Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier work together to make a new league for women's hoops

The WNBA season is only from May to September. Each team plays just 40 games during the regular season. For the fans and the players, it's just not enough.

So Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier decided to collaborate to create a new offseason league for players.

The 3-on-3 league Unrivaled is set to debut in January in Miami. Players are earning the highest average salary in women's professional sports league history. Stewie and Collier said that all salaries will be in six figures and that players will also have an equity stake in the league. Alex Bazell, a WNBA/NBA skills coach and Collier's husband, is one of the creators.

Originally Unrivaled was slated for a January 2024 launch which was made public going into the 2023 WNBA All-Star Game. But a controversial requirement in the collective bargaining agreement went into full effect this spring. It required players to arrive at training camp on time or else be suspended for the entire season. Players who made significantly more money overseas in leagues that can extend into the WNBA season aren’t happy with the restrictions.

So the alternative was the 3-on-3 league with the WNBA's best players.

Stewart said that pay was vital for these players. Most of them spend their offseason overseas, supplementing their WNBA incomes. The average WNBA base salary is about $130,000, with the top stars earning more than $500,000 through salary, marketing agreements, an in-season tournament, and bonuses.

“It’s really important to us,” Collier told The Associated Press. “Compensation is a huge part of Unrivaled as a league and a business. All the players in this first year will have equity in the league. For players to have a piece of the pie essentially to grow their generational wealth is something we’re really excited about.”

The league will have six teams and 30 players. Because of the rise of 3-on-3 basketball, which will make its debut at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and the rise of popularity in women's basketball, the league is expected to be a boon.

There will certainly be notable players who enter this league, but it will be heavily watched to see if Caitlin Clark joins. It will be fascinating to see, especially after the BIG3 already made the public $5 million contract offer to Clark before the WNBA season.

However, the two UConn alumni are definitely set to create a stacked roster across the league.

Already the league has an impressive list of investors that was announced on Thursday. The list includes U.S women's soccer stars Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, NBA stars Carmelo Anthony and Steve Nash, LPGA winner Michelle Wie West and business mogul Gary Vaynerchuk. UConn women's basketball head coach Geno Auriemma and actor Ashton Kutcher are also early investors. In addition, John Skipper, Meadowlark Media co-founder and former ESPN president, and David Levy, Back Nine Ventures founder and former Turner president, are also investors who will lead Unrivaled’s media rights and sponsorship sales.

No matter the success of this league, Stewart and Collier are undoubtedly creating something special for women's basketball.