$80M Worth Warriors Legend Rejected to Invest in Breanna Stewart and Carmelo Anthony’s “Unrivaled” Despite Playing a Key Role

Months before its launch, “Unrivaled” is already capturing the interest of investors and athletes. Now that it has closed a seed round that exceeded all expectations of athletes and investors, Warriors legend Andre Iguodala has unveiled a secret about the new USA-based professional women’s basketball league, where he confessed to making no investments.

In a recent interview, Andre Iguodala sat with the Point Forward team to share his insights about NBA matchups. Meanwhile, the host touched upon Unrivaled, saying, “From the WNBA, obviously two beautiful goddesses, hoopers, ballers, they’ve started a three-on-three league that’s supposed to set a record for the highest-paying salary in pro female team sports history…They’re also supposed to get equity in the whole league.”

To which Iguodala replied, “I vet, I vetted the deal myself. I saw it. We had some conversations around it and so I didn’t invest, but I’m rooting for it for sure…You have the opportunity in startups to set those expectations and you know this its a little bit of education as well because we’re so accustomed to seeing basketball in general we played in five-on-five setting like we don’t see,” making it clear why he didn’t invest.

But do you know even if Iguodala didn’t invest, many huge companies did? While US Soccer co-captain Alex Morgan‘s ventures are helping with initial funding, another investor group is made with popular names like Steve Nash, Michelle Wie West, and Koby Altman. However, the investors are not done yet as there are other seed round investors, Ann Sarnoff, Carmelo Anthony, and Ashton Kutcher. Now, the question is: what attracted them?

Introducing women’s sports new era “Unrivaled”

So, it’s none other than John Skipper and David Levy, who are behind the unique idea of Unrivaled. Announced last year in July, Unrivaled is a league co-founded by WNBA stars, Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier themselves. This six-team league is aiming to provide equity to its 30 players while claiming to offer the highest average salary in the history of women’s sports leagues.

Not only this, but the league will be focusing on a 3-on-3 model instead of regular five-on-five. “For years, women have relied heavily on off-court sponsorships for a majority of their income…With Unrivaled, we’re revolutionizing the game by prioritizing investments in our stars and ensuring their on-court performance is reflected in their pay,” said Stewart.

Moving on, Unrivaled’s first season is scheduled to commence in January 2025, winters featuring many high-profile basketball players including WNBA All-Stars. But, now the question is: will Unrivaled, a unique league be able to keep up with the expectations?

Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato had to say about the marketing genius, watch this video.