Napheesa Collier won Unrivaled’s inaugural women’s basketball one-on-one tournament on Friday night, earning $200,000 in prize money—just $8,000 less what she received in WNBA salary all of last year.
Unrivaled is a new league built to run in the WNBA offseason and was co-founded by Collier and fellow W player Breanna Stewart. It features some of the W’s best players, many of whom formerly played abroad in the winter to earn extra cash beyond relatively low WNBA salaries.
The core component of Unrivaled is a 3-on-3 competition, with the postseason final set for March 17.
This past week, Unrivaled took a break from 3-on-3 to complete its rapid-fire, single-elimination one-on-one bracket featuring 23 players (a number pared down from an original 30 due to injuries). Games were broadcast on TNT under a multiyear rights deal.
Here is what to know about Unrivaled’s 1-on-1 prize money, rules and results…
Unrivaled 1v1 prize money
Napheesa Collier won the Unrivaled basketball grand prize of $200,000 for finishing in first place in the 1-on-1 tournament, while her 3-on-3 teammates—Allisha Gray, Courtney Williams, Skylar Diggins-Smith and Shakira Austin—will each receive a complementary $10,000 payment.
Runner-up Aaliyah Edwards gets $50,000, while semifinalists Arike Ogunbowale and Azurá Stevens get $25,000 apiece.
All of that is on top of a salary for participating in Unrivaled, which is an average of more than $200,000 per player.
Unrivaled 1v1 tournament results
Every Unrivaled 1-on-1 game took place this week, with 23 competitors playing a combined 24 games (six first-round games were canceled because of injuries). Every matchup was single-elimination except the final round, which was best-of-3.
The semifinal matchups were Azurá Stevens vs. Napheesa Collier and Arike Ogunbowale vs. Aaliyah Edwards. All but Ogunbowale, a Notre Dame grad, attended UConn.
Collier defeated Stevens, and Edwards defeated Ogunbowale to reach the final round.
Unrivaled 1v1 tournament rules
1-on-1 games were played on a halfcourt set-up with a running clock. Until the final, the winner was the first to 11 points or the score leader after 10 minutes—whichever came first. The shot clock for each possession was just seven seconds.
In the best-of-3 final, the winner was the first to eight points.
All games took place in Miami at a special arena with 850 seats that is “like a stage,” according to Unrivaled’s Rae Burrell.
