As Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball gears up for Season 2, broadcast partner TNT unveiled additional 2026 coverage plans last week while the offseason league crowned its team captains across the expanded field.
Unrivaled co-founders Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart will captain the Lunar Owls and Mist BC, respectively, while Season 1 veterans Jackie Young (Laces BC), Kahleah Copper (Rose BC), and Dearica Hamby (Vinyl BC) will also resume their boss roles next month.
Earning first-time captain status for the 2026 campaign are three league newcomers, with Kelsey Plum helming Phantom BC while 2025 WNBA rookies Sonia Citron and Paige Bueckers lead incoming Unrivaled expansion teams Hive BC and Breeze BC, respectively.
Stocked with eight clubs and an extra night of weekly programming, TNT is doubling down on Unrivaled this winter, tapping three-time WNBA champion Candace Parker to lead the network's coverage in the hot seat.
Joining Parker will be fellow WNBA retiree and All-Star Renee Montgomery as well as host Lauren Jbara, with special appearances throughout the season by basketball legend Lisa Leslie.
Each week will now feature four nights of Unrivaled basketball, with TNT airing Friday and Monday games while truTV broadcasts the 3x3 league's action on Saturdays and Sundays.
How to watch Unrivaled Season 2
The second season of Unrivaled Basketball will tip off with all eight teams in action across a pair of doubleheaders — one in the afternoon and one in the evening — beginning at 1 PM ET on Monday, January 5th, with live coverage airing on truTV and TNT.
The No. 9 Sparks haven't given up the fight, with LA sitting just outside the 2025 WNBA playoff picture ahead of Wednesday night's clash with a No. 11 Dallas Wings side facing postseason elimination.
The Sparks have had an up-and-down season, arriving at a 16-18 record with six wins in their last 10 games.
"We control our destiny, so what do we do with it?" LA head coach Lynne Roberts said on Tuesday. "And I love that we're in that spot, but we'll see how competitive we are."
"Obviously we feel like there's some games that we should have and could have won at the beginning of the season early on, but [you] can't change the past," echoed Sparks forward Dearica Hamby. "We have good momentum right now still. We're still in good position to make the playoffs, so just take it a game at a time."
Meanwhile, Dallas will try to stave off joining the last-place Connecticut Sun in playoff elimination, though their draft lottery odds rise with every loss.
The Wings will be even more shorthanded on Wednesday after losing Li Yueru to a season-ending ACL sprain on Friday, with the center now joining star guard Arike Ogunbowale, who is suffering from knee tendinitis, on the sideline.
How to watch the Dallas Wings vs. LA Sparks on Wednesday
The No. 9 Sparks will host the No. 11 Wings at 10 PM ET on Wednesday, with live coverage airing on WNBA League Pass.
The 2025 All-Star Game draft pool is complete, as the WNBA dropped the 12-player reserves list on Sunday to round out the group of 22 league standouts who'll battle in Indianapolis later this month.
Washington rookie phenoms Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen received their first career nods, making the Mystics the first WNBA team in 26 years to see two league debutants become All-Stars.
The Washington duo aren't the only first-timers to make Sunday's All-Star cut, with both Seattle's Gabby Williams and Golden State's Kayla Thornton earning spots on the 2025 reserves list.
All-Star captains Napheesa Collier (Minnesota) and Caitlin Clark (Indiana) will also now have access to Skylar Diggins (Seattle), Rhyne Howard (Atlanta), Kelsey Mitchell (Indiana), Kelsey Plum (LA), Angel Reese (Chicago), Alyssa Thomas (Phoenix), Courtney Williams (Minnesota), and Jackie Young (Las Vegas) alongside the previously announced starters to build out their teams.
Coaches catch heat for All-Star decisions
While a mix of fans, players, and media members vote to determine the All-Star Game starters, WNBA head coaches choose the reserves — and some players weren't exactly happy with this year's outcome.
