After a one-year stint as the coach of the Chicago Sky, Teresa Weatherspoon has found another coaching opportunity.
Weatherspoon will be one of the six coaches for Unrivaled, the new 3×3 winter basketball league co-founded by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier. Weatherspoon will be joined by five other coaches with decorated careers across various levels of basketball: Phil Handy, Adam Harrington, Andrew Wade, Nola Henry and DJ Sackmann, the league announced Friday.
In mid-October, the league unveiled the names and branding of its six clubs — the Laces, Mist, Rose, Lunar Owls, Phantom and Vinyl. On Nov. 20, player selection will occur and coach assignments will be announced.
The coaches reflect the league’s strong emphasis on player development as several coaches have served that role on either NBA or WNBA staffs. Before the Sky, Weatherspoon, a Naismith Hall of Famer, was a player development coach and assistant coach with the New Orleans Pelicans.
Handy, a three-time NBA champion, has been an NBA assistant coach for over a decade, working closely with stars like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. He has also trained Seattle Storm guard Jewell Loyd, who is participating in Unrivaled.
Harrington is a former NBA player with a decade of experience as a shooting coach with the Oklahoma City Thunder as well as an assistant coach and director of player development with the Brooklyn Nets. Like Handy, he founded a private training company that has worked with NBA and NCAA players.
Wade most recently served as the Washington Mystics’ head video coordinator and player development assistant, and he was part of the staff that led Washington to the 2019 WNBA championship. He has also worked as a coaching associate and player development staffer with the Washington Wizards’ G League Team, the Capital City Go-Go.
Henry has collegiate coaching experience and recently wrapped up her fourth season in the WNBA, as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Sparks. Sackmann is an acclaimed NBA and WNBA skills coach with more than 15 years of experience.
Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell, who himself has a player development background, wrote on X that he will work with the coaches to develop practice and workout plans assuring each participant is focused on improving their games while playing in the league. Joining Unrivaled does not preclude the coaches from taking on other head coaching opportunities.
As a sign of its significant interest among current WNBA players and its financial standing, the league recently announced it expanded its player participant pool to 36 players, up from 30, its previous cap. There will still be six teams, with six players participating in each.
Games will air on TNT on Monday and Friday nights, as well as Saturday night on TruTV. And in partnership with Mediapro North America, the league announced Wednesday it will host competition at a new, nearly 130,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art production facility. The facility will feature various spaces, including meeting rooms, training facilities, a cafeteria with nutritionists and a childcare room.
Unrivaled is slated to begin on Jan. 17 and run for eight weeks.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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