How much do Unrivaled players get paid?

The new Unrivaled League is set to tip off on Jan. 17 in Miami, Florida. The new professional 3-on-3 league will feature 36 players, mostly WNBA stars, across six teams.

A selection committee picked the players for each squad, taking into consideration positions and skills to ensure parity,

As per ESPN, the players will share a salary pool worth $8 million, equaling an average of around $200,000 for each player to give them a hefty offseason salary without the travel that came with playing overseas, which was the norm before the league came forth.

The games will run for nine weeks and will be played on a shorter court with four seven-minute quarters as it promises to deliver exciting women’s basketball while the WNBA is in its offseason.

Among the players in the league, only three players from the 2024 WNBA draft were included in the lineups. Some of the league’s biggest stars who were signed include reigning WNBA champion Sabrina Ionescu of the New York Liberty, Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky and Brittney Griner of the Phoenix Mercury.

How much will they get paid?

While exact salaries for players will not be disclosed, the league has provided a framework for how much they will get paid during the nine-week tournament co-founded by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier.

There will be an average of $222,222 salary across all players. The mark is a slight uptick from the regular WNBA max contract, which typically amounts to about $214,466.

According to Collier, the league worked on paying the players an impressive amount as it aims to create “generational wealth” for all women involved.

"Women's sports is on such a rise, and it feels like everyone is benefiting from that except the women in the sport, and obviously that's something we're trying to change and then also create generational wealth for these women," Collier said in an interview with “We Need To Talk” in 2023.

Unrivaled League wants to give appropriate price tags for players

Unrivaled will also be riding the newfound audiences built during the historic 2024 WNBA season, which allowed the league to gain more viewers.

Collier said that the league wants to give the proper compensation to all players, proving that it can be done, considering how the sport grew in the past years:

"From the beginning, [Stewart] and I really set out to create a league that was founded on that principle that players deserve compensation and ownership that reflect their value."

Aside from WNBA players, the teams will also feature some veteran coaches, including Phil Handy and Teresa Weatherspoon, among others.