When Lexie Brown won the 2021 WNBA<\/a> championship with the Chicago Sky, she didn\u2019t have much time to celebrate. That\u2019s because less than a week later, the Duke standout had to go overseas to play professional basketball in France. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was kind of a bummer because that\u2019s a moment that\u2019s rare,\u201d Brown told SB Nation. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll ever win a championship again, and I barely remember winning it and being able to really let that moment sink in.\u201d <\/p>\n Brown\u2019s quick turnaround after the conclusion of the WNBA playoffs was not unusual \u2014 historically, most WNBA players have headed overseas to play professional basketball in the offseason, both for supplementary income and basketball experience. <\/p>\n Brown, whose one-year contract<\/a> with the Sky amounted to just over $47,000, was no exception. <\/p>\n She had been waived by the Minnesota Lynx earlier that season and was well aware of the reality that her future in the WNBA was uncertain, so she hoped that a standout season with the Charnay Basket Bourgogne Sud basketball club<\/a> in France would open the door to future opportunities in the W. <\/p>\n That didn\u2019t end up being the case. Despite averaging more than 20 points in the EuroLeague, Brown didn\u2019t hear from any WNBA teams. She missed her family and regretted leaving money on the table from off-court opportunities. <\/p>\n \u201cI was just kind of like, \u2018What am I still even doing over here?\u2019\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Something needed to change \u2014 and a new basketball league just getting established in the US happened to be the answer.<\/p>\n Athletes Unlimited (AU) is a month-long one-month women\u2019s professional basketball league that launched in 2022, allowing WNBA players to stay in the US and develop as basketball players. (It\u2019s completely different from Unrivaled<\/a>, the 3-on-3 basketball league getting started next month in Miami). <\/p>\n Athletes Unlimited, which uses a complex point system to crown an individual champion at the end of each season (more on that later), reached out to Brown ahead of its inaugural season to gauge her interest in participating. However, her agent strongly advised her to go overseas. <\/p>\n The following year, Brown fired her agent and followed her gut, playing in Athletes Unlimited\u2019s 2023 season in Dallas rather than going to Europe.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a decision she views as life-changing. <\/p>\n \u201cIt really changed the trajectory of my career,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI really was feeling lost as a pro, not really knowing where my confidence went, where my role was going to be in this league.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, she serves as the chairperson of the league\u2019s Player Executive Committee, where she works to recruit other WNBA players to the league she views as so personally revitalizing. <\/p>\n Athletes Unlimited features 40 women\u2019s basketball players who compete in regular 5-on-5 basketball games three times a week. But while the product on the floor might look<\/em> like regular team basketball, the scoring system is quite different from your average basketball league. <\/p>\n Athletes Unlimited maintains a running leaderboard that tallies points for each player; players earn points for team success (such as their team winning a game or a quarter) as well as for individual success (like scoring, assisting, or rebounding).<\/p>\n Players also gain points if fans and other players vote them as one of the MVPs of a particular game. Conversely, they lose points for negative plays, like missed shots, turnovers, or fouls. <\/p>\n At the end of each week, the top four players with the most points become captains, and captains draft new teams each week, so fans constantly get to see different combinations of players together. And, while at the end of the season, the player with the most overall points is crowned the AU champion, the scoring system is carefully crafted to incentivize team basketball, rather than ball-hogging. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have formulas in place that make sure that the individual points, and the team points, are weighted in a way where one person can\u2019t just decide to take the game over, shoot up all the shots, pull all the points, and expect to be at the top of the leaderboard,\u201d Brown said. <\/p>\n In addition to the unique point system, AU is different from other basketball leagues in that it is player-led, without any coaches or front-office members. And, because players constantly switch teammates, the league fosters a sense of camaraderie. <\/p>\n \u201cEverything is very intimate and very family-oriented,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThat\u2019s the main thing that I personally sell \u2014 you\u2019re never going to have an environment like this, anywhere else at the professional level. You have to come and experience it to believe me. Something about not having a front office, not having a coach, not having a coaching staff, not having the weird politics that go on in professional sports, makes this a very free-flowing, fun, high-energy genre of basketball. And I think that\u2019s something that the women\u2019s game needs.