"Whatever about me…. But taking 2, and NOT including the best player from a below 500 team is crazy," LA forward Dearica Hamby posted on Sunday, blasting the coaches for not including Mystics guard Brittney Sykes.
"I don't know why only [Collier] and [Williams] are All-Stars when you have the best team in the league by a few games," Minnesota head coach Cheryl Reeve, whose Lynx currently lead the WNBA by a large 4.5-game margin, told reporters. "There are teams that are below us in the standings by a lot that have three All-Stars."
Reeve is referencing No. 4 Seattle and No. 7 Indiana, who lead the charge with a trio of All-Stars each.
While six teams, including Minnesota, each boast two players in the pool, four — Chicago, Dallas, Golden State, and LA — will be repped by one player at the 2025 All-Star Game.
With just two wins on the season, the last-place Connecticut Sun is the only WNBA team to not field an All-Star this year.
How to watch the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game draft
Clark and Collier will draft their 2025 WNBA All-Star Game teams during Tuesday's broadcast of WNBA Countdown, airing at 7 PM ET on ESPN.
The first-ever Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball semifinals took an unexpected turn on Sunday, as No. 4-seed Vinyl BC shocked the league by knocking freshly crowned 2025 MVP Napheesa Collier’s No. 1-seed Lunar Owls out of the competition in a 73-70 nail-biter.
The Lunar Owls dropped just one game all season prior to Sunday’s loss, entering the postseason as the clear favorite to win it all — including the $50,000-per-player championship purse.
On the other hand, the Vinyl narrowly qualified for the inaugural league's playoffs, and trailed the Lunar Owls for much of Sunday's game.
Entering the fourth quarter with a 10-point deficit, the Vinyl raced past the Lunar Owls, sinking 21 more points to stun their decorated opponents and earn a spot in Monday's final.
"We've been counted out this entire season," said Vinyl forward Dearica Hamby after delivering game-winning bucket. "We consider ourselves underdogs, but that didn’t show in our locker room. We never stopped believing in ourselves."
Monday's championship game will pit the Vinyl against late-season dark horse Rose BC, after the short-staffed No. 2 seed overcame a double-digit first-half deficit to earn a 63-57 semifinal win over the No. 3-seed Laces.
With Unrivaled Defensive Player of the Year Angel Reese joining Kahleah Copper on the injured end of the Rose bench, guard Chelsea Gray took charge in their absence, polishing off a single-game league-record 39 points with the game-winning three-pointer.
All in all, while Unrivaled co-founder Collier has been the standout all season, that fact that her Lunar Owls will now watch Monday's final from the sidelines only speaks to the league’s wider success.
How to watch the Unrivaled 3×3 championship game
Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball will crown its first-ever champion on Monday, after the No. 4 Vinyl contend against the No. 2 Rose in the offseason league's inaugural title game.
The action will tip off at 7:30 PM ET, with live coverage on TNT.
The higher seeds handled business on Tuesday, as twin first-round sweeps saw the Liberty and Aces emerge 2-0 from the best-of-three series to advance to the semifinals of the 2024 WNBA playoffs.
Fueled by Sabrina Ionescu's 36 points, which tied New York's single-game playoff scoring record, the Liberty came from behind to defeat the Atlanta Dream 91-82 before the Aces held off the Storm 83-76.
The wins set up an electric second-round matchup between 2023 championship foes New York and Las Vegas.
Last year, the back-to-back defending champion Aces needed just four Finals games to beat New York for the title. To take aim at the elusive three-peat, No. 4-seed Las Vegas will have to advance past the top-seeded Liberty in the 2024 semifinals, which will tip off on Sunday, September 29th.
Despite four Finals appearances, the Liberty is the only remaining original WNBA franchise without a championship.
Could tonight's WNBA playoff game be Diana Taurasi's last?
Wednesday night's WNBA playoffs could see the end of legend Diana Taurasi's professional career, as her No. 7-seed Phoenix Mercury attempts to avoid elimination against No. 2-seed Minnesota.
