Category: WNBA

Seven hours after Unrivaled announced its return to Philadelphia on Thursday, the city’s diehard women’s basketball community was lined up around the block at Dock Street South for a celebratory block party. The event was hosted by Unrivaled, the women’s professional three-on-three league that serves as a second season for several WNBA stars.

After a record-setting first go-around at Xfinity Mobile Arena, Miami-based Unrivaled is expanding its presence in other cities. Philly will be the third stop on the league’s 2027 bus tour, and one of eight cities outside of Miami that will host games next year.

“Obviously, tens of thousands of people are going to buy tickets, but to see the people pull up in their Unrivaled gear, waiting in line, it speaks to how diehard their fandom is,” Kirby Porter, chief brand officer at Unrivaled, said. “For us, we want to do things that are engaging fans in digital, but especially in real life, which is I think even more long-lasting.”

Porter said that Unrivaled’s internal data showed that the Northeast is one of their strongest markets, and all three of the announced stops — in Boston, New York, and Philly — are in the region. Unrivaled wants to “fill the gap” in Boston and Philly, two cities that are not currently home to WNBA franchises, which leads to a large fan appetite for live women’s events.

Unrivaled, in collaboration with Xfinity, handed out freebies, including fan passports, which could be completed with an Unrivaled trivia game to win a free poster.

Ticket sales for Unrivaled’s return are already trending above the 2026 stop, according to Ashley Lunkenheimer, the vice president of the Philadelphia Sisters. In addition to helping bring a WNBA team to Philly in 2030, the Sisters helped secure the city as Unrivaled’s first tour stop and bring it back. After setting a venue record and a record for pro women’s basketball, they’re setting their sights on raising the ceiling even higher.

Thursday was a huge start. About 250 fans came out to celebrate the league’s return, including Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, one of the biggest supporters of bringing Unrivaled to Philadelphia. She led a spirited cheer of “Philly is Unrivaled” to kick off the evening.

“People that I didn’t know — man, woman, young, old, didn’t matter — were coming up to me and saying that Unrivaled was one of the best sporting events they’d ever been to,” Lunkenheimer said. “Everybody who didn’t go, they had FOMO.”

Last year’s games brought out celebrities like Dawn Staley, Kylie and Jason Kelce, Kyle Lowry, Robin Roberts, and Leslie Jones, while big-name players like Paige Bueckers, Marina Mabrey, and locals Natasha Cloud and Kahleah Copper were on the court.

If you want to avoid any FOMO after next year’s event, you can get tickets here.

After a record-setting debut at Xfinity Mobile Arena in 2026, Unrivaled will return to South Philadelphia on Feb. 15, 2027.

The South Florida-based three-on-three women’s basketball league hit the road for the first time in 2026, bringing four of its eight teams to Philadelphia for its inaugural tour stop.

“It was our first tour stop ever, and because we broke every attendance record, it was a no-brainer to come back to Philly,” Unrivaled commissioner Micky Lawler said. “It felt like Philly was part of our family, and we’d worked hard to get there and to do what we did there. So it was like Thanksgiving coming back.”

The Philly stop was the most-attended women’s professional basketball game in history and set venue attendance records at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

Celebrities like Dawn Staley, Kylie and Jason Kelce, Kyle Lowry, Robin Roberts, and Leslie Jones were in the building, and big names like Paige Bueckers, Marina Mabrey, and locals Natasha Cloud and Kahleah Copper were on the court for the 2026 doubleheader.

“It was unbelievable,” cofounder Napheesa Collier said. “You could feel the love tonight. I’m so glad we came here. I just can’t explain it more than I was just so filled up with joy. It was amazing.”

Lawler could not confirm which of Unrivaled’s teams or players would play in the 2027 tour stop. The four clubs will be finalized later in December.

The event was such a success that Unrivaled moved the semifinals of its playoffs to the Barclays Center and is embarking on a multicity road trip this winter, starting with Boston.

Ashley Lunkenheimer, vice president of the Philadelphia Sisters, an organization dedicated to bringing professional women’s sports to Philadelphia, said attendees from last year’s event already are inquiring about purchasing suites, and there’s increased sponsorship interest. Tickets go on sale at 3 p.m. for Unrivaled newsletter subscribers and 4 p.m. for the general public.

The Sisters played a critical role in attracting Unrivaled to Philly, which provided proof of concept that women’s sports can be successful in the city. Lunkenheimer hopes Unrivaled’s continued presence in the city helps to lay the foundation for Philadelphia’s WNBA team, which is set to begin play in 2030.

