{"id":251346,"date":"2025-10-31T02:06:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T02:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/251346\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T02:06:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T02:06:12","slug":"sabrina-ionescu-among-wnba-players-not-returning-to-unrivaled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/251346\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabrina Ionescu among WNBA players not returning to Unrivaled"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu, Sky forward Angel Reese and Dream center Brittney Griner are among the stars who won\u2019t be returning to play in Unrivaled\u2019s second season.<\/p>\n<p>That became clear Thursday when the 3-on-3 basketball league, co-founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, announced Storm center Dominique Malonga, Sky guard Rebecca Allen and Fever guard Aari McDonald would be taking up the final three roster spots.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement of Malonga joining Unrivaled comes just 10 days after Fenerbahce \u2014 a Turkey-based professional women\u2019s basketball club where Jonquel Jones and Emma Meesseman are playing this offseason \u2014 announced the 6-foot-6 French star \u201cunilaterally terminated her professional player contract with our club without any just cause.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37535947\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/phoenix-mercury-vs-new-york-111631346.jpg\" alt=\"Sabrina Ionescu #20 of the New York Liberty looks out during round 1 game 2 of the 2025 WNBA Playoffs against the Phoenix Mercury at Barclays Center.\" class=\"wp-image-37535947\"  \/>Sabrina Ionescu looks on during the Liberty\u2019s blowout loss to the Mercury at Barclays Center in Game 2 of their first-round matchup. Michelle Farsi\/New York Post<\/p>\n<p>Fenerbahce threatened to use its legal rights \u201cto seek compensation for any material and moral damages incurred\u201d because of that decision.<\/p>\n<p>How this might impact Malonga\u2019s status for the 2026 WNBA season remains unclear. The Turkish federation will have to sign off on a level of clearance for her to return to the WNBA, though ESPN reported the level of clearance wasn\u2019t required for Malonga to play at Unrivaled.<\/p>\n<p>Unrivaled announced last month that it would be expanding to an eight-club league that would add 12 new roster spots.<\/p>\n<p>Stewart and Natasha Cloud are the only two players from the 2025 Liberty who will be participating in the upcoming Unrivaled season.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.79980469;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37535957\" width=\"472\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/chicago-sky-vs-new-york-109900466.jpg\" alt=\"Angel Reese #5 of the Chicago Sky handles the ball against Natasha Cloud #9 of the New York Liberty during a regular season matchup at Barclays Center.\" class=\"wp-image-37535957\"  \/>Sky star Angel Reese drives on Natasha Cloud during a regular season game against the Liberty at Barclays Center. Michelle Farsi\/New York Post<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCovering the Liberty like never before\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Madeline Kenney&#8217;s Inside the Liberty, a weekly Sports+ newsletter.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Nyara Sabally also said she plans to spend time in Miami this offseason as she rehabs with her older sister, Satou, who once again plans to participate in Unrivaled.<\/p>\n<p>The Liberty will be represented on the Miami sidelines by director of player development Andrew Wade, who was a coach last season, and assistant coach Zach O\u2019Brien, who will make his Unrivaled debut in January.<\/p>\n<p>Unrivaled is scheduled to tip off Jan. 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu, Sky forward Angel Reese and Dream center Brittney Griner are among the stars who&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,3457,4644,82,4646,630],"class_list":["post-251346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-new-york-liberty","tag-sabrina-ionescu","tag-sports","tag-unrivaled","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}