Unrivaled, the new 3-on-3 women’s basketball league coming to TNT Sports in January, revealed its rosters on Wednesday.
Not included was the sport’s preeminent star: Caitlin Clark. The league reportedly offered the WNBA Rookie of the Year a “Messi-like” deal to join. But it now looks like that won’t be happening.
Even with the initial rosters revealed, the door was still open for Clark to join the league before its debut on January 17th. Unrivaled left two wild-card roster sports open in the 36-player league, and per a report in Sportico, there is no timetable for when the wild-card spots will be filled. But one could imagine that if Clark wanted a spot, she could have it. However, ESPN’s Michael Voepel reported Wednesday night that Clark won’t play in Unrivaled’s first season:
Indiana Fever star guard Caitlin Clark will not play in the new 3-on-3 league Unrivaled in its inaugural season, a source with knowledge of the situation told ESPN on Wednesday.
…Clark will still be busy with events in the WNBA’s offseason. Last week, she took part in a pro-am for The Annika LPGA tournament. It was announced Tuesday that she will be the guest speaker for a women’s sports awards luncheon in Kansas City, Missouri, on Feb. 4 at T-Mobile Center. It is one of the largest events in the country celebrating National Girls and Women in Sports Day.
There are still plenty of other players Unrivaled can grab. Another potential target for the league is Las Vegas Aces superstar A’ja Wilson, who has not yet indicated if she will participate.
Earlier this month, a report in Sports Business Journal indicated that Clark was “60/40” to join the league. And that offer to her would likely have included substantial equity in the enterprise, though one of the league’s investors, former ESPN president John Skipper, confirmed last week that every player in the league is receiving equity.
Clark’s offer was also reported to be in the seven-figure range, while the average salary for participants will be around $250,000.
As goes without saying, Clark’s participation would raise the nascent league’s profile significantly. 3-on-3 basketball is still a relatively new concept in the United States, but Clark has proven she is a transcendent viewership draw. Where she goes—whether that be the Iowa Hawkeyes, the Indiana Fever, or even the golf course—viewers have followed. But it now looks like she won’t be taking to her talents to Unrivaled, at least not this year.
Unrivaled could very well prove successful without Clark. But this news does mean this new league won’t have one of women’s basketball’s biggest draws.
