Unrivaled Ambition: Inside the Bold, Player-First Vision of the Women’s 3v3 Basketball League Disrupting the Game
2 days ago
“We’re not trying to ride the coattails of men’s sport. We’re building our own rocket ship.” That could well be the unofficial mantra of Unrivaled, a new 3-on-3 women’s basketball league co-founded by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, which is rewriting the rules of elite sport, content, and community from the ground up.
In a wide-ranging conversation with iSportConnect, Unrivaled’s Chief Content Officer John Learing spoke about the startup league’s ambitions, the radical design of its format, and the core principle shaping every decision: put athletes first.
“We didn’t have players. We didn’t have logos. No archive. No footage. Nothing. Everything we did was built from this one question: How the hell are we going to get people interested in us with no visual accompaniment?”
That was just 12 months ago. Now, Unrivaled has completed its first season, drawn in a devoted fan base, and captured attention far beyond traditional women’s basketball audiences. It’s done so through a unique blend of sporting innovation, content-led growth, and a tech-savvy, values-driven philosophy.
A New Kind of League, Designed for Women
From the outset, Unrivaled was constructed with a clear mission: elevate women athletes on their own terms. That included raising private capital, offering equity to players, and ensuring equal pay “to the best on the planet,” not just “the best in women’s basketball.”
The league’s format is just as unconventional. Unlike the static half-court 3×3 structure seen in the Olympics, Unrivaled uses a shortened full-court game on a 72-foot-long floor, specifically engineered for high-intensity, end-to-end play. And it features a “target score” instead of a countdown clock in the fourth quarter — ensuring every match ends on a game-winning shot.
“There’s no place to hide. When you remove 40% of the players from a full-court game, you’ve got to be able to create and defend at both ends.”
Content-Led, Platform-Specific, Fan-Built
For Learing, a seasoned sports media executive who has worked extensively in tennis and golf, Unrivaled’s differentiator is not just on-court innovation — it’s the digital-first approach to fan engagement.
“Digital content is the focus of this league. Everyone says that, but we really meant it. We had to — because for 9 months of the year, there’s no basketball.”
That meant building brand equity through storytelling, behind-the-scenes access, and co-creation with fans, even before a single game tipped off.
“We saw Season 1 as our lab. We tested everything: what works on TikTok, what doesn’t on YouTube, where our audiences are, how they want to be spoken to. And we learned quickly that a one-size-fits-all content strategy fails.”
Technology, AI, and the ‘Authenticity’ Test
With a lean team and limited budget, data and AI tools are essential to Unrivaled’s growth playbook.
“I don’t go to the bathroom without looking at data first. That’s how much we rely on it. We can’t afford to go by hunch.”
Season 2 will see a deeper integration of AI into content workflows — not to replace human creativity, Learing insists, but to support volume and experimentation. The critical line, he says, is emotional connection.
“We’re going to find what makes sense to keep everything authentic while creating efficient content.”
That word — authenticity — comes up often in the interview. It underpins everything from how the games are presented to how players are supported in building their personal brands.
A Player-Led Content Culture
Unrivaled’s player-first ethos goes beyond pay and playing time. Each athlete is able to participate in designing their own content journey, based on how involved they want to be.
The Unrivaled team provides dedicated support to test new formats — from social video to podcasting to lifestyle content. For the less engaged athletes, there’s still a responsibility to support the league’s growth — but the intrusion is minimal.
“You can’t fake passion. Fans see right through it. So we build the content around what players actually want to do. That’s how we keep it real.”
Season 2: A New Chapter, Not a Repeat
What’s next? According to Learing, it’s about evolving without losing identity.
“Think of Law & Order. You know what you’re getting — familiar characters, new stories. That’s what we want Unrivaled to be. Each season feels fresh but grounded in what fans love.”
The website Unrivaled.basketball highlights some of these ambitions: 36 athletes, every athlete sees the court in one location: Miami. That controlled ecosystem gives Unrivaled complete ownership of its environment — and complete freedom to innovate.
Final Word
Unrivaled provides a blueprint for both established and emerging sports properties on how to build a league in 2025—rooted in athlete empowerment, original formats, and content strategies that foster genuine community rather than chasing passive reach. It challenges the default comparisons with men’s sport and instead defines success on its own terms.
As Learing put it:
“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. But we are trying to build a new vehicle — and take fans along for the ride.”