Unrivaled President Addresses Whether New League Is Stepping on WNBA's Toes

The much-anticipated wait for the Unrivaled Women's Basketball League's inaugural season is almost over, as the league is just four days away from tipping off its first season.

Unrivaled has done a tremendous job building up hype for this new league. Whether it's by signing most of the sport's biggest superstars, cheeky marketing moves and strategies on social media, or announcing massive sponsorships and investments, the league has already amassed a staggering amount of off-court wins before the games have begun.

It has become common for women's basketball fans to compare Unrivaled to the WNBA, which has been maligned in the past for several reasons. This, combined with Unrivaled's vastly superior salaries compared to the WNBA, has led some — including Phoenix Mercury superstar Brittney Griner (who is playing in Unrivaled) — to assert that the new league is "putting pressure" on the WNBA.

Unrivaled President Alex Bazzell discussed this sentiment with Robin Lundberg of Women's Fastbreak on SI in an article that was released on January 13.

"It's great that we are setting an expectation. But I don't think our goal here is to put pressure," Bazzell said.

"It's not meant to be a LIV Golf, PGA [Tour] situation by any stretch. We think we're very complementary. In all honesty, we feel like we're just kind of finishing their calendar year. The WNBA is in a very short window of a season and you have seven months of an offseason. Even when you combine our seasons you have a longer offseason than any other league in the world other than the NFL. The WNBA has been great to us, you have seen the teams promoting what we're doing," he added.

"We don't look at this as trying to be a thorn in the WNBA's side because of just how rapidly that's growing. We only want to help that. I think indirectly we help each other a ton. We're not here unless the WNBA is growing the way it is. And I think vice versa they're going to hit a skyrocketing ability because we're keeping that attention a little bit longer on these athletes."

I got a chance to talk to Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell about what fans should expect from the new basketball league both now and going forward. (Sorry I didn't ask about the shot clock).https://t.co/qwu6jAnTcQ
— Robin Lundberg (@robinlundberg) January 13, 2025

Regardless of Bazzell's sentiment, his league is sure to keep receiving comparisons to the WNBA as it continues to develop.