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The Barclays Center in Brooklyn will host one of the fastest growing women’s sports leagues in the world as Unrivaled, the three-on-three basketball league, plays its semifinals Monday night.
Breanna Stewart is a fan favorite in New York City as the superstar plays for the New York Liberty during the WNBA season. But she co-founded this special league with fellow WNBA star Napheesa Collier, and they’re poised to make history Monday night.
The semifinals will mark the first time Unrivaled will be played in an arena that houses a WNBA and the second time ever it has ventured outside of its home base in Miami.
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Li Yueru, Arike Ogunbowale, Breanna Stewart, Alanna Smith and Veronica Burton of the Mist celebrate and pose for a team photo after defeating Vinyl during the Unmatched 2026 match at Sephora Arena on February 27, 2026 in Medley, Florida. (Leonardo Fernandez/Getty Images)
The first time was quite historic when Unrivaled made its first tour stop in Philadelphia last month, and what happened was an astonishing feat: 21,490 fans showed up for the most attended women’s basketball regular season game ever.
“We’re both really proud of where this league started, honestly, where it was before we even had a plan for where it is now,” Stewart explained to Pakinomist Digital when asked if she and Collier ever get a chance to reflect on how quickly this league has grown. “Knowing that we had a successful tour stop in Philly where we had record crowds.
“It’s more than just hype what we have at Unrivaled. You really see the product through and through – what you get on the field and how players are treated off the field.”
While the product is one that fans clearly want to see, Unrivaled prides itself on keeping players in the United States during the WNBA offseason by offering the highest average salaries in all women’s team sports. An average salary of $222,222 is reported to be what the players get on top of another unique part of this league – equity.
Unrivaled offers its players a share of the league as well as the $350,000 prize pool for the mid-season one-on-one tournament that Collier won last year. She gave half of her $200,000 prize to her team’s employees.
“It’s incredibly important,” Stewart said of the big paydays for those playing in Unrivaled. “Having equity in a league that you play in, knowing that we literally grow as the league grows and vice versa. It really makes players want to be involved and invested from a year-round perspective. I think what we’re most proud of is that we have the highest average salary of any women’s sports league.
Breanna Stewart and Coco Gauff take part in an unmatchable match between Phantom and Rose at Wayfair Arena on January 31, 2025 in Medley, Florida. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
“We pay the players what they deserve, pay the players adequately and try to make sure that every year it goes up massively.”
The game, held at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia last month, was not only an all-time attendance record for a women’s professional basketball game, but also the largest mark in a professional basketball game, both men’s and women’s.
The NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers also play at Xfinity Mobile Arena, and their previous high was 21,305 during a 1998 game against the Chicago Bulls – the last time basketball legend Michael Jordan played in the city during his Bulls career.
It was even the most attended event ever at the arena, previously held by the Backstreet Boys ‘Into the Millennium’ Tour on September 29, 1999 (21,424).
In short, momentum is an understatement for this league, which is setting a new bar for women’s sports, especially in basketball, where Stewart and many others hope the WNBA and WNBPA can work out a new collective bargaining agreement ahead of a crucial 2026 campaign that starts in May.
Before then, Stewart knows her Liberty fans will show up in Brooklyn Monday night, where the Barclays Center basketball capacity is 17,732. Stewart’s Mist team will face the Breeze at 8:45 p.m., while No. 1-seeded Phantom will face Vinyl at 19.30
New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart (30) warms up prior to game two of round one of the 2025 WNBA Playoffs at the Barclays Center on Sept. 17, 2025. (Wendell Cruz/Imagn Images)
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But Stewart isn’t drinking just any coffee to get her fix—she’s partnered with a brand that’s perfect for the professional athlete that she is.
Stewart has joined Throne SPORT COFFEEand became the first female athlete to partner with the brand, which prides itself on being much more than just a coffee provider.
It just seems really natural and fitting to me,” she told FOX Business in an exclusive interview about the partnership. “I think being an athlete, being a mom, there are so many reasons why we need caffeine constantly. But to have it in a healthy way and also have the protein in it – every time I go to the gym I get one. I tell everyone that not only do I drink coffee, but I also get a positive protein benefit.”
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