TNT and its sports platforms to show new Unrivaled women's 3-on-3 basketball league games
The new Unrivaled women’s basketball 3-on-3 league will have its games broadcast on TNT and its sports platforms
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The new Unrivaled women's basketball 3-on-3 league will have its games broadcast on TNT and its sports platforms.
The league announced a multi-year partnership with the network to show more than 45 games from the inaugural season that begins in January. Matchups will be shown three nights a week with twice-weekly games on TNT on Mondays and Fridays. Games that are played on Saturday will be shown on truTV.
Games begin on Jan. 17 and will be played in Miami.
“Our TNT Sports portfolio centers on premium live sports and our media and equity partnership with Unrivaled deepens our commitment to further expanding the depth of top tier women’s sports programming we offer our fans and presents an opportunity for us to shape and amplify the continued growth of women’s basketball,” said Luis Silberwasser, Chairman & CEO of TNT Sports.
The league features 30 of the top women's basketball players across six teams and was co-founded by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart.
“I mean, to be able to have a network like that that supports us, especially in Year 1, I think is just a huge testament to women's basketball right now and how much it's growing,” Collier told The Associated Press at shootaround before Game 3 of the WNBA Finals on Thursday.
Salaries for the new league will be in six figures. Compensation was key for players, many of whom have spent their offseason overseas supplementing their WNBA incomes. The average WNBA base salary is about $130,000 with the top stars able to earn more than $500,000 through salary, marketing agreements, an in-season tournament and bonuses. Many of the players also will have an equity stake in the league.
The league will run for eight weeks with the 30 players divided into six teams. The squads will play two games a week with the contests taking place on a court about two-thirds the size of a WNBA one. The teams will stay the same throughout the season.
___
AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball