Aaliyah Edwards is good at basketball.
A WNBA rookie is dominating Unrivaled’s 1v1 tournament, and it’s the best thing you’ll see today
Aaliyah Edwards just won a $25,000 cash prize — and she’s one of four WNBA players in the mix to win it all.
Photo by Rich Storry/Getty Images
Noa Dalzell is a senior writer covering the WNBA and all of women’s basketball for Breakaway, SB Nation’s women’s sports vertical, as well as the Celtics for CelticsBlog.
That’s why she was picked No. 6 overall in the 2024 WNBA draft, and that’s why she was named an All-American twice as a UConn Huskie.
The 6’3 forward is fresh off a solid rookie season with the Washington Mystics, in which she averaged 7.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 1.4 assists.
But, Aaliyah Edwards is not a household name, and she was not expected to win Unrivaled’s 1v1 tournament. At just 22 years old, Edwards has had to face off against much more veteran players, with more polished and proven offensive games. In the WNBA, Edwards doesn’t shoot three-pointers. And, while a solid all-around player, she’s not the high-volume scorer that so many other Unrivaled players are.
So, she was ranked voted by players and the media to be one of the tournament’s No. 8 seeds and was not expected to advance past two-time MVP Breanna Stewart in the first round.
Still, she’s one of the last four players standing. It started with a stunning 12-0 defeat against Breanna Stewart, one of the greatest scorers the WNBA has seen. Edwards scored in a multitude of ways — drives to the basket, pull-up threes, you name it. And, she showcased her defensive versatility in stopping Stewart from getting to her spots.
That win was followed up by a victory over Allisha Gray, Unrivaled’s third-leading scorer and many people’s favorite to win it all. Edwards absorbed a ton of contact throughout the competition and used her size and strength to defeat Gray with a myriad of baskets in the post.
As such, Edwards has already won a $25,000 cash prize simply for being in the semi-finals. That figure is more than a third of her rookie salary in the WNBA, which is less than $74,000. But even more money will be on the line on Friday, when she competes for the $200,000 grand prize at Unrivaled’s inaugural 1v1 tournament.
She still has to get through two more games to be crowned a winner — first against Arike Ogunbowale of the Vinyl Club, and then against the winner of the other semi-finals matchup, between Azura Stevens (Rose Club) and Napheesa Collier (Lunar Owls Club). Ogunbowale and Collier are two of the best scorers in the game, and Stevens is a stretch big who can leverage her size and versatility to beat everyone.
Racking up two more wins against some of the best basketball players in the world will be difficult. But, one would be hard-pressed to bet against Edwards, who has demonstrated she’s not an easy out, and put her name on the map.
