{"id":141396,"date":"2025-09-08T09:55:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T09:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/141396\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T09:55:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T09:55:07","slug":"azura-stevens-reveals-what-prepared-her-for-her-career-season-with-sparks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/141396\/","title":{"rendered":"Azura Stevens reveals what prepared her for her career season with Sparks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Azura Stevens is in the final stretch of a career season, averaging career highs in points, rebounds, assists, and 3-point percentage. She is one of four Sparks players averaging at least 13 points per game, has already recorded nine double-doubles, and is making a strong case to take home the Most Improved Player award<\/a> at the end of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stevens was a major factor in the Sparks\u2019 91-77 win over the Dallas Wings that kept their playoff hopes alive<\/a>. She finished the game with 13 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals. After the game, she was asked what went into her coming into the 2025 season ready to have a career year. Stevens credited Unrivaled, a new 3-on-3 league founded by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOffensively, Unrivaled really helped me just to be more aggressive,\u201d Stevens said<\/a>. \u201c3-on-3, naturally, you have to be aggressive. You can\u2019t really pass up on shots. So, it was really perfect prep for coming here and being in this new system. And then defensively, I tried to spend a little more time in the weight room and really focus on that. It really helped me just to be here in the States, not have to travel. Sometimes, overseas you don\u2019t really know what you\u2019re getting into, but down there, we literally had everything we needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stevens won the first-ever Unrivaled championship<\/p>\n

In its first season, Unrivaled featured six clubs with six players each and a pool of relief players to help out teams dealing with injuries. Stevens was one of the original 36 players who signed with Unrivaled and suited up for the Rose Basketball Club alongside Brittney Sykes, Kahleah Copper, Angel Reese, Lexie Hull, and Chelsea Gray.<\/p>\n

After a rough start to the season, Stevens\u2019s team made a strong push and finished the regular season in second place behind the 13-1 Lunar Owls. The Rose took down the star-studded Laces and met the Vinyl in the final, winning the game 54-62 to claim Unrivaled\u2019s first championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stevens was the team\u2019s second-leading scorer in the final. She scored 19 points on 9-15 shooting and grabbed 18 big rebounds in 22 minutes on the court. Reese was out with an injury, so Stevens had to take on a bigger role and delivered.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unrivaled is a new opportunity for WNBA players<\/p>\n

Before this past winter, most WNBA players spent the offseason playing in various leagues overseas. While playing overseas provides an extra income and an opportunity to stay in game shape all year round, it also means leaving for months, living in a new country, and missing time with family and friends, especially with the many holidays happening in the fall and winter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unrivaled offers players an option to stay in the U.S. in the offseason while still getting paid and working on their games. For some younger players, like Angel Reese, Cameron Brink, and Rickea Jackson, the league\u2019s success would mean that they might never have to play overseas in the offseason. While there was some injury trouble, Unrivaled largely won over participants with its high salaries and modern facilities. For players like Stevens, it also set the foundation for a career season in the WNBA.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Azura Stevens is in the final stretch of a career season, averaging career highs in points, rebounds, assists,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-141396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}