out of the establishment due to an unrelated altercation, causing the victim to fall to the ground.
After security alerted an officer about an altercation inside the venue, the officer observed a large crowd being escorted out. The alleged victim then provided a statement claiming Ogunbowale struck him while he was ushering her out of the club.
Nightclub footage reviewed by authorities confirmed the victim's statement.
Fox Sports South Florida's Andy Slater first reported the arrest Friday.
"WNBA All-Star Arike Ogunbowale was arrested on Thursday while celebrating her team's Unrivaled basketball championship at Club E11EVEN in Miami," Slater tweeted. "Police sources tell me she punched a man in the face and he fell to the ground. It was also caught on camera."
The Dallas Wings subsequently released their own statement.
"The Wings are aware of an incident involving Arike Ogunbowale and are in the process of gathering more information," the team wrote. "Further comments will be provided once we have more details."
The 29-year-old guard starred for the Wings during the 2025 WNBA season. She went on to compete in Unrivaled's second season, where she played a key role in Mist BC's championship run.
No additional details have been released.
Breanna Stewart played hero in Wednesday night's 2026 Unrivaled championship game, lifting the No. 2-seed Mist BC over the top-seeded Phantom 80-74 to claim the 3×3 basketball league's Season 2 trophy.
The Unrivaled co-founder and Wednesday's Championship Game MVP dropped 32 points in the title victory while Stewart's Mist teammates Arike Ogunbowale and Allisha Gray added 19 and 12 points, respectively.
Though they failed to log a win over the Phantom in regular-season play, the Mist came through when it counted, booking both the 2026 title and the championship team check worth $600,000.
Despite the loss, Phantom guard Kelsey Plum made Unrivaled history in the matchup, scoring a playoff-record 40 points as her team fought to overcome the loss of 2026 Defensive Player of the Year Aliyah Boston, who missed the Unrivaled postseason due to injury.
"AB's been our anchor defensively all year," Plum told reporters postgame. "We missed her a lot tonight."
As for the Mist, Wednesday's title represents a big club turnaround after the team ended 2025 in fifth place, missing the playoffs entirely before restocking their roster ahead of this year's second-place finish.
"What I'll remember the most about this Mist team is we might not be the loudest, but we're going to work the hardest," Stewart said.
The second season of Unrivaled basketball is down to two teams, as 2025's lowest-ranked finishers — Phantom BC and Mist BC — flipped the script this year, setting up a "worst-to-first" championship battle for the 3×3 league's 2026 crown on Wednesday night.
The Phantom entered the playoffs as the No. 1 seed, taking down Vinyl BC in Monday's semifinals before the No. 2 Mist scored a comeback victory over expansion side Breeze BC to book their spot in Wednesday's final.
"Our goal is a championship, and that has been the goal from the very beginning," said Mist center Alanna Smith prior to the playoffs.
The Mist will lean on the all-around dominance from forward Breanna Stewart and guard Allisha Gray as they look to secure the 2026 Unrivaled title, while Phantom BC will see their sharpshooting guards in the spotlight, led by the league's third-leading scorer, Kelsey Plum.
As well as bragging rights, Wednesday's champions will also take home a cut of the $600,000 prize pool, up from the $50,000-per-player payday Rose BC banked with their victory last season.
"This league is so tough, and everyone's coming to play," said Plum.
How to Watch the 2026 Unrivaled Championship
The No. 1 Phantom will tip off against the No. 2 Mist for the 2026 Unrivaled crown at 9:30 PM ET on Wednesday, airing live on TNT.
Unrivaled Basketball came to play on Monday, as No. 1 seed Phantom BC and No. 2 Mist BC took down their challengers at the 3×3 league's 2026 semifinals in Brooklyn.
Kelsey Plum dominated the first matchup, scoring 31 points to offset Vinyl forward Dearica Hamby's 30 points and help secure the 83-75 Phantom win.
Then in the night's second clash, the Mist mounted a 16-point comeback to beat the Breeze, with Arike Ogunbowale hitting the game-winning three-pointer to clinch the 73-69 victory.
In addition to setting Wednesday's final, Monday's Barclays Center festivities also showcased the second-year league's continued success.
Prior to tip off, Unrivaled Basketball announced that the league is raking in $45 million in revenue this year — including $1 million in semifinals sales alone — up from $27 million in 2025.
"That speaks to the financial performance, but it's as a natural byproduct of putting the players and the fans first while consistently raising the bar and setting new standards, thereby proving what's possible when you focus on the true value drivers of a sport," said Unrivaled commissioner Micky Lawler.
How to watch the Unrivaled Basketball final this week
The winner-take-all 2026 Unrivaled final tips off in Miami on Wednesday, when the No. 2 Mist will battle the No. 1 Phantom live at 9:30 PM ET on TNT.