The women’s 3×3 basketball league Unrivaled will be taking its talents to Barclays Center for the league semifinals Monday night.
The move marks a big moment for the second-year league, which features many WNBA stars, like Unrivaled founders Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart. It’s the first time they’ll be playing in an arena that houses a WNBA team, and the second time they’ll be playing outside of their home base in Miami.
Last month, Unrivaled made their first tour stop ever in Philadelphia — now the highest-attended women’s basketball regular season game ever, with 21,490 fans.
“Philly was awesome because it was the first time. It was a spectacle of Unrivaled on the road,” Luke Cooper, president of Basketball Operations for Unrivivaled, told Brooklyn Paper. “What’s gonna make New York fun is [that] these games really mean something.”
Seeding for the six-team playoff will be set in stone on Friday, the last day of the regular season. The first round of the playoffs is on Saturday in Miami, where the No. 3 plays No. 6 seed, and the No. 4 plays the No. 5 seed. Winners go to Brooklyn, where the top two seeds will be waiting. Those games are at 7:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.
Fans attending the semifinals in Brooklyn will definitely see the No. 1 seeded Phantom — the only playoff spot that’s been locked in — featuring New York Liberty guard Natasha Cloud and other WNBA stars like Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Plum.
The current No. 2 seed Mist features New York Liberty star Stewart. If the Mist win against current No. 6 seed Vinyl on Friday, they’ll punch their ticket to Brooklyn as the No. 2 seed. If not, they’ll play the No. 6 seed (potentially a rematch against the Vinyl, depending on seeding) Saturday for the chance to go.
Cooper said the plan to host the semifinals in Brooklyn came together rather quickly, based on the success in Philadelphia — the plans were only finalized two days before the announcement two weeks ago. Fans jumped at the opportunity — 90% of inventory has been sold, Cooper said, including 10,000 sold seats in the first 12 hours.
“This was kind of a bet on ourselves, bet on the league, bet on the players, bet on the fans, type moment,” Cooper said.
Touring is something Unrivaled will explore more in the future. The league is considering whether to go to areas that don’t currently have WNBA teams, so fans can see top-level talent in their market, or going to cities with vested interest in women’s basketball like New York.
Despite the last-minute semis announcement, the league has been in contact with Barclays for over a year discussing potential tour stops. This time, the dates happened to line up because the Brooklyn Nets are on a road trip, and the league felt the opportunity was too good to pass on.
Cloud and potentially Stewart have the chance to play in their home arena on Monday, too, since they’re Liberty players. Cooper said he hadn’t heard any chatter about a potential home court advantage.
“I’m sure, if the Mist are able to punch their ticket, there might be a few extra cheers for them,” Cooper said. “The fan base that’s in New York, from a women’s basketball perspective, is hard to ignore.”
