At the start of her professional career, Angel Reese is already proving she can do it all. From NCAA championships to modeling campaigns, the 22-year-old WNBA rookie’s resume only continues to grow as she announced plans to join the new Unrivaled Basketball league.
This week, the Chicago Sky player announced the news in an Instagram post captioned, “The Barbie is Unrivaled…10/30.”
The Unrivaled League is a new professional basketball league that, according to the New York Times, promises to offer women the highest average salary in women’s professional sports league history, reportedly at least a minimum of $100,000 for the season. Founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, the 3-on-3 league plans to offer equity ownership to its inaugural players, allowing them to build generational wealth.
“The principle of our league is that it’s the top talent, and women need to be paid accordingly,” Collier told Yahoo! Sports.“We need to be treated as professionals, and so that was a huge thing is making sure that this is transformative, and something that’s new is we’re going to be paying players what they should be paid.”
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Understanding that many professional female athletes feel forced to play overseas to receive equal compensation, the Unrivaled League hopes to keep players stateside and carry the momentum between WNBA seasons.
“The whole reason a lot of us go [overseas] is the pay game,” Brittney Griner told Just Women’s Sports. “A lot of us go over there to make an income to support our families; to support ourselves.”
So far, Reese is the 10th player to join the women’s league and will play alongside other WNBA superstars like Collier, Chelsea Gray, Arike Ogunbowale, Rhyne Howard, Jackie Young and more. Like other members of this league, Reese is gradually building up her basketball stats. Last month, Reese extended her burgeoning WNBA record, earning her 15th consecutive double-double when the Chicago Sky faced the New York Liberty.
“The basketball gods keep blessing me,” Reese said, as previously reported by theGrio. “I have a long way to go, but to be recognized with some of the greats so far is super cool for me.”
