The Unrivaled season 2 is underway, giving the basketball fans something to cheer about amid the disturbing CBA updates. During the initial CBA discussions, Napheesa Collier was aggressive, criticizing the league and Cathy Engelbert in particular. Fans even blamed Collier as WNBA-WNBPA was going beyond the October deadline.
Though she constantly kept both entities (WNBA and Unrivaled) separate, many put a question mark on her intentions. Now, the Unrivaled president, Alex Bazzell, came forward with an unimaginable proposal for the WNBA.
Alex Bazzell Ready for WNBA-Unrivaled Partnership
With Project B and Unrivaled attracting more and more WNBA players, many saw them as direct competition to the WNBA. But the initial motive behind the league was to provide players with options during the WNBA offseason. And now with the CBA discussions hitting a roadblock, Bazzell has a solution.
“We’re not in constant dialogue about that … but as I’ve made very clear, we are open to growing the ecosystem, whichever way that looks like. Nothing is on the table or off the table. … I’m not going to speculate what could happen down the road, but everyone knows our door is always open,” the Unrivaled President said.
Unrivaled co-founder Alex Bazzell on whether there's a "conflict of interest" that Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart are on the WNBPA board:
— Colin Salao (@colincsalao) July 17, 2025
"We've never once looked at this as a competitive tool towards the WNBA. … I'm hopeful that they come to a CBA agreement." pic.twitter.com/iU5NOGjkn7
While the idea and model are not final yet, it could be interesting to see both leagues shaking hands to form a flourishing environment for the players. Skylar Diggins-Smith, who played in both leagues, even said that Unrivaled is setting an example the WNBA must follow in upcoming CBA negotiations.
Scroll to continue reading
Trending WNBA News
While the concept, as Bazzell said, is far-fetched, he is already focusing on one task, making Unrivalled a top league in women’s basketball, and for that, he gave soccer’s example.
Alex Bazzell Wants Unrivaled To Be Champions League Of Women’s Basketball
In soccer, though every country has its own top leagues, the premier competition is the Champions League, where the top teams from each nation compete. Aware of such a situation, the Unrivaled President dreams of becoming the Champions League of Women’s basketball.
Ahead of the season 2 tip-off, Bazzell said, “What we want to build this into is the Champions League of women’s basketball. And that’s not a competition towards the WNBA. It’s just where we feel like we can kind of position ourselves in the market.”
“What we want to build this into is the Champions League of women's basketball."
— Mitchell Northam (@primetimeMitch) January 5, 2026
Unrivaled begins its second season today in Miami. League president Alex Bazzell talked to reporters this morning. Here's a few things that caught my attention:https://t.co/T8N45X7JOl
“My strong belief is, once people remove the women’s sports blinders and start looking at it relative to what’s going on in the ecosystem in terms of the data, it points to that right now. So we are very bullish on not just where we are today, but where we’re going tomorrow.” Bazzell added.
Interestingly, he once again highlighted that the Unrivalled is not competing against the WNBA, which is one major criticism his initiative faced when they started the league a year ago.