Meet the 6 coaches who will coach Unrivaled teams this winter

Unrivaled, a new 3-on-3 professional women’s basketball league tipping off in January, has announced the six head coaches that will lead clubs this winter. The league, made up of 36 WNBA players, will include six unique clubs that will regularly face off over the course of the six-week season. The clubs are named the Laces, Mist, Rose, Lunar Owls, Phantom and Vinyl.

Each will be led by a different head coach, all of whom have a background in player development. Players will be split into six pods, with each being comprised of either guards, wings, or bigs. The league’s coaches will divvy up the players into clubs, but won’t know which club they’ll be coaching until after rosters are set.

Here’s who will be coaching in Unrivaled’s inaugural season.

Teresa Weatherspoon, a WNBA legend with a breadth of coaching experience, is one of six coaches headed to Unrivaled in its inaugural season. Weatherspoon worked in player development and was an assistant coach for the New Orleans Pelicans for three seasons, before becoming the head coach of the Chicago Sky last year. Prior to coaching, she was an NCAA basketball star,

“We just wanted people who could relate to the athletes, that could help the athletes improve — that could tap into mindset development as well,” Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell told SB Nation. “She was a no-brainer for us, to be quite honest.”

Phil Handy is a long-time NBA assistant with a background in player development. Handy played professional basketball overseas for five years before beginning his decades-long NBA coaching career. He served as an assistant coach in the NBA from 2011 to 2024, winning three NBA championships as an assistant.

For his first three seasons, Handy was a player development coach for the Los Angeles Lakers under Mike Brown. He served as an assistant coach under Brown in Cleveland for 5 seasons, then as an assistant under Nick Nurse for one season. Most recently, Handy was an assistant coach from the Lakers from 2019 to 2024.

Adam Harrington is a former NBA player with 8 years of experience as an assistant coach in the league. Harrington was undrafted out of Auburn, but played two seasons in the NBA before heading overseas for 7 seasons. He was a shooting couch on the Oklahoma City Thunder during the 2014-2015 season, and an assistant on the Brooklyn Nets from 2016-2022.

Nola Henry is a player development coach on the Los Angeles Sparks. Previously, she was a guard for the Charleston Cougars, and the assistant basketball operations manager for the Connecticut Sun.

DJ Sackmann is a former basketball player and current NBA and WNBA skills coach who works directly with NBA players. He founded Hoopstudy in 2018, which is now recognized as one of the top online basketball education companies in the world.

Indiana Hoosiers head coach Tom Crean praised Sackmann for his expertise in player development.

“I’m 51,” Crean said. “I’ve been a head coach for 18 years, and I’ve learned more watching DJ in one week, than I could have possibly imagined.”

Andrew Wade is a player development assistant coach for the Washington Mystics, and for the Washington Wizards’ G-League team, the Capital City Go-Go. Wade is responsible for helping organize practice structures, creating workout plans for players, and breaking down game film for coaches.