Now in her 20th season, 42-year-old Taurasi — an 11-time All-Star, three-time WNBA champion, former league and Finals MVP, and the WNBA's all-time leading scorer — has hinted that this year might be her last.
Caitlin Clark and the No. 6-seed Fever will also be playing for survival tonight after Sunday's blowout loss to No. 3-seed Connecticut. An Indiana win would send the best-of-three series to Indianapolis, known for their rocking crowds.
How to watch round one of the WNBA playoffs tonight
The Fever will tip off against the Sun at 7:30 PM ET tonight. Immediately following, the Mercury will take on the Lynx at 9:30 PM ET. Both games will air live on ESPN.
The WNBA is back and better than ever this weekend, with CBS airing big-name matchups sure to set the tone for the final month of the regular season.
First, Minnesota and Washington will face off on Saturday at 2 PM ET, with the Lynx aiming to go two-for-two against the Mystics after securing a tight 79-68 win on Thursday. And in the 4 PM ET game of Saturday's CBS doubleheader, New York and Las Vegas will battle for the second time this season after the Liberty took the first 2023 WNBA Finals rematch back in June.
TV and streaming platforms bet on watching the WNBA
The WNBA has become a fixture of summer weekend viewing, with Prime showcasing games on Thursdays, Ion covering Fridays, and a variety of other national channels hosting the league throughout the week.
Plus, after Team USA won Olympic gold in front of as many as 10.9 million US viewers, expect the league — and the platforms who host the W — to harness that momentum all the way to the season's finish line.
Thursday night on Prime, for instance, saw Olympic gold medalists Kahleah Copper, Diana Taurasi, and Brittney Griner record a monster 85-65 Mercury win over the Sky, successfully marking Copper's first trip back to Chicago since her preseason trade.
The Liberty also notched a massive Thursday win on ESPN, blasting the LA Sparks 103-68 as Olympic medalists Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, and Dearica Hamby returned to action.
Wings' roster changes take center court tonight
Tonight, attention will turn to Ion as Seattle takes on Atlanta, Phoenix travels to Indiana, and Connecticut matches up against Dallas.
The Wings currently sit at the bottom of the league standings, but the return of Satou Sabally and Maddy Siegrist (from injuries that sidelined them prior to the Olympics) will boost their lineup. However, Dallas had to release Odyssey Sims and Monique Billings from their hardship contracts, infusing the free agency market with talent and catching the eyes of teams looking for midseason pick-ups.
Fever vs. Storm game highlights Sunday's WNBA lineup
On Sunday, ABC will showcase Indiana and Seattle squaring off inside Indianapolis's newly announced 2025 WNBA All-Star Game stadium. While Indiana hopes to solidify their place above the playoff line, Seattle — who won four of their last five pre–Olympic break games — keeps rising toward the top of the WNBA standings.
While the WNBA readies for a comeback, Olympic 3×3 bronze medalist and LA Sparks forward Dearica Hamby has escalated her legal disputes with both the Las Vegas Aces and the league at large.
In a lawsuit filed on Monday, August 12th, Hamby claims her former Las Vegas team subjected her to "repeated acts of intimidation, discrimination, and retaliation" in regards to a pregnancy she disclosed prior to her January 2023 trade to Los Angeles.
Hamby also alleges the WNBA failed to properly investigate and punish the organization. The league did suspend head coach Becky Hammon for two games and rescinded the team's 2025 first round draft pick.
From contract extension to LA Sparks trade
Hamby won a WNBA Championship with the Aces in 2022, about two months after signing a deal to extend her contract for two additional years. The suit states that she found out she was pregnant in mid-July of 2022 — after finalizing her extension deal — and informed the team in early August.
Following her pregnancy disclosure, Hamby alleges that she suffered retaliation including rescinded access to player housing and the refusal to pay her daughter's school tuition. She also contends that Hammon questioned her dedication to the team, asking her if she'd planned the pregnancy prior to her trade.
