Unrivaled<\/a>, which is backed by WNBA stars, including Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart.<\/p>\nComing off rookie WNBA seasons, Morrow and Rivers have options that Charles didn\u2019t until now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s great that players have the option with the Unrivaled league and Athletes Unlimited just to stay back home,\u201d Charles said in her exit interview a month ago. \u201cJust in the sense to be around your family and friends. You\u2019re able to take some time off right after the W season in the fall\/winter and then you have both leagues that can gear you up for the W season. So I think it\u2019s a great option. You\u2019re able to do what you need to do for yourself and still able to play in front of your family and friends. Overseas isn\u2019t for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rivers will be one of four rookies spending their first offseason with Unrivaled, the emerging three-on-three league, along with Kiki Iriafen, Paige Bueckers, and Sonia Citron. Rivers will have Sun teammates Marina Mabrey and Aaliyah Edwards with her. This will be Edwards\u2019s second season with Unrivaled. She reached the final round of Unrivaled\u2019s 1-v-1 tournament last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe future is unrivaled,\u201d she said with a grin during her exit interview.<\/p>\n
Morrow will be among six rookies on hand for Athletes Unlimited\u2019s fifth season, alongside Aaliyah Nye, Bree Hall, Kaitlyn Chen, Sarah Ashlee Barker, and Te-Hina Paopao.<\/p>\n
Between the 48 roster spots in Unrivaled and 40 in Athletes Unlimited (which typically splits its player pool between WNBA players and those trying to reach the league), the leagues provide opportunities for nearly half the players in the WNBA to play in the US during the offseason.<\/p>\n
Veronica Burton, for instance, sharpened her game in Australia last season, and Poland the year before that, but this year, after returning to the WNBA and being named Most Improved Player with the Golden State Valkyries, she chose to join Unrivaled\u2019s roster.<\/p>\n
Dana Evans, Erica Wheeler, Ezi Magbegor, Li Yueru, Naz Hillmon, and Sug Sutton played overseas a year ago but will come to Unrivaled this season. Still, for some players, overseas is a preferred route.<\/p>\n
For Rayah Marshall, who just completed her rookie season with the Sun, playing overseas was a matter of growth on the court rather than financial necessity.<\/p>\n
She came into the season with a plan and a backup plan. Had she played heavy minutes as a rookie, she would have passed on playing overseas. She averaged six minutes in 15 games and wanted to find a place where she could get more experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was fortunate enough to get a chunk of change from NIL,\u201d she said, \u201cso it\u2019s not like I would need overseas to provide financially, but with the minutes that I had, I was like, I need to work on my game, I need more game reps, I need more live reps, so I will play after the W season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Olivia Nelson-Ododa played for the Melbourne Boomers in Australia after her rookie season in 2022, then spent the next two offseasons in the Women\u2019s Chinese Basketball Association. She said she\u2019ll return to China this year. <\/p>\n
Last year, Bria Hartley played her offseason ball with Athletes Unlimited. Before that, she spent four offseasons in Turkey, plus another in Hungary.<\/p>\n
Her plan this year was to return to Turkey, but after tearing the meniscus in her right knee in August, she\u2019s reassessing. <\/p>\n
\u201cWith the injury I think I\u2019m still navigating what the next steps are,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Charles looks back on her international career fondly, but appreciates the avenues that are now open for the next crop of women\u2019s professional basketball players.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all I knew back in 2010 when I came in the league, so I came to enjoy it,\u201d Charles said. \u201cBut I\u2019m happy for players now that they have options stateside.\u201d<\/p>\n
Julian Benbow can be reached at julian.benbow@globe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time in her career, Charles won\u2019t have to leave the country this winter to compete…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-242139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242139","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=242139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}