Exclusive: WNBA legend Teresa Weatherspoon to coach Unrivaled basketball team

Weatherspoon — who most recently served as the head coach of the Chicago Sky — will lead one of six Unrivaled basketball clubs in Miami this winter.

Teresa Weatherspoon is heading to Miami to coach one of the six Unrivaled basketball clubs this winter, sources familiar with the hire told SB Nation.

Weatherspoon — who was fired by the Chicago Sky this past offseason — will be a head coach in the new professional 3-on-3 basketball league that will take place this winter. Her involvement in Unrivaled doesn’t preclude her from any WNBA roles next season, as the position is a seasonal one. But, it does mean she’ll be an inaugural coach for the historic basketball league, which was co-founded by WNBA superstars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart.

Unrivaled will include 36 WNBA players — 32 of whom have already been announced. The league will tip-off on Jan. 17, span 8 weeks, and be broadcast on TNT, TruTV, and MAX three nights a week. The total salary pool for the 36 players is more than $8 million — and all participants will also receive equity in the league.

Games will be played on a compressed full-court, and feature All-Stars like like Brittney Griner, Kelsey Plum, Alyssa Thomas, and Angel Reese, among dozens of others.

“It’s amazing to be able to create something that we feel like is such a game changer in the field of women’s basketball, and to be able to expand in year one,” Collier told SB Nation. “I’m really thankful for that.”

Why Teresa Weatherspoon made sense for Unrivaled

Alex Bazzell, who is both the president of Unrivaled and Collier’s husband, told SB Nation that the decision to hire Weatherspoon as one of the six coaches was an easy one.

“She has the experience of being a head coach in the WNBA,” Bazzell said. “She’s well-respected. She’s a former player, a legend in her own right, and she understands player development.”

Weatherspoon has plenty of experience both as a player and a coach. She led Louisiana Tech to an NCAA national title in 1998, and subsequently played eight professional seasons overseas in Italy, France, and Russia. She was one of the original players in the WNBA, beginning her tenure in 1997 and spending her first seven seasons with the New York Liberty before playing one season with the Los Angeles Sparks. Weatherspoon — a five-time WNBA All-Star and two-time Defensive Player of the Year — was voted one of the top 20 players in the history of the WNBA in 2016.

Soon after retiring from the league in 2004, Weatherspoon entered the coaching sphere, becoming the head coach of Louisiana Tech in 2009. She joined the New Orleans Pelicans as a player development coach in 2019, working closely with Pelicans star Zion Williamson, and was elevated to an assistant coach role for the Pelicans for three seasons before being let go. She became the head coach of the Sky in 2023, leading a rebuilding team to a 13-17 record, and forming a close relationship with star rookie Angel Reese. Weatherspoon was dismissed from the Sky in September.

Given that Unrivaled is intended to be an offseason league centered around the players’ needs and growth, layer development is a central focus. The 3-on-3 format inherently lends itself to individual development, as players will have the ball in their hands, and get the opportunity to practice new skills.

Unrivaled prioritized coaches with a player development background, hired staff with USA basketball experience, and designed its venue with player development and recovery in mind — ensuring that massage therapists, cold tubs, and other necessary resources were readily available. The venue will also include a child care center, a hair and make-up room, and other amenities to make the players’ lives as easy as possible.

“Priority number one for us is the athletes enjoying the experience,” Bazzell said. “Because, if they enjoy the experience and they want to continue to double down or look at this as a long term opportunity — which is what we believe right now — we won.”

Weatherspoon’s extensive player development background in the NBA, experience as a player, and strength in relationship-building made her a natural fit for an Unrivaled coaching role.

“When I sat down with her, it was an easy conversation, because she gets it — she understands more than anyone what the power of this is for the players,” Bazzell said. “So, we just wanted people who could relate to the athletes, that could help the athletes improve — that could tap into mindset development as well. She was a no-brainer for us, to be quite honest.”

Who will be on Weatherspoon’s Unrivaled team?

Weatherspoon will coach six players on her 3-on-3 team, but she doesn’t yet know who those players will be. All 36 Unrivaled players will be organized into six pods — Pods A through F — with each pod being comprised of either guards, wings, or bigs. The league’s six head coaches will work collaboratively to select one player from each pod for each of the six clubs, in an effort to create well-rounded and balanced rosters. But, the twist in the process is that coaches won’t know which club is theirs until after rosters are set.

On Wednesday, November 20th, the coaches will find out which club and players they’ll lead, live on Unrivaled’s YouTube channel. There are six clubs: the Laces, Mist, Rose, Lunar Owls, Phantom and Vinyl.

The only one of Weatherspoon’s former Sky players who is currently confirmed to play in Unrivaled is Angel Reese — though four additional WNBA players will be announced over the coming days.

Reese turned to social media to express her dismay when Weatherspoon’s firing was announced.

“I’m heartbroken,” Reese wrote on X. “I’m literally lost for words knowing what this woman meant to me in such a pivotal point in my life. She was the only person that believed in me. The one that trusted me.”

Could Reese be reunited with her former WNBA coach this winter? A potential reunion is possible, but it’s given that there are six teams in the mix, it’s more likely the player and coach duo will face off. We’ll have an official answer on that next week.

Regardless, Weatherspoon’s next coaching stop is a unique one: she’ll be a part of a first-of-its-kind professional basketball league that could alter the women’s sports landscape.

“I think everyone wants the same goals, which is: pay these players what they deserve, keep them visible, keep them home, keep them rested, and make sure that the ecosystem is growing,” said Bazzell.

Unrivaled will work tirelessly to continue uplifting and elevating women’s basketball this winter. The league’s unprecedented salaries and heightened focus on player well-being could have a ripple effect on the sport as a whole.

It’s only fitting that Teresa Weatherspoon — one of the sports all-time legends — will be a central part of the league’s first season.