Meet the famous basketball skills coach who will lead Napheesa Collier, Skylar Diggins-Smith in Unrivaled

DJ Sackmann is a world-renowned NBA skills coach with millions of social media followers — and extensive experience working with stars. In 2018, he founded HoopStudy, one of the largest online basketball education companies in the world, and he’s hosted basketball training events in countries around the globe.

Now, he’ll be one of six head coaches in Unrivaled, the new 3-on-3 women’s professional basketball league set to begin in Miami in January.

“I’ve always been a fan of the WNBA,” Sackmann said. “So, when I got the call for this, I was extremely excited. I’ve been able to spend offseasons working with [WNBA] players and got to understand the development side of things. When I got this, I just looked at it as an opportunity to learn from the best women in the world from my side of development, and then also be able to help them grow and work on their game throughout the offseason.”

Unrivaled, which will include at least 34 WNBA stars playing full-court 3-on-3 basketball, was co-founded by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart to provide players an opportunity to stay in the U.S. in the offseason and work on their games rather than needing to go overseas.

With that in mind, Unrivaled’s president — Collier’s husband, Alex Bazzell — recruited coaches with a breadth of experience in player development: former Chicago Sky head coach Teresa Weatherspoon, longtime NBA assistant Phil Handy, current Washington Mystics assistant Andrew Wade, and former Brooklyn Nets assistant Adam Harrington.

Sackmann said he already has relationships with Weatherspoon and Handy, among others — and that he relishes the opportunity to work closely with them.

“I’ll just bounce ideas off them, and help me manage this new space,” he said.

For Unrivaled, Sackmann will coach the Lunar Owls Club, a team currently comprised of five WNBA standouts, three of whom have been All-Stars. Collier, the 2024 Defensive Player of the Year, headlines the roster.

Lunar Owls Players: Skylar Diggins-Smith (Seattle Storm), Allisha Gray (Atlanta Dream), Natasha Cloud (Phoenix Mercury), Napheesa Collier (Minnesota Lynx), Shakira Austin (Washington Mystics), Wildcard

Other head coaches in the Unrivaled mix have more experience working with actual teams and in the WNBA arena. But, Sackmann is highly regarded for his strength in player development.

“He’s probably the best at being able to describe what he is teaching,” said Harrington, another Unrivaled head coach. “He’s such a phenomenal speaker and teacher.”

Tom Crean, the head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers, similarly gushed about Sackmann’s impact in his website’s testimony.

“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.”

For Sackmann, Unrivaled will serve as an official entry point into the WNBA space. He hopes he’ll be able to leverage his extensive player development background to impact the women, while also taking lessons away from the experience to improve as a coach himself.

“Seeing what that process truly looks like from a development standpoint — what they’re doing in the weight room, how they approach practice, and how they’re approaching just their overall professionalism, and then being able to take that and pass it down to the younger generation,” he said. “I spend a lot of time every year with younger high school, high-level basketball players. Being able to pass that down to some of the young women who I’m working with is going to be a great add-on to me as a coach.”

This article is part of a series featuring the six Unrivaled head coaches. You can also read about Andrew Wade, a former sports blogger and college hooper turned player development specialist.