Unrivaled 3v3 League (January 2025)

[Green Chile]

1 on 1 Tourney tonight. LFG!

[Green Chile]

Poor Katie Lou.
Phee is already on a revenge tour, and then gets pitted against a UConn teammate that went ahead of her in the draft.

[Green Chile]

These ladies are gassed at the end of these matches.

I wouldn't say 1v1 is a great viewing experience, but you gotta love these ladies giving their all and risking getting exposed.

Kah-AB at least seemed to lift the awkwardness of the format. Especially Kah's post game. She had to shake off the after party from her beloved Eagles to come get her head right to win $200k.

[Green Chile]

Oh **** no. Dearica vs Skylar! That's an impossible choice. I don't know how it's possible to root against either of them.

And nevermind. This is a great viewing format. These two ain't ####ing around.

[Green Chile]

Damn Skylar is so fun.

[Doctor MJ]

Okay, #1 seed Stewie getting shut out in the first round is a moment.

It's been clear so far that the full-court 3v3 game tends to favor the more explosive athletes - with Phee being at the 100th percentile - but it wasn't obvious to me that the 1v1 tourney, which is a half-court winners-out thing - was going to really flip against bigs.

The thing that's so interesting here is that the NBA gave up on 1v1 tourneys in the '70s because it just ended up being bigs grinding little guys down. While the women's game isn't the men's, I think it needs to be considered whether the spacing caused by the 3 has now shifted 1v1 play into something that's actually FUN to watch.

The crazy thing is it's not even about 3-point shooting beating everything else - because Stewie can shoot that - it's about the fact that the defender is being pulled into space to honor the 3-point shot, and from there agility can really cook in a way it couldn't when the defender could just live near the basket.

[Ice Man]

Wait. A fan defended the development of 3 point shooting? That's a first for realgm!

[Green Chile]

Allisha is a national treasure.

[Green Chile]

Rae!

Sparks are going to be so good.

[Green Chile]

Hated to see Allisha Gray lose, but Aaliyah Edwards is having a moment!

[cupcakesnake]

Okay, #1 seed Stewie getting shut out in the first round is a moment.

It's been clear so far that the full-court 3v3 game tends to favor the more explosive athletes - with Phee being at the 100th percentile - but it wasn't obvious to me that the 1v1 tourney, which is a half-court winners-out thing - was going to really flip against bigs.

The thing that's so interesting here is that the NBA gave up on 1v1 tourneys in the '70s because it just ended up being bigs grinding little guys down. While the women's game isn't the men's, I think it needs to be considered whether the spacing caused by the 3 has now shifted 1v1 play into something that's actually FUN to watch.

The crazy thing is it's not even about 3-point shooting beating everything else - because Stewie can shoot that - it's about the fact that the defender is being pulled into space to honor the 3-point shot, and from there agility can really cook in a way it couldn't when the defender could just live near the basket.

I don't think 1v1 would work in the NBA, because NBA athletes have too easy a time generating seperation. Anytime we see 1v1 (at Olympic practice for example) it's often a pretty undramatic affair where everyone can easily knock down casual fadeaways on each other. It often just looks random to me. Everyone scores easily, and some shots rim out.

Now in the women's game, separation is way harder to come by, which means you have to fight for all these points with a mix of craft and bully ball. Every W player is a very physical horizontal defender, and high-elevation fadeaways aren't as much of a thing. Some of these 1v1 games have been super dramatic, and more resemble the game we fell in love with as kids, competing against our friends (but with obviously a much higher skill level, lol).

I can't get enough of it. I'm re-watching some of the matchups on youtube. They're so freaking fun.

[cupcakesnake]

These ladies are gassed at the end of these matches.

I wouldn't say 1v1 is a great viewing experience, but you gotta love these ladies giving their all and risking getting exposed.

Kah-AB at least seemed to lift the awkwardness of the format. Especially Kah's post game. She had to shake off the after party from her beloved Eagles to come get her head right to win $200k.

That Satou vs. Arike one was great. So competitive and both of them were just DONE physically, before the end of it. Great big vs. little matchup that could have gone either way.

[Doctor MJ]

Okay, #1 seed Stewie getting shut out in the first round is a moment.

It's been clear so far that the full-court 3v3 game tends to favor the more explosive athletes - with Phee being at the 100th percentile - but it wasn't obvious to me that the 1v1 tourney, which is a half-court winners-out thing - was going to really flip against bigs.

The thing that's so interesting here is that the NBA gave up on 1v1 tourneys in the '70s because it just ended up being bigs grinding little guys down. While the women's game isn't the men's, I think it needs to be considered whether the spacing caused by the 3 has now shifted 1v1 play into something that's actually FUN to watch.

The crazy thing is it's not even about 3-point shooting beating everything else - because Stewie can shoot that - it's about the fact that the defender is being pulled into space to honor the 3-point shot, and from there agility can really cook in a way it couldn't when the defender could just live near the basket.

