Napheesa Collier has been crowned the inaugural champion of Unrivaled’s 1v1 tournament, after defeating Washington Mystics forward Aaliyah Edwards in a best-of-three finals series.
Napheesa Collier’s Unrivaled 1v1 tournament win is a fitting end to a ridiculous month
Collier — who has been playing some of the best basketball of her career — defeated Aaliyah Edwards in the Unrivaled 1v1 tournament finals.
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.
The Minnesota Lynx star, who co-founded Unrivaled alongside New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart, has been the league’s best player since gameplay tipped off on Jan. 17, averaging 29.3 points and 11.5 rebounds per game. And, her Lunar Owls team remains undefeated 8 games into the regular season.
On Friday, the 2024 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year added another notch to her belt. While Edwards beat Collier 9-6 in the opening game of the Finals, Collier fired back with two consecutive wins to secure the victory, shut out Edwards entirely in Game 3 with an 8-0 win.
As a result, Collier secured a $200,000 check — an amount that rivals her annual WNBA salary. And each of her Lunar Owls teammates — Skylar Diggins-Smith, Courtney Williams, Shakira Austin, Allisha Gray, and Cameron Brink — will also walk away with $10,000. That wrinkle was added to encourage camaraderie and engagement from teammates who have already been eliminated.
Edwards, who defeated Breanna Stewart, Allisha Gray, and Arike Ogunbowale en route to a Finals berth, will walk away with a $50,000 cash prize. And Ogunbowale and Azura Stevens, the two semi-finals, will each cash in $25,000.
Why Unrivaled chose to include a 1v1 tournament
The 1v1 tournament, which began on Monday, was meant to showcase the amount of talent at Unrivaled and in women’s basketball, while also providing additional income opportunities for players, and helping revitalize a culture of pickup.
On Thursday, Ogunbowale said that she didn’t think such a tournament would make sense for NBA or WNBA All-Star weekend, noting that players need that time to rest and that the 1v1 tournament is something that requires players to be rejuvenated.
But, players agreed they were excited for the chance to compete in it during the WNBA offseason.
Professional basketball players have historically been resistant to competing in 1v1 tournaments, knowing that doing so could risk being publicly embarrassed.
But, Collier said Thursday that the cash prize was enough to motivate players to put their fears aside and participate.
“I think once people saw the prize money, that kind of abated a lot of our worries,” she said. “Because, for 200k — and it was more before we decided to split it up between the teammates of the winner — I think just seeing that money got everyone chomping at the bit to go out there.”
The Unrivaled tournament is also an opportunity to help revitalize a women’s 1v1 basketball culture. Collier noted that while men oftentimes play 1v1 basketball, that’s less common on the women’s side.
“That’s something we’re trying to change, just that atmosphere where everything’s not as organized basketball, but just playing in your backyard or at the park,” she said.
Collier’s WNBA season ended in heartbreak after her Lynx team fell to the Liberty in overtime in the deciding Game 5 of the WNBA Finals after a controversial foul call at the end of regulation.
But, so far she’s been able to redeem herself quite nicely, dominating Unrivaled’s regular season, and now, the 1v1 tournament.
The tournament victory won’t completely erase the pain of a lost championship — but it’s a good step to getting Collier back in the win column.
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