Breanna Stewart and Arike Ogunbowale earn massively after winning the Unrivaled title over Kelsey Plum's Phantom.
Breanna Stewart delivered one of the most dominant performances in Unrivaled's brief history Wednesday night, scoring 32 points on 11-of-15 shooting to lead Mist BC past the Phantom and claim the league's first championship. She was named Finals MVP.
The win capped a two-month run of the 3-on-3 league, which has drawn significant attention for its competitive level and, increasingly, for the financial opportunities it provides to players during the WNBA offseason.
Mist BC will split a $600,000 championship prize pool among its six players, amounting to roughly $100,000 per player. To put that figure in context, it represents nearly two-thirds of the average WNBA salary and exceeds the league minimum of $66,000 by more than half. For players already earning Unrivaled salaries throughout the season, the championship bonus adds a substantial financial reward on top of what they had already banked.
The average WNBA salary sits around $120,000, well below the supermax figure of roughly $249,000 that only a handful of players command. The structure of Unrivaled — combining competitive salaries with a meaningful prize pool — has helped position the league as an attractive option for top players who previously spent their winters competing overseas in foreign leagues. The financial gap between the championship payout and typical WNBA earnings underscores why so many marquee names were willing to participate.
The title did not come easily for Mist BC. Entering the championship game as the No. 2 seed, the team had dropped both regular-season meetings against the Phantom and carried none of the momentum heading into the contest. The early going reflected that, and the situation looked uncertain at halftime.
Stewart changed that in a hurry. The 31-year-old opened the second half by scoring Mist BC's first 12 points, a dominant stretch that included a hook shot, a three-pointer, an and-one finish over Kiki Iriafen and a layup off a pick-and-roll feed from Veronica Burton. The burst gave Mist BC the lead and the confidence, and the Phantom never recovered.
The performance came against a Phantom team that received a historic individual effort from Kelsey Plum, who erupted for 40 points in a losing cause. Plum's scoring was extraordinary, but Stewart's complete two-way dominance proved to be the difference.
When Stewart knocked down the championship-winning bucket in the closing moments, she claimed not only the title but the defining image of Unrivaled's inaugural season.
Stewart was joined in the championship run by teammates Arike Ogunbowale and Alanna Smith, among others. For a Mist BC team that had to overcome its own regular-season struggles against the Phantom just to reach the moment, the result carried extra weight.
Unrivaled now heads into its offseason having established itself as a legitimate platform for women's basketball at the highest level, both competitively and commercially.