The second time will not be the charm for Caitlin Clark and Unrivaled.
The Indiana Fever superstar Clark won’t be participating in the upcoming season of Unrivaled, the 3-on-3 offseason league founded by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier. Front Office Sports revealed the news in a report on Thursday and noted that Clark is turning down a major offer from Unrivaled.
According to the report, Unrivaled was prepared to offer Clark a seven-figure deal along with a “Messi-like” offer that included both equity and revenue sharing in the league. That is a reference to soccer icon Lionel Messi, who joined Inter Miami of Major League Soccer (MLS) in 2023 on a deal that gave him an option for a partial ownership stake as well as a share of the revenue generated by league partners Apple and Adidas.
You can read Front Office Sports’ full report on the situation here.
Unrivaled held its inaugural season last year and got several well-known WNBA stars to participate, including Sabrina Ionescu, Jewell Loyd, Chelsea Gray, Skylar Diggins, and Angel Reese (who even managed to get ejected from a game). But Clark notably did not participate in that season and now will not be participating during Year 2 of Unrivaled either.
The 23-year-old Clark did have her WNBA season derailed by a groin injury that had kept her sidelined for the last two-and-a-half months. Thus, her decision not to participate might also partly be motivated by a desire to get healthy for the next WNBA season.
But the decision by Clark is definitely still notable given the frosty relationship right now between the WNBA and its players. Collier, the Minnesota Lynx star who co-founded Unrivaled and also serves as the vice president of the WNBPA, went scorched earth this week in some prepared remarks on WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert. In her comments, Collier accused Engelbert of stating that Clark “should be grateful” for the platform that she has with the WNBA because Clark “wouldn’t make anything” otherwise.
Clark has since offered a public reaction to the alleged remark by Engelbert. But considering Clark is in a position to be able to turn down a reported seven-figure godfather offer from Unrivaled (keep in mind that she made just $78,000 in the WNBA this season), Engelbert’s supposed comment seems like it couldn’t be more untrue.