I don't think 1v1 would work in the NBA, because NBA athletes have too easy a time generating seperation. Anytime we see 1v1 (at Olympic practice for example) it's often a pretty undramatic affair where everyone can easily knock down casual fadeaways on each other. It often just looks random to me. Everyone scores easily, and some shots rim out.

Now in the women's game, separation is way harder to come by, which means you have to fight for all these points with a mix of craft and bully ball. Every W player is a very physical horizontal defender, and high-elevation fadeaways aren't as much of a thing. Some of these 1v1 games have been super dramatic, and more resemble the game we fell in love with as kids, competing against our friends (but with obviously a much higher skill level, lol).

I can't get enough of it. I'm re-watching some of the matchups on youtube. They're so freaking fun.

So I'll say I'm not sure if we even know the final form of what women's 1v1 will look like. Maybe with more practice, a back-down approach ends up being the best, like it was in the '70s for NBA 1v1 tourney.

However, to me the ability to gain separation is something that helps smaller players, and so if smaller players are helped, then that's the thing that's hopeful, because no one wants to see a tourney where Bob Lanier wins.

Of course separation does little if you don't have shooting touch so we're not expecting Russell Westbrook or Angel Reese to win these things no matter what, but pure brute strength is at least mitigated.

[Green Chile]

GB Renee Montgomery. I'm partial to Andraya, LaChina, and IMO, the goat, Christy WInters Scott, but Renee has a big future in this business.

[Green Chile]

Mad, mad props to AE. She's got a bright future.

But Phee is the Alpha dog.
No disrespect to A'ja. Maybe she still is. But she's going to have to come back and show it. Phee has been the best player we've seen in a very long time.

[Green Chile]

Phee, as always, is so incredibly kind. If there's anybody that wants to put their name on the line, she's here.

She's here. That's all.

[Doctor MJ]

Mad, mad props to AE. She's got a bright future.

But Phee is the Alpha dog.
No disrespect to A'ja. Maybe she still is. But she's going to have to come back and show it. Phee has been the best player we've seen in a very long time.

Indeed an 8 seed almost winning the whole thing is a wake-up call to what she might bring next WNBA season.

I'm glad to see this A vs Phee conversation picking up steam. When A'ja won unanimous MVP last year, but I personally had Phee as my choice, it was such a strange place to be. I think what we've seen though from the playoffs to Unrivaled is that is a terrifying athletic presence who now absolutely needs to be in that debate for everyone.

The two players are fascinating to consider because they were born in the same year and they are buddies who shared a podcast, but A'ja has always been seen as the generational talent with Phee kinda slotted in as a B-lister.

But I gotta say, I think there's something to Phee marrying here trainer. Forget about how good he is at his job and how great of a husband he hopefully is, it says something about Phee's love of the grind. If you don't love constantly pushing yourself, you probably don't fall in love with the person pushing you.

This then to say that while I think Phee was underrated coming out of college to some degree, I think it was reasonable to see her as something lower than a threat to A'ja at one point. Now though, I think we should be seeing Phee as probably the most capable women's basketball player in the world.

One thing though that could be something of a caveat:

While I think it's meaningful Phee demonstrating herself to be the best 1v1 and 3v3 player around, that's not the same thing as the best 5v5, which is still the ultimate standard for basketball. While I thought Phee deserved MVP last year, it is entirely possible that her explosiveness and motor just counts for more when there are less players on the floor.

[jc23]

I have not seen any advertisements about this league.

[hermes]

i saw some commercials for it in early january before it started

[BlacJacMac]

Mad, mad props to AE. She's got a bright future.

But Phee is the Alpha dog.
No disrespect to A'ja. Maybe she still is. But she's going to have to come back and show it. Phee has been the best player we've seen in a very long time.

Indeed an 8 seed almost winning the whole thing is a wake-up call to what she might bring next WNBA season.

I'm glad to see this A vs Phee conversation picking up steam. When A'ja won unanimous MVP last year, but I personally had Phee as my choice, it was such a strange place to be. I think what we've seen though from the playoffs to Unrivaled is that is a terrifying athletic presence who now absolutely needs to be in that debate for everyone.

The two players are fascinating to consider because they were born in the same year and they are buddies who shared a podcast, but A'ja has always been seen as the generational talent with Phee kinda slotted in as a B-lister.

But I gotta say, I think there's something to Phee marrying here trainer. Forget about how good he is at his job and how great of a husband he hopefully is, it says something about Phee's love of the grind. If you don't love constantly pushing yourself, you probably don't fall in love with the person pushing you.

This then to say that while I think Phee was underrated coming out of college to some degree, I think it was reasonable to see her as something lower than a threat to A'ja at one point. Now though, I think we should be seeing Phee as probably the most capable women's basketball player in the world.

One thing though that could be something of a caveat:

While I think it's meaningful Phee demonstrating herself to be the best 1v1 and 3v3 player around, that's not the same thing as the best 5v5, which is still the ultimate standard for basketball. While I thought Phee deserved MVP last year, it is entirely possible that her explosiveness and motor just counts for more when there are less players on the floor.

I'm still upset that she took 23 FGAs (only two 3PAs) and was awarded zero FTAs in Game 5...