Unrivaled’s 1-on-1 tourney could transform basketball culture — and help determine the WNBA’s best player

Basketball fans have long clamored for 1-on-1 tournaments at NBA and WNBA All-Star weekends — but it seemed unlikely that they would ever take place. Different stars play different positions, and players and their brands could be exposed in a 1-on-1 environment.

Unrivaled is set to change all that dramatically. The new professional women’s basketball 3-on-3 league — tipping off on Friday in Miami — is taking a stab at professionalizing the highly-demanded 1-on-1 tournament concept. The league, co-founded by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, has the buy-in from most of the sports’ top players to compete in a nationally televised 1-on-1 tournament.

In doing so, Unrivaled just might change women’s basketball culture — normalizing and popularizing the idea that women and girls play 1-on-1 and other unstructured forms of basketball, too.

Alex Bazzell, the president of Unrivaled (and Collier’s husband), told SB Nation that when the idea of the tournament was first conceived, he turned to Stewart for her input.

“Listen, you talk about brand risk… I’m like, ‘Well, let me just go straight to Stewie and see what she thinks,’” Bazzell said. “She’s like, ‘No, I want to play. I’m tired of people debating like I’m not the best player.’”

The basics of Unrivaled

The league — which promises 36 WNBA players the opportunity to earn an average salary of more than $222,000 — has attracted stars like Collier, Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, Kahleah Copper, Brittney Griner, Satou Sabally, Alyssa Thomas, Angel Reese, and dozens of others. Those players have been divided into six clubs of six players each who will compete for 9 weeks en route to a single team winning the Unrivaled championship.

Perhaps the most highly-anticipated — and unprecedented — part of it all is the league’s first-of-its-kind 1-on-1 tournament. From Feb. 10 to Feb. 14, some of the best players in the world will compete 1-on-1, with the winner earning a $200,000 cash prize — approximately doubling their season salary.

How the Unrivaled 1-on-1 competition will work

The rules are relatively straightforward: all games will be played to six points, with each made shot being worth one point, regardless of whether it is a two or a three. Possessions can only last up to seven seconds, and players are unable to get offensive rebounds. The tournament is a single-elimination one.

The 1-on-1 tournament will follow a playground-style make-it, take-it format, with the winner keeping possession.

“All these players can get hot, and you could see a lot of ‘upsets’, but it’s just a matter of who’s hot, who’s playing well, and then each match-up is going to be different,” Bazzell said. “You’re going to have one player that may have an advantage one game, and then they play someone else — all of a sudden, it’s not as good of a matchup for them. So I’m pretty curious to see how this plays out.”

Possessions will generally begin at the top of the key, like typical 1-on-1 games. But, in the Final Four, games will be played at best of three — with the first possession starting at the top of the key, and the next two (if necessary) starting on each wing to determine the winner from there.

Not every player will be participating — some have a clause in their Unrivaled contracts that exempts them from participating — but Bazzell said that somewhere in the range of 25 to 30 of Unrivaled’s 36 players will compete in the 1-on-1.

Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner, a member of the Phantom, said she wasn’t sure if she was participating — but noted that if she’s slated to partake, she’ll give it her best shot.

“YOLO [you only live once], I’m going to go out there. I’m not scared of anything… if I’m in it, I’m excited, going to go out there and give it my all,” Griner said.

Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

The tournament’s cash prize is higher than the average WNBA salary

Not only will the cash prize allow the winner to approximately double their Unrivaled season earnings, but the 1-on-1 runner-up cash prizes are substantial — Final Four players will each get $25,000, while the tournament runner-up will make $50,000. The tournament winner will earn $200,000, and each of their Unriavled teammates will be awarded $10,000 as well.

That team-oriented financial incentive is an intentional wrinkle.

“There’s still a team camaraderie perspective — where you may be eliminated, but your teammate keeps advancing,” said Bazzell. “Inevitably you want to root them on — not just for personal reasons, but also there’s an incentive for you if your teammate wins the ultimate cash prize.”

The prize money is an undeniable motivator for the 1-on-1 competition, said Fever and Phantom forward Katie Lou Samuelson.

“We’re all competitive. It’s a great opportunity,” Samuelson said. “There’s a great prize fund at the end of it. Everyone’s gonna play as hard as they can.”

The tournament looks to bolster women’s basketball culture

Bazzell said that part of the hope behind the 1-on-1 tournament is that it will encourage young girls who play basketball to play more 1-on-1 themselves.

“We’re really excited about the cultural relevance we think it’ll bring to women’s basketball,” he said. “1-on-1 is just kind of, at its core, (the) essence of the game.”

Bazzell said he’s had extensive conversations with Collier and Stewart about how girls’ basketball is often much more structured than boys’ — and how Unrivaled’s tournament can inspire girls.

