Unrivaled (3-on-3 Basketall) Season Ends - Mist Doesn't Miss

The night of March 4th saw the finale of the second season of Unrivaled Basketball, the 3-on-3 women's basketball league. 

If I can be candid - I think they're really onto something.  I don't think it should replace the WNBA, I still like 5-person teams.  But it's like snack-sized basketball in a format that's easily consumable and makes a lot of sense - and is designed by actual WNBA players, not nerds beholden to interests off the court.  

Our champions were Mist who narrowly defeated Phantom, after narrowly defeating The Vinyl.  And that's the kind of spirit it takes to be a Championship team.  Because the season is so short, the bracket was played in single-elimination rounds, so no "best of seven".  If you don't win the game, you go home.

To be honest, I don't know The Mist very well.  I watched maybe 3 or 4 Mist games all season before the play-offs, but I am a Breanna "Stewie" Stewart fan, and it was a delight to see her rack up 32 points, 4 assists and 4 rebounds.  Arike Ogunbowale put up 19 points, and Veronica Burton - who I followed from the WNBA's Valkyries, put up 5 assists.  Solid performance also from Allisha Gray who dropped in 12 points and blocked two shots.  Alana Smith seems to have gotten 6 rebounds and 11 points.  Poor Li Yueru never left the bench.

In truth, because I think Natasha Cloud and Kelsey Plum are ridiculously fun to watch, I was cheering for the Phantom.  But I also really didn't care as long as I was having fun (I know it means a lot to them, but no one is sharing the money with me).  Phantom were plagued with injury this season, so to see them get to the Final minus Aliyah Boston was a miracle.

WNBA is still sorting through labor negotiations with the players, and I genuinely thought this was going to be wrapped before the end of Unrivaled.  But maybe this weekend.  Otherwise, we'll see a delay to the start of the WNBA season.

When I say Unrivaled could offer the WNBA some ideas - stopping for a 1-on-1 tournament mid-season is both crazy and a great idea.  Chelsea Gray, one of my favorites, was on a team not destined for Playoff Glory, so seeing her win it all on her own was a huge reward.  And since I am not in person locally for games, anyway - I find the format of two games, back-to-back, each last about an hour, to be a really cool thing.  But it only works if they're all co-located as they were this season in Miami.

Somehow, the reffing felt much more fair in Unrivaled, and I have no reason apparent why that would be true.  "Let them play" did not feel like a license to break bones.

Also, Lisa Leslie is so good as an announcer, plus they'd bring in, like, Skyler Diggins to call games, and she was actively playing this season in Unrivaled.