\u201d<\/p>\n This year, the season will run from Feb. 5 to March 2 and feature WNBA players like Kierstan Bell (Las Vegas Aces), Alysha Clark (Aces), Sydney Colson (Aces), Isabelle Harrison (Chicago Sky), Elizabeth Williams (Sky), Jordan Horston (Seattle Storm), Kia Nurse (Sparks), Alissa Pilli<\/a> (Minnesota Lynx), and Maddy Siegrist (Dallas Wings). Participating athletes will earn a minimum of $20,000 for the five-week season, which can increase to $50,000 with bonuses.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had players come in AU and have All-Star seasons the next year,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s a coincidence. I think that\u2019s because of the energy and confidence that they\u2019ve gained while they play.\u201d <\/p>\n Last year, Atlanta Dream guard Allisha Gray<\/a> was the Athletes Unlimited champion<\/a>. That means she accrued more total points than any other player in the league, and was awarded a medal and a commemorative portrait. Just a few months later, she became an All-Star for the first time. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Brown recently finished her seventh year in the WNBA, averaging 8.1 points and 3.3 assists per game for the Los Angeles Sparks.<\/p>\n She attributes a lot of her continued success in the W to Athletes Unlimited. <\/p>\n \u201cIt just re-energized me,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI regained the love for the game again.\u201d<\/p>\n For the first time, two<\/em> professional women\u2019s basketball leagues will take place in the U.S. this winter. <\/p>\n Unrivaled, a new 3-on-3 league co-founded by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, will launch next month in Miami and feature at least 34 WNBA players. That league has generated enormous buzz, promising $150,000+ salaries and securing a media partnership with TNT<\/a>. <\/p>\n While both leagues will run concurrently, Brown doesn\u2019t view them as competition for one another. Instead, she views their collective success as interconnected. <\/p>\n \u201cIt benefits us if they\u2019re successful, and it benefits them if we\u2019re successful,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThe more women\u2019s basketball is successful as a whole, that\u2019s the goal. That\u2019s the ultimate goal. It\u2019s amazing seeing so many opportunities for players to stay stateside, whether it\u2019s with Athletes Unlimited or Unrivaled.\u201d<\/p>\n Several of Unrivaled\u2019s inaugural players \u2014 like Natasha Cloud, Lexie Hull, and Allisha Gray \u2014 previously played for Athletes Unlimited. Others, like Alyssa Thomas and Kayla McBride, are swapping their longtime overseas assignments for 3-on-3 basketball in Miami. <\/p>\n Brown is simply glad to see there are more offseason opportunities for women basketball players. <\/p>\n \u201cThere are some players playing in Unrivaled that probably weren\u2019t going to come playing Athletes Unlimited anyway, but to be able to be making their mark, and them being as excited as they are for this new women\u2019s league \u2014 that makes me happy, that makes me excited for them,\u201d Brown said. <\/p>\n Last year, Athletes Unlimited games were streamed on WNBA League Pass<\/a>. This season\u2019s broadcast plans haven\u2019t yet been released, but Brown said all games will be very accessible. <\/p>\n For the past two seasons, Athletes Unlimited took place in Dallas. But this season, the league will have a new home. <\/p>\n \u201cWe were a little iffy about moving locations,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWe built such a good little community in Dallas the last two seasons.\u201d<\/p>\n But, Nashville \u2014 a city that is reportedly interested in ultimately having its own WNBA team \u2014 relentlessly recruited AU. <\/p>\n \u201cThey made it very, very clear, multiple times,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThey were very persistent about how much they wanted women\u2019s professional basketball in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n The recruitment worked \u2014 and in turn, Athletes Unlimited is headed to Tennessee. <\/p>\n Brown said that her primary goal for the upcoming Athletes Unlimited season is to increase the visibility of the league. That will lead to higher salaries, which in turn, will help draw in additional players and create more opportunities for existing ones. <\/p>\n \u201cI just want more people to know what Athletes Unlimited is,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI feel like not a lot of people even know that it exists. My goal, as the chairperson of the executive committee, is to make sure that we get as many eyeballs on us as possible this season, because I think this is going to be really special. We\u2019re going to do it big and it\u2019s going to be great basketball, and it\u2019s going to be a lot of fun to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n This article is the third installment of SB Nation\u2019s new \u201c<\/em>WNBA Explained<\/em><\/a>\u201d series, a weekly column diving deep into different topics related to women\u2019s basketball. You can read last week\u2019s column about Unrivaled <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nHow Athletes Unlimited crowns an individual champion<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\n<\/picture>\nAthletes Unlimited is complementary to Unrivaled <\/h2>\n
Nashville is Athlete Unlimited\u2019s home in 2024<\/h2>\n