“For Philadelphia specifically, it’s the makings, I hope, of a season ticket list, right?” Lunkenheimer said. “… We need to build back the awareness for the broader crowds, so they all know when the WNBA comes.”

Unrivaled was the first major pro women’s basketball event in Philly since 1998. Philly’s embrace of it ensured it won’t be the last.

“It was a mutual opportunity to showcase that we believed in our city and in Unrivaled,” Lunkenheimer said. “I’d like to believe that’s why New York and Barclays said, ‘Let’s jump on that.’ Now they’re going to all these other cities because every other city is saying, ‘We want it.’ They could have said, ‘Well, we’re going to skip Philly. We already did that.’ But they didn’t. They value that partnership.”

WASHINGTON — When the New York Liberty waived Betnijah Laney-Hamilton earlier this month, it caused quite a commotion around the WNBA.

The transaction wasn’t too much of a surprise, since her playing time had fallen sharply from years past. But the 32-year-old with roots in the Philly area was a Liberty fan favorite, and a key piece of the team’s long-awaited first title in 2024.

Now the rest of the league had a shot to sign a former WNBA and FIBA world champion, All-Star, and first-team all-defense player with a reputation as a great teammate.

It turned out that the moving van didn’t have to go too far. The Washington Mystics won the race to claim her, jumping at the chance to add a veteran to a team full of young promise.

“The transition’s been pretty easy, just in terms of how everyone’s embraced me and just made it easy,” Laney-Hamilton said. “It’s nice always being able to be close to home, where my family can get here and everything.”

That family includes her mother, Philly women’s hoops legend Yolanda Laney, who is often in the crowd at Laney-Hamilton’s home games. Washington is even closer to Yolanda’s home in Delaware than Brooklyn.

Washington has been the biggest surprise in the league this year. On a circuit full of sizzling stars, the Mystics have a lot of good players, but not a household name yet. Still, they started the week in seventh place, and clinched a playoff spot Sunday night with a win in Portland.

From there, they could look down at Paige Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale’s Dallas Wings in eighth, and two marquee squads already eliminated from playoff contention: Nneka Ogwumike and Cameron Brink’s Los Angeles Sparks, and Kahleah Copper and Alyssa Thomas’ Phoenix Mercury.

The Mystics still have a ways to go until they’re real contenders, and they showed it in last Friday’s loss to the first-place Minnesota Lynx. Though Washington battled gamely throughout, the decisive moments were the little things down the stretch: a missed shot here, a turnover there, a basket conceded on a break the other way.

Perhaps those things will come in time for former college greats like Sonia Citron, Kiki Iriafen, and Lauren Betts as they develop in the pros. Coach Sydney Johnson can hope Laney-Hamilton’s presence alongside the team’s other veterans, Shakira Austin and Michaela Onyenwere, will help the process go even faster.

“She’s hit the ground running here,” Johnson said. “They really respect her, they look up to her, they understand her playoff experience. She speaks with a high level of command with the players and coaches.

For now, Johnson is simply thrilled to have her, and he does not take her easy integration for granted. Sometimes, a veteran’s arrival to a new team can upset existing chemistry. That hasn’t happened here.

“I’m not a betting man, but it was a good bet,” said the second-year head coach, familiar to Philly hoops veterans from many years at Princeton. (He was the point guard in the famous 1996 NCAA Tournament upset of UCLA, and coached his alma mater to the 2011 Ivy League title.)

“We are about toughness and togetherness,” Johnson said. “When you watch her, you watch her career, it’s pretty clear that she’s as tough as nails out there. You see her interacting with her teammates on the court, and then all the intel behind the scenes, she’s an outstanding person and a giver — she’s really giving to her team. So we felt like we got a steal, we really do.”

Laney-Hamilton in turn praised her new teammates for “the energy, the intention behind everyone.” And she called Johnson “great,” helping with the transition then being clear about his expectations.

The Mystics are spending this week on the west coast, with two games to come at Phoenix and one at Los Angeles before the WNBA pauses at the end of the month for the FIBA World Cup. When the season resumes, there will be just four games left to jostle for playoff positioning.

Whatever happens along the way, it’s clear those expectations Laney-Hamilton mentioned have changed, thanks to her arrival.

WASHINGTON — When Cheryl Reeve’s Minnesota Lynx finished inches short of a WNBA title two years ago, the presumption was they’d be right back in the Finals a season later.

The Lynx did the job in the regular season, finishing first by a dominant four games. But they only made it as far as the semifinals, bowing out soon after star Napheesa Collier suffered a major injury in the series.

