‘Love it here.’ From childcare to recovery rooms, Unrivaled facilities are in a class of their own
Angel Reese was one of the first to say it.
“We get to work out, use the weight room, create new bonds/friendships, get treatment, get massages, use the sauna, getting 2 meals a day, and then a facial before I leave for the day???” Reese tweeted Jan. 15. “Yeah i love it here.”
What Reese highlighted just so happened to be arguably the most intriguing part of Unrivaled, the new 3-on-3 women’s basketball league that has taken in South Florida. Built in the Mediapro production in Medley, Unrivaled has created a state-of-the-art facility that serves as a one-stop shop for the athletes during the inaugural season. It’s more than just the two courts and a weight room; it also includes a childcare services with professional nannies, recovery rooms, a makeup room and even a content studio.
“They give us what we deserve,” Alisha Gray of the Lunar Owls said. “We’re professional athletes so they treat us as such. You get chefs. You get meals every day. Proper care. Proper treatment. Proper recovery. It’s testament to how we should be treated.”
Some of these amenities, however, aren’t new to players. The Phoenix Mercury, for example, have offered childcare services for years, according to Front Office Sports. Vinyl coach Teresa Weatherspoon made that abundantly clear.
“They’re saying this is like a ‘one-stop shop’ kind of deal for them,” Weatherspoon said. “They’re not saying that they’re not taken care of where they are. They’re just talking about where they are right now and how things have for them while they’re here.”
For childcare to be a standard in Unrivaled, however, shows the level of foresight within the league but also the benefit of player input as two of its co-founders, the Lunar Owls’ Naphessa Collier and the Mist’s Breanna Stewart, are mothers.
“It’s extremely important considering coming out here knowing what we’re going to get from a competition standpoint, but it is a change of schedule, change of scenery and things like that,” Lunar Owls star Skylar Diggins-Smith said of Unrivaled’s emphasis on childcare. With Diggins-Smith being a mother of two, these factors — namely having to bring children to an unfamiliar space — can be a deal-breaker for many parents, yet Unrivaled’s choice to also partner with a company that vets nannies, per Front Office Sports, just made the decision easier.
“They made it very helpful for us,” she added.
Still, there’s a significant number who have never experienced the amenities that Unrivaled provides. Just ask the Phantom’s Satou Sabally.
Added Sabally: “As a professional league, [the WNBA] should elevate everyone together and make them fulfill a higher standard and make them give us more resources because it’s not OK that we cold tub with college athletes. It’s not OK that we share our locker room with random people. It’s not OK that we have to train at a rec center. That’s not the standard we deserve as the best women in the world in the WNBA.”
As Sabally alluded to, Unrivaled does employ the best women basketball players in the world. That means the recovery care has to match the level of athleticism, something especially crucial considering games are played Friday, Saturday and Monday.
“You have a few teams that play back-to-back,” said Alex Bazzell, the president of Unrivaled. “Making sure that they just have the best care for their bodies because their bodies are the business, and making sure that they’re getting all the necessary tools along with a chef being on site to make sure they’re eating and having the correct nutrition as well. All these play a factor into what the product looks like, and I think, as you’ve seen, it’s a highly competitive, fast-paced game so it just adds more of an emphasis to what we’re doing around the actual games.”
This all factors into Bazzell’s and others’ mission “to grow the game.” The amenities, in addition to Unrivaled’s competitive salary and players’ ownership stake, is likely why the league already signed the likes of college superstars Flau’jae Johnson and Paige Bueckers as well as have plans to travel in subsequent seasons. Ultimately, however, Unrivaled just wants to give the women what they deserve.
“What we’re always trying to do is set a new standard of what expectations look like, and I think we’re pretty proud of the first step we’ve taken for Season 1,” Bazzell said.
This story was originally published January 27, 2025 at 12:00 AM.
