{"id":267350,"date":"2025-11-07T08:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T08:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/267350\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T08:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T08:03:08","slug":"seattle-storm-star-nneka-ogwumike-becomes-first-player-to-sign-with-saudi-backed-project-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/267350\/","title":{"rendered":"Seattle Storm star Nneka Ogwumike becomes first player to sign with Saudi-backed Project B"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The GIST: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/projectb_global\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Project B<\/a>, a new women\u2019s basketball league set to launch in November 2026, announced its first player signing on Wednesday: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wnbpa.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">WNBPA president<\/a> and 10-time WNBA All-Star Nneka Ogwumike. There\u2019s a lot to unpack, so lace \u2019em up and let\u2019s hoop to it.<\/p>\n<p>\u2753 What is Project B?: The global league will feature traditional 5-on-5 basketball and run from November to April \u2014 notably not conflicting with the WNBA schedule. Six 11-player teams will compete in two-week tournaments across Europe, Asia, and Latin America on a traveling circuit.<\/p>\n<p>Project B\u2019s investment group is stacked with starpower from WNBA icon Candace Parker to legends like tennis\u2019 Novak Djokovic and football\u2019s Steve Young. Former WNBA All-Star Alana Beard will serve as the league\u2019s chief basketball officer.<\/p>\n<p>\u2753 How does Project B fit into the women\u2019s basketball landscape?: Project B isn\u2019t a direct competitor for the WNBA as it will run during the W\u2019s offseason. Instead, it\u2019ll run concurrently with Unrivaled and <a href=\"https:\/\/auprosports.com\/basketball\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Athletes Unlimited<\/a>, offering a tournament-based 5-on-5 product. This stands in stark contrast to Unrivaled\u2019s unique 3v3 version of basketball and AU\u2019s player-first competition model.<\/p>\n<p>\u2753 I heard sportswashing is involved?: You\u2019d be right. This new, lucrative sports venture is backed by Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund (PIF) through its entertainment company Sela. And while the PIF claims to stand on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pif.gov.sa\/en\/news-and-insights\/press-releases\/2024\/pif-and-atp-announce-multi-year-strategic-partnership-to-accelerate-the-growth-of-global-tennis\/#:~:text=Partnership%20incorporates%20PIF%E2%80%99s%20four%20sponsorship%20pillars%3A%20inclusivity%2C%20sustainability%2C%20youth%20and%20technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">a pillar of inclusivity<\/a>, Saudi Arabia is known for its human rights abuses \u2014 aka <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/sportwashing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">textbook sportswashing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The GIST: Project B, a new women\u2019s basketball league set to launch in November 2026, announced its first&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-267350","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267350","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=267350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}