Paige Bueckers signing 3-year deal with Unrivaled: Source
One week after winning the national championship with UConn, Paige Bueckers is heading to Unrivaled on a three-year deal, according to a source briefed on the decision.
Her first-year salary for Unrivaled’s 10-week season will exceed what she can earn in all four years of an WNBA rookie contract, the source said. The Dallas Wings are expected to take Bueckers with the No. 1 pick in Monday night’s WNBA Draft.
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Unrivaled debuted this winter, entering the women’s basketball landscape at a growth moment in the sport. The 3×3 league, co-founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, hoped to be a domestic alternative for athletes who have historically competed overseas during the WNBA offseason. Unrivaled paid record salaries, an average of around $220,000 per player, and provided player equity, which the WNBA doesn’t provide. (The WNBA’s average salary was around $120,000 in 2024.)
Thirty-six of the world’s top players signed on for Unrivaled’s debut season, which ran from mid-January to mid-March.
Rose Basketball Club, led by Chelsea Gray, won Unrivaled’s first championship, defeating Vinyl Basketball Club 62-54. Members of the winning team took home an additional $50,000 in prize money.
Bueckers will bring further star power to Unrivaled after she expanded the scope of what it meant to be a college athlete. She became an equity partner in Unrivaled, designed her own player-edition sneaker for Nike and appeared courtside throughout the country at various sporting events. In the new name, image and likeness age of college athletics, Bueckers has exerted unprecedented agency in her career and in building a brand for herself.
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In 2024, Bueckers became the first NCAA athlete to receive ownership equity in a league. With the deal, she was expected to join an Unrivaled team after her first WNBA season. The deal did not include playing services at the time it was signed because of NIL restrictions.
Bueckers won the Naismith Women’s College Player of the Year award as a freshman at UConn and remained steadfast in her pursuit of a national title. Last season, the Huskies reached the Final Four, where they fell to Caitlin Clark and Iowa.
This season, Bueckers finally captured a championship with UConn in an 82-59 win over South Carolina. The Gamecocks limited Bueckers to 17 points on 5 of 14 shooting, while Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong co-led the Huskies with 24 points apiece.
Bueckers finished her senior season averaging 19.9 points, 4.6 assists and 4.4 rebounds while shooting 53.4 percent from the field.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Connecticut Huskies, WNBA, Women’s College Basketball, women’s sports
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