{"id":320535,"date":"2025-11-29T13:12:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T13:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/320535\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T13:12:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T13:12:24","slug":"unrivaled-hopes-to-sign-caitlin-clark-but-does-not-want-to-push-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/320535\/","title":{"rendered":"Unrivaled hopes to sign Caitlin Clark, but does not want to push it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cognizant that she is still dealing with an injury, Unrivaled has a standing offer out to Fever G Caitlin Clark without purposely trying to \u201cpressure\u201d her to join the 3-on-3 winter league. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think first and foremost, [the injury] just sucks for her,\u201d said Unrivaled President Alex Bazzell, the husband of Lynx C and league co-founder Napheesa Collier. \u201cWomen\u2019s basketball is better when she\u2019s playing. \u2026 So I hope she does get healthy quickly. I think we all wish the same thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow we approach it is we don\u2019t really apply pressure. Everyone who\u2019s not currently in the league and who\u2019s a top player, not just her, knows we\u2019re a phone call away. It doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s always going to be a spot because we have to fill spots. \u2026 But she\u2019s one of the rare players who — she was first-team all W last year. She\u2019s a great player. So we haven\u2019t really approached those conversations. We aren\u2019t in conversations. Do I think she should play this offseason? Yeah, I do think she should play somewhere. Obviously we\u2019d love to have her, but that\u2019s a personal decision that her team, her family will go through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going back to last season, Unrivaled made overtures to Clark<\/a> through what Bazzell called \u201cmany conversations with her agents and with her team and Clare Duwelius, our GM.\u201d At the time, Clark explained she wanted a winter away from the basketball grind<\/a>. But Unrivaled might be an opportune fit this time, considering Clark missed 28 games with groin and quad injuries and will likely want off-season game reps. <\/p>\n

Indications are Clark was planning to make a decision by the end of this WNBA campaign, but — after announcing this week she is out for the rest of the Fever season<\/a> — the timetable may have changed. The lines of communication are certainly still wide open, especially since Clark and Collier share the same agent, Erin Kane of Excel Sports Management. But the question, if Clark delays her decision, is how long Unrivaled will wait for her, even if she\u2019s arguably the world\u2019s most popular women\u2019s player.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone comes to us late, not just those two [Clark and A\u2019ja Wilson, who\u2019s also unsigned], we have to look at the circumstances and the situation and say \u2018Is there a spot? Is there not a spot? If so, how does it work?\u2019 \u2026 I mean, we always have flexibility. That\u2019s the truth of it. We own all the teams. We own the league. But I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to ruin someone else\u2019s experience [who\u2019s already signed] by adding a player late. So I think we\u2019re always conscious of both sides, but it\u2019s all based on the opportunity and when it comes about.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, Unrivaled firmly believes it is the optimal place for Clark to rehab her body and her basketball. The league\u2019s strength, conditioning and recovery coach, Susan Borchardt, has previously been the performance coach for the USA Women\u2019s National Team and could easily guide or monitor Clark\u2019s return. The league also would welcome Clark\u2019s own group of trainers and physical therapists. As for the 3-on-3 style of play, Bazzell — a basketball performance coach himself — said Unrivaled gives any player \u201cample reps without putting the wear and tear on your body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doubling down, he said, \u201cYou can get those reps [playing 3-on-3] without the pressure of having it all condensed and having no spacing, which can become frustrating as a player. So that\u2019s number one. Number two, because of that, it builds your confidence … and then the last thing is you\u2019re getting all these reps without the workload of a long five-on-five game or playing a full season of 20 to 30 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlus, being around the best players: iron sharpens iron. You compete against them, you work out with them, you pick their brain, you learn their tendencies, you learn what makes them great. You see players show up and working out, it pushes you to kind of show up a little earlier and work out more. So I think it\u2019s a bar that everyone raises for one another by just being around each other. I think Breanna Stewart made this point: A Team USA basketball camp is 20 of the best players in the world coming together for a very short period. We\u2019re that at Unrivaled for 10 weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cognizant that she is still dealing with an injury, Unrivaled has a standing offer out to Fever G…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-320535","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\/320535","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=320535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}