On Friday’s episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, host Jackie Powell is joined by NBC Sports’ Natalie Esquire to reflect on the impact that the 3×3 women’s basketball league Unrivaled has had on professional women’s basketball in its first season. The pair breaks down how the resources and investment that defined Unrivaled will push the WNBA. Then Jackie and Natalie explore the different approaches players had to the Unrivaled season. Why has Napheesa Collier’s Lunar Owls Basketball Club been so much better than all the other Unrivaled teams? Later, they discuss what tweaks Unrivaled should explore in Year 2 along with their predictions for which team will win the Unrivaled championship this coming Monday.
“Becoming Caitlin Clark” is out now!
Howard Megdal’s newest book is here! “Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar” captures both the historic nature of Clark’s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible, including interviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and many others.
Unrivaled has had a significant impact on WNBA players, especially as they head into collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiations. As Jackie and Natalie discuss, the experience has provided players with a glimpse of what they truly deserve, highlighting what’s possible when they are well-supported, and have the resources they need to compete at the highest level.
“They have literally everything that they need — they don’t want for anything. … They have child care for their children, they have massages, they have makeup — Sephora. They have everything there that they could possibly need to make it easy on them to do their job, which is to play basketball,” Natalie explains on the podcast.
Later in the episode, Jackie and Natalie share their predictions for the Unrivaled championship. The semifinals tip off on Sunday when the Laces face the Rose and the Vinyl face the Lunar Owls with a spot in Monday’s championship game on the line.