Phoenix Mercury starting point guard Natasha Cloud has joined Unrivaled, a new 3-on-3 professional women’s basketball league that begins in January.
Unrivaled announced on August 27 that it was adding Cloud to X, formerly known as Twitter.
The new 3-on-3 league has brought in several WNBA alumni, including former Mercury teammate Kalia Kofer of the Clouds, Chicago Sky rookie star Angel Reese, Dallas Wings 2024 Phoenix All-Star Game MVP Arike Ogunbowale, and Las Vegas Aces Kelsey Plum, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray, Seattle Storm’s Jewel Lloyd and Atlanta Dream’s Rhyne Howard.
Cloud has the third-highest assist average in the WNBA this season (6.8 per game) and Copper is the second-highest scorer (22.6).
The Unleashed League was launched in May by New York Liberty 2023 MVP Breanna Stewart and Minnesota Lynx top player Nafeesa Collier.
Their goal is to lure WNBA players to six-figure contracts that will keep them playing in the country during the offseason, from winter to early spring. Since the WNBA began in 1997, league players have taken lucrative offers to play overseas because WNBA salaries have been quite low.
Unrivaled is looking to capitalize on the meteoric rise in popularity of women’s basketball and the WNBA over the past two years.
This article originally appeared in The Arizona Republic. Mercury’s Cloud Joins Unrivaled 3-on-3 Women’s Professional Basketball League
