{"id":254385,"date":"2025-11-01T10:55:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T10:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/254385\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T10:55:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T10:55:11","slug":"sabrina-ionescu-among-wnba-players-not-returning-to-unrivaled-in-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/254385\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabrina Ionescu among WNBA players not returning to Unrivaled in offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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

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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

\"Sabrina<\/p>\n

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

Fenerbahce threatened to use its legal rights \u201cto seek compensation for any material and moral damages incurred\u201d because of that decision.<\/p>\n

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

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Unrivaled announced last month that it would be expanding to an eight-club league that would add 12 new roster spots.<\/p>\n

Stewart and Natasha Cloud are the only two players from the 2025 Liberty who will be participating in the upcoming Unrivaled season.<\/p>\n

\"Sky<\/p>\n

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

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

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

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…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[21316,724,4657,23311,49,48,40528,12193,6003,12200,729,4651,21594,24527,4644,82,4646,630,30324],"class_list":{"0":"post-254385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-aari-mcdonald","9":"tag-angel-reese","10":"tag-breanna-stewart","11":"tag-brittney-griner","12":"tag-ca","13":"tag-canada","14":"tag-dominique-malonga","15":"tag-emma-meesseman","16":"tag-fever","17":"tag-jonquel-jones","18":"tag-napheesa-collier","19":"tag-natasha-cloud","20":"tag-nyara-sabally","21":"tag-rebecca-allen","22":"tag-sabrina-ionescu","23":"tag-sports","24":"tag-unrivaled","25":"tag-wnba","26":"tag-wnba-season"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254385","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=254385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}