After giving birth to her son in April 2023, Hamby played all 40 games of the 2023 WNBA season with the Sparks.
Hamby seeks legal damages as Aces double down
Hamby is now seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, including coverage for economic losses and attorney's fees.
"The unprofessional and unethical way that I have been treated has been traumatizing," she said in a January 2023 social media post.
In a statement released Tuesday, the Aces affirmed "As an organization, we continue to stand behind our statement on May 16, 2023, made at the conclusion of the WNBA's investigation into this matter."
Dearica Hamby has been named to USA Basketball's official 3×3 Olympic roster, replacing an injured Cameron Brink.
The Los Angeles Sparks forward has extensive experience with the 3×3 team, including taking home both a gold medal and MVP honors at the 2023 FIBA AmeriCup.
Brink originally made the roster in early June, but suffered a season-ending ACL injury during Los Angeles’s June 18th loss to Connecticut.
"It is an honor to announce Dearica Hamby's addition to the USA 3×3 women's national team and we look forward to getting to work as a squad very soon," USA Basketball 3×3 national team director Jay Demings said in a statement. "USA Basketball continues to keep Cameron Brink in our thoughts as she focuses on her recovery."
Hamby will join 2023 FIBA 3×3 World Cup champions Hailey Van Lith (TCU), CIerra Burdick, and Rhyne Howard (Atlanta Dream) in Paris.
Dearica Hamby’s former Las Vegas Aces teammates cut off contact with her after she went public with her claims of mistreatment by the team, she said in a discrimination complaint filed on Sept. 22.
In the complaint, filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the Aces and the WNBA, the 29-year-old forward alleges that Las Vegas traded her to the Los Angeles Sparks in January because she was pregnant. She also contends that the WNBA “failed to properly investigate” the incident in “retaliation” for her public comments about the situation, as first reported by the Washington Post.
Hamby first spoke out about “unethical treatment” by the Aces in the immediate aftermath of her trade. But in the complaint, she shares new details of her allegations.
After she revealed her pregnancy in August, the Aces “retaliated” against her, creating an “abusive and hostile” work environment, Hamby said. Her former teammates cut off communication with her after she spoke out, per the complaint.
And even after she was traded to the Sparks, Hamby claims the Aces attempted to obtain private OBGYN medical records, as reported by CBS Sports.
Hamby also claims that the WNBA failed to interview any current Aces players in the investigation. At the conclusion of the investigation, the league suspended Las Vegas head coach Becky Hammon for two games, and also rescinded the team’s 2025 first-round draft pick.
“The league conducted a thorough investigation of the allegations and levied appropriate discipline based on its findings,” the WNBA said in a statement.
Dearica Hamby has filed a federal discrimination complaint against the WNBA and the Las Vegas Aces, as first reported by the Washington Post’s Molly Hensley-Clancy.
In the complaint, filed last week with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Hamby alleges that the Aces traded her to the Los Angeles Sparks in January because she was pregnant. She also contends that the WNBA “failed to properly investigate” the incident in “retaliation” for her public comments about the situation, Hensley-Clancy reported.
The 29-year-old forward went public with her claims of “unethical treatment” from the Aces after the trade, which then led to an investigation by the WNBA. Las Vegas head coach Becky Hammon received a two-game suspension for making comments related to Hamby’s pregnancy in violation of Respect in the Workplace policies.
In the complaint, Hamby recalls Hammon informing her of her trade to the Sparks: “During this conversation, I stated twice to Hammon, ‘You’re trading me because I am pregnant?’ Hammon responded, ‘What do you want me to do?'”
After winning the 2022 WNBA title with the Aces, Hamby announced her pregnancy during the Aces’ victory parade. The two-time Sixth Player of the Year gave birth to son Legend in March, and she played all 40 games of the 2023 season for the Sparks, averaging 8.9 points and 5.9 rebounds in 24.8 minutes per game.
The news of the complaint comes as Hammon and the Aces prepare to face off against the New York Liberty in the 2023 WNBA Finals.