Lexie Hull to play in upstart league Unrivaled, new Fever GM begins, Caitlin Clark returns to Iowa
Several Fever players chose to play overseas, but Lexie Hull is staying home and will play in the new Unrivaled league in January. Plus, Amber Cox begins new role and Caitlin Clark has fun in Iowa.
Lexie Hull, the sixth overall pick in 2022, just completed her third season with Indiana. (Photo: Ryan May/800 Meter)
Indiana Fever guard Lexie Hull reached agreement with Unrivaled to play in the player-owned league’s inaugural season.
She’s the first Fever player to join Unrivaled, which features 30 players on six teams for games of 3-on-3 during the WNBA offseason. The league was co-founded by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart with games to be played down in Miami beginning in mid-January.
Recently, they agreed to a multi-year media rights deal with TNT to broadcast at least 45 games during the upcoming season. The league is scheduled to tip off on January 17th.
Playing 3-on-3 suits her game and she has experience doing so with USA Basketball. Players tag in and out often, and you’re constantly seeking out mismatches.
“You end up learning each other’s games very, very quickly,” Hull said before the season. “You’re playing every position, guarding every type of player, so you really have to trust and rely on each other.”
Lexie Hull joins Unrivaled, becomes first Indiana Fever player in new 3×3 offseason league
Lexie Hull is Unrivaled.
The new 3×3 league announced Hull as one of its 30 players on Wednesday afternoon, after a hint that included Stanford trees, a nod to her college career with the Cardinal, and Mt. Rainer from Hull’s home state of Washington. Hull was the 29th player announced and the first Indiana Fever player to join the league.
Unrivaled, which was co-founded by the New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart and Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier, has marketed itself as a league of the top-30 women’s basketball players in the world. The two founders wanted to give the WNBA’s top talent an option to make money in the offseason that didn’t require going overseas.
Hull has a lot of experience in 3×3 — she has been in the USA Basketball pool for the 3×3 team since 2022, her senior season as Stanford. She led the 2022 U23 3×3 team to a silver medal with a tournament-high 63 points, and won a bronze medal with the 2022 AmeriCup team. She also won a gold medal with the 2023 Pan American Games team, which competed in Chile in October 2023. Hull was in the pool for the Olympic 3×3 team, as well, but was ultimately not selected for Paris.
This type of 3×3 will be different for Hull, though. Unrivaled will have four quarters and a regulation shot clock, as well as a full court, compared to the Olympic half-court game.
This will be the second different stateside offseason league Hull has participated in during her young pro career. She competed in Athletes Unlimited in Dallas in 2023, and was named to the AU Player Executive Committee in March 2024.
Will Caitlin Clark join Unrivaled?
The new league has reportedly given a ‘Messi-like offer’ to Clark, which Front Office Sports compared to Inter Miami’s offer to soccer legend Lionel Messi to join Major League Soccer, trying to entice her to join the new league. Some of Clark’s closest friends in the WNBA, including Hull and the Las Vegas Aces’ Kate Martin (who was Clark’s teammate at Iowa), have recently been announced as players in the league.
Clark previously told ESPN during the WNBA playoffs she will not be participating in any offseason basketball, instead focusing on having time to herself in the offseason after a full year of being in the spotlight.
“It’s gonna be nice, I think,” Clark said in her Fever exit interview, “getting out of the spotlight and just getting to live my life and do things that I want to do.”
The Fever star will still have a lot to do in the offseason; she is participating in a charity pro-am with LPGA golfer and fellow Gainbridge ambassador Annika Sorenstam in December, and will likely have more appearances and events with other sponsors.
Still, Clark could have changed her mind between Indiana’s exit interviews and now — Unrivaled has one more player to announce before the league starts in January.
How will Unrivaled work?
Unrivaled will be a six-team league with five players on each team playing 3×3. The teams will be picked by a selection committee to ensure it is split by position and skill, Collier said on X.It will be a new type of 3×3, though, with a 70-foot-by-50 foot court, four quarters, a game clock and a shot clock. Olympic and FIBA 3×3 games are 10 minutes total, with a 12-second shot clock.
It will be an eight-week season, starting in January 2025. After six weeks of round-robin play, the top four teams will have a two-week postseason. There will also be a 1v1 tournament throughout the season, and Collier said whoever is deemed the best individual player in the world will win a minimum of $250,000.
According to the Unrivaled website, the league will have the highest average salaries in women’s sports history, and all players will also receive equity in the league.