Now Minnesota is at it again: The first team in the league to reach 30 wins, five games clear of the field, a playoff berth clinched earlier this month — with a quarter of the season to go.

So will this be the year the Lynx finally reach the top, and deliver Reeve a record-breaking fifth WNBA title? She’s currently tied at the top with Houston Comets legend Van Chancellor, who won four straight from 1997 to 2000. Reeve’s titles came in 2011, ’13, ’15, and ’17.

If it happens, Reeve is pretty sure she’ll know why. Though the final verdict isn’t in on whether this team is better than the last two, the Sewell, N.J., native and La Salle product can tell why it’s different.

“Kayla McBride being an All-WNBA player, I think, is a big, big reason for our success,” she said of the guard from Erie, Pa., who’s having a stellar year: 18.3 points per game, including a 43-point explosion against Dallas on Aug. 9.

“Napheesa Collier back in the fold and feeling great by the time we get to [the] playoffs,” Reeve said of the five-time All-Star, three-time first-team All-WNBA honoree and a prolific scorer and rebounder who can also pass well.

“We have a group that never gets rattled and finds a way to compete, and they know exactly what they need to do,” Reeve said. “And we’ve got veterans, like obviously now Collier back in the fold, McBride and Courtney [Williams] who just know really, really well what we’re looking for them to do. Resilience, I think, is what I find with our team.”

But Reeve’s description of a younger player felt just as profound.

“The rookie sensation,” she said, and she did not have to add Olivia Miles’ name for everyone listening to know. The point guard from Phillipsburg, N.J., who played AAU ball for the Philadelphia Belles, has turned out to be every bit as good as the sport hoped for in her first season as a pro, after starring at Notre Dame and TCU.

“That position is one that’s just — it’s incredible when you have someone that can manage the game for you at such a young age,” Reeve said, “and she’s really super mature.”

The WNBA’s stars — Caitlin Clark, A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers, and Collier — garner a lot of the attention. Miles is becoming just as much of a must-watch among hoopheads for her dynamic mix of passing, scoring, and tenacious defense.

The 23-year-old was at it again Friday in a 94-84 win over the Washington Mystics: 24 points, seven assists, three steals, and three rebounds.

“Each game, we’re presented with something new that she accomplished,” Reeve said. “And we’re not talking about rookie accolades. We’re talking about, like, all-time in the history of the league type numbers: She’s the fastest player in WNBA history to 700-plus points and 200-plus assists.”

Miles returned the praise in her own charismatic style.

“I knew I was coming into something that was established, and standards existed, and she wasn’t going to take it easy — especially on point guards,” she said. “Actually being in it now, it’s definitely like that. She’s definitely hard on me.”

Then came the warmth.

“She gives me a lot of grace knowing that I’m a rookie, and I’m learning, and it’s the hardest position,” Miles said. “And I’ve needed that grace, and I appreciate that from her. … That’s the most important thing for me, knowing where it comes from, her intention, knowing that she ultimately just wants the best for me and wants me to be great.”

Reeve put a lot of focus on how quickly Miles built chemistry with the veterans.

“It was open arms from the from Day 1 that she walked into our practice facility,” Reeve said. “Literally, the first day they watched her make passes, they were oohing and aahing and hyping her up. And by two weeks in, we gave her the job, handed her the keys, and they have loved every second of it.”

She also praised how the vets have helped Miles learn the ropes of the pros.

“They remember being rookies,” Reeve said. “Again, ‘Liv’ is mature, but also, this is a hard league. I think Liv at times appears unfazed, but we see when she has her moments, and it is those veterans that are helping her through that.”

Putting everything together, Reeve said though this year’s team might not have the depth of the last two, “we probably have more talent now than we did in the starting five.”

The end product is the second-highest scoring offense in the league at 92.2 points per game, the third-best scoring defense at 83.4 points allowed per game, and the No. 1 points differential at plus-8.8.

“If we get it done,” Reeve said of possibly winning a title, “it’s because we had five starters that were playing to their best.”

This season is her 17th in charge of the Lynx, her 22nd as a head coach overall, and the 38th of a career that has had eight stops across college and pro teams, plus the 2024 Olympic cycle as the U.S. women’s head coach and the two cycles before then as an assistant.

Much has changed over those years in women’s basketball. But Reeve made it clear that she still has as much passion as ever for the game and her work.

“I think the game gives me so much joy,” she said. “The people that you’re in it with, the competitive — just, the feeling you get when that ball is about to be tipped and what’s about to happen. That’s just something that’s sort of innate to those of us that do it for a really long time.”