{"id":283999,"date":"2025-11-15T04:48:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T04:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/283999\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T04:48:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T04:48:11","slug":"mercurys-alyssa-thomas-becomes-2nd-wnba-star-to-join-saudi-backed-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/283999\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercury&#8217;s Alyssa Thomas becomes 2nd WNBA star to join Saudi-backed league"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Another WNBA star has joined the new Saudi-backed basketball league, Project B. And this time, it\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/tag\/phoenix-mercury\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Phoenix Mercury<\/a> forward Alyssa Thomas.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas is the second high-profile basketball player to announce their decision to play in the offseason league, after Nneka Ogwumike who told the Associated Press about her choice to join Project B a week ago.<\/p>\n<p>The new league is set to hit the courts in Europe and Asia at the end of 2026. Following the Mercury star\u2019s latest decision, Project B\u2019s chief basketball officer Alana Beard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/wnba\/story\/_\/id\/46931799\/alyssa-thomas-becomes-latest-wnba-star-join-new-project-b-league\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told the AP about Thomas\u2019 membership<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"788\" height=\"525\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20705559-1.jpg\" alt=\"May 19, 2023; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Connecticut Sun forward Alyssa Thomas (25) in the second half against the Indiana Fever at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports\" class=\"wp-image-1029195\"  \/>Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlyssa is the kind of player and person you build around. leadership, competitiveness, and professionalism elevate everyone around her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs one of the most respected players in the world, she represents the new era of player partnership and global competition that Project B stands for,\u201d Beard added.<\/p>\n<p>The announcements of both players comes in the wake of the WNBA\u2019s CBA negotiations, which have created a tense relationship between the WNBPA and the league\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n<p>While Alyssa Thomas\u2019 decision to join Project B won\u2019t interfere with her WNBA duties as both leagues don\u2019t overlap, it still highlights the players\u2019 dedication to securing their financial demands, as Project B offers high salaries and even an equity stake in the league.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<img alt=\"avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/802c3003547685b578fd7f4e8a81a7dbe8d1cf2e4c476dec63817c479fdb718f\"  class=\"avatar avatar-70 photo\" height=\"70\" width=\"70\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"low\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\tSince  his  first  foray  into  online  journalism  in  2019,  Peter  Okereke  has  written  widely  on  Entertainment  and  Pop  Culture  &#8230; More about <a class=\"more-bio\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/author\/peter-okereke\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Peter Okereke<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another WNBA star has joined the new Saudi-backed basketball league, Project B. And this time, it\u2019s Phoenix Mercury&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,3461,82,1276,630],"class_list":["post-283999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-phoenix-mercury","tag-sports","tag-sports-entertainment","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283999","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=283999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}