Stewart, Collier, and Bueckers manage injuries, CBA negotiations and Unrivaled future
Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, arguably the two most successful UConn alumnae in the WNBA today, will be watching their teams from the sidelines for the next few weeks as they recover from injuries.
Stewart suffered a right knee injury shortly after the All-Star break and is targeting a late-August return. Collier, meanwhile, has no timeline for a comeback as she recovers from a right ankle sprain.
That doesn’t mean the duo hasn’t kept busy over the last few weeks.
The two are bonded by more than their shared college success. They’re also cofounders of Unrivaled and hold executive roles in the WNBPA, and both endeavors are commanding their attention.
Unrivaled will enter its second season this winter, and the league has already signed 90% of its roster for next season, according to Front Office Sports. Even better, the 3v3 league is increasing from 36 players to 42 in 2026, with a six-player developmental pool that will be used to sub in injured players on other teams.
Salaries are also increasing, though we don’t know by how much just yet. Last year, no Unrivaled player earned less than six figures, with the average salary at $220,000.
Though Collier and Stewart have both faced criticism for a potential conflict of interest with their roles in Unrivaled and the WNBPA, Collier not only believes there isn’t one, but she sees Unrivaled and the upcoming WNBA CBA negotiations as two opportunities working toward the same goal.
“With the timing with the CBA, I think it’s just the perfect time to kind of blow the lid off of what our image of women’s sports and how you treat women’s athletes is,” Collier said in January when Unrivaled launched. “I think we’re seeing what we like here and seeing what is possible, and we’re going to take that to the table when we go.”
In terms of CBA negotiations, players league-wide have expressed their frustrations — not just Stewart and Collier. While both sides are keeping the specifics under wraps, Stewart shed some light on the lack of progress the players have made so far.
"Absolutely frustrated," she said after a New York Liberty game in July. "Anytime you go back-and-forth, you're not expecting to hear that 'yes' on the first [proposal], but you're expecting to have a conversation. They kind of just ignored everything we said."
Unrivaled Adds More UConn Talent
Dallas Wings rookie and 2025 national champion Paige Bueckers became an investor in Unrivaled in April, and she’s expected to take the floor in the league this WNBA offseason.
With Bueckers on board, it should be no surprise that Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong have both followed. The two returning Huskies have signed NIL deals with the league. They will help promote Unrivaled during the college basketball season and will likely join as players once they turn pro.
They joined other top returning college players, including Juju Watkins (USC), Lauren Betts (UCLA), Hannah Hidalgo (Notre Dame), and Olivia Miles (TCU), who all signed similar deals.
In addition to Stewart and Collier, five other UConn alumni participated in Unrivaled’s first season: Tiffany Hayes, Aaliyah Edwards, Katie Lou Samuelson, Stefanie Dolson, and Azura Stevens.
Bueckers’ Back Woes
There haven’t been many hiccups to Bueckers’ rookie season, but she encountered one on Tuesday when a back injury limited her against the Liberty and kept her out of Dallas’s game Friday, also against New York. She returned to action on Sunday for the Wings, scoring a team-high 17 in a loss to the Mystics.
She was questionable heading into Friday and even returned to the game on Tuesday after her injury, so it’s probably not a long-term worry, more an inconvenience for the presumptive Rookie of the Year. Like all rookies, Bueckers is dealing with a lot of wear and tear coming right into this season out of her senior year of college.
Before the injury, Bueckers was coming off four consecutive games scoring 20-plus points, tallying at least four assists in each one without committing more than two turnovers.
The two-time-defending Rookie of the Month has spent the season rewriting the WNBA rookie history books. Most recently on August 1, she tied Cynthia Cooper as the fastest player to ever reach the 400-point, 100-assist mark in the WNBA, doing so in 22 games.
Two days earlier, she passed fellow UConn great Sue Bird for the second-most 15-point, five-assist games by a rookie in league history with 11.
Unfortunately for Bueckers, her efforts have only produced an 8-24 record for the Wings — but then again, imagine what that record would be without her.