“You show up to practices, you show up to games, you show up to training, you go home. You don’t see a lot of pickup basketball at the park, even,” he said. “I think this will help transform that — showing that the best players in the world will play 1-on-1. It’s okay to go out with your friends and play 1-on-1, or play unscripted basketball.”

Across the country, Celtics player Payton Pritchard held his own 1-on-1 tournament for men and women in the Greater Boston Area last weekend. But, the adult women’s division was ultimately canceled due to a lack of participants — further highlighting how 1-on-1 simply hasn’t been as big a part of women’s basketball culture.

(I’ll add as a girl who played competitive basketball from middle school onwards, my experience was that no one ever wanted to play 1-on-1).

Pritchard told SB Nation that even on the men’s side, he’s seen a decline in 1-on-1 play.

“I feel like it’s something that needs to be brought back,” said the Sixth Man of the Year frontrunner.

Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images

“The cool thing about this is it’s just you and yourself. You’ve got nobody to blame — and if you lose, it’s because you lost.”

Which WNBA players have the advantage in 1-on-1?

While 1-on-1 will undoubtedly prove tricky for many of the league’s top players — small guards will have to try and stop big players in the post, and post players will be tasked with slowing down shifty guards — players expressed their utmost confidence in themselves with the tournament still a month away in their first Unrivaled media availability.

Participating players will be ranked by fans and head coaches to determine initial seeding — players will be sorted into pods, and fans will rank players within those pods accordingly.

“I think this is where being a two-way player obviously makes a huge difference,” Bazzell said. “Having some length, having versatility, being able to shoot the three, being able to get downhill, and really just being able to guard — being able to affect the offensive player.

Pritchard was interested in the idea that Unrivaled was hosting a 1-on-1 tournament for the top women’s basketball players and said he believed that knockdown shooters’ would have the biggest advantage in the tournament. He also said that a lot of NBA players won’t play competitive 1-on-1 anymore — which Bazzell, a longtime NBA trainer, attested to.

“There are certain players that would go all in,” Bazzell said. “I know Kyrie Irving would sign up for this in a heartbeat. And, there’s other players that would probably duck it.”

But, the women’s basketball stars who are part of Unrivaled are more focused on building up the sport and the league — and are less worried about potentially exposing weaknesses in their game.

“This is just who these players are,” Bazzell said. “Like, this is why we’re so bullish on the ecosystem — because these players are not as worried about their own brand. They’re just competing.”

WNBA players express unwavering confidence in their chances

It’s not just Stewart who is confident she will win the 1-on-1 tournament.

Allisha Gray, a 6’0 guard from the Atlanta Dream, said that she expects to come out victorious in the 1-on-1 competition.

“If you think you not gonna win, you need to re-evaluate yourself,” Gray said with a grin in her first Unrivaled media availability. “If you think you finna lose to somebody, you need to re-evaluate yourself. We’re competitors. I’m gonna choose me anytime.”

Courtney Williams, a major player in the Minnesota Lynx’s WNBA Finals run and now one of Gray’s Unrivaled teammates on the Lunar Owls, expressed the same unwavering confidence about her chances.

“I love seeing people play ones,” Williams said. “I think we all have played king of the court at some point in our lives. You put money on the line, now you get everybody going out there and giving it their best. I’m excited. I like me — and everybody on my [Unrivaled] team — but I like me overall.”

Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Stewart said that the 1-on-1 tournament was meant to serve as an exciting change of pace.

“We’re gonna be able to showcase our skills in a number of ways, and I’m really excited about it,” she said.

For Jackie Young, an elite two-way guard on the Las Vegas Aces, the 1-on-1 competition presents an opportunity to entertain the fans.

“I’m looking forward to it — just being able to play against some of the best players in the world,” Young, who will play for Laces in Unrivaled, said.

It’s no surprise that players like Gray and Williams feel good about their chances. While both players will have to figure out how to slow bigger forwards like Collier and Stewart, they’re two of the league’s most electric scorers and most confident talents.

It’s that unwavering belief that has helped them be at the forefront of so many big moments — like Gray winning both the three-point contest and skills challenge at WNBA All-Star weekend, and Williams being responsible for some of the best moments of the 2024 WNBA Finals.

Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images

“Everyone thinks they’re going to win, right? And I think that’s just the reality of being a competitor at this level,” Bazzell said. “Everyone thinks they somewhat have the advantage when it gets to this time.”

And while the tournament is sure to draw national attention and bring additional revenue to Unrivaled and its partners, its biggest impact might be changing the way young girls approach an afternoon at the park — when the only company is a single basketball and one other competitor.

This article is the eighth installment of SB Nation’s “WNBA Explained” series, a weekly column diving deep into different topics related to women’s basketball. You can read last week’s column about Unrivaled’s six head coaches here.