Unrivaled is rewriting the business of women’s basketball

What It Covers

Mickie Lawler, commissioner of Unrivaled — the player-founded three-on-three women's basketball league co-created by Brianna Stewart and Nafissa Collier — explains how the league's startup model, player equity structure, and sponsor integration strategy are reshaping professional women's sports in its second season.

Key Questions Answered

• •Player equity as alignment tool: Giving players ownership stakes from day one eliminates the friction common in traditional leagues. At Unrivaled, players with equity immediately understand that league growth benefits them directly — accelerating buy-in on social media participation, brand storytelling, and off-court engagement without the lengthy negotiations that slowed similar initiatives at the WTA.
• •Sponsor integration through "what were you told you couldn't do": Lawler's team opens sponsor conversations by asking brands what they previously couldn't accomplish in sports. Samsung embedded phones courtside to capture live broadcast footage; Sephora became arena naming partner with a giant shopping bag installation outside the venue — turning constraints into creative, authentic activations.
• •Clean-slate startup advantage: Launching without legacy rules allows Unrivaled to experiment freely — adding a mid-season one-on-one tournament, taking the league on road stops to Philadelphia and Brooklyn's Barclays Center, and integrating tunnel fashion moments. Established leagues with heritage structures cannot replicate this speed of format iteration.
• •Bubble model plus tour stops as a scalable format: Concentrating play in one Miami location reduces operational complexity while road playoff stops in major markets — Philadelphia's Xfinity Arena, Brooklyn's Barclays Center — maximize fan reach. Lawler frames this as finding the balance between intimate home-court viewing and broad geographic exposure.
• •Player infrastructure investment drives performance and retention: Unrivaled allocates budget toward amenities players previously sacrificed by playing overseas: on-site childcare, infrared saunas, dedicated training staff, and glam rooms. This package, combined with equity and U.S.-based brand exposure, positions the league as a viable WNBA off-season alternative to international contracts.