While the WNBA is on its break, women’s basketball fans will have plenty to look forward to with the inaugural season of Unrivaled, the new 3v3 league co-founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, and which promises a lot of action during these two months. Now, tennis star Coco Gauff has joined the project as an investor.
“The chance to support a league that’s redefining the game is exciting. I look forward to being part of this movement and continuing to help elevate women’s sports to new heights,” she said in a statement, via ESPN’s Kendra Andrews.
Gauff, who recently topped the list of highest-paid female athletes, has previously said, according to the Sports Business Journal, that basketball is one of her favorite sports. Back in October, the US Open champion revealed that she took inspiration from Las Vegas Aces star A’Ja Wilson to recover from defeats.
“People don’t realize athletes have both great and difficult moments. It doesn’t mean anything,” Gauff said after her victory in Beijing via the WTA’s website. “I took inspiration from A’ja Wilson. Back-to-back champions. People wanted them to three-peat. She’s kind of like, ‘It’s hard to keep winning all the time.’”
While Wilson won’t be part of the first season of Unrivaled, other big names and new stars such as Angel Reese, Cameron Brink, Sabrina Ionescu, DiJonai Carrington and more will be part of the project, which officially starts on January 17th in Miami.
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Gauff joins other sports stars to have invested on Unrivaled
According to Sports Business Journal, last month, Unrivaled successfully completed a Series A funding round, led by the Berman Family. The initiative raised $28 million, with notable investments from NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo, Linda Henry of Fenway Sports Group, Avenue Sports Fund CEO Marc Lasry, Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps, South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley, and USC women’s basketball player JuJu Watkins, among others.
Additional backers of the league include former USWNT icon Alex Morgan, ex-NBA player Carmelo Anthony, celebrities Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, former TNT President David Levy, former ESPN President John Skipper, Moira Forbes, NBA players Tyus and Tre Jones, Dan Rosensweig, Richard Sarnoff, and Gary Vaynerchuk.
