Shakira Austin Wants Guard Reps in Unrivaled: ‘Put Me as a Guard’

Shakira Austin goes into her third Unrivaled season as a 6-foot-5 center who wants time on the wing.

She laid out the plan on the Nov. 11 episode of Post Moves with Candace Parker & Aliyah Boston, an AMP Sports Original Series, a week after the 3-on-3 league revealed its 2027 rosters on Nov. 4. The Washington Mystics center, an All-WNBA Second Team pick in October, is on Rose BC with Chelsea Gray, Brittney Sykes, Aziaha James, Lexie Hull, and Kayla Thornton. Sykes played with her in Washington, and Hull spent 2026 with Indiana.

Season 3 tips off Jan. 8 in Boston with eight clubs and 48 players, six to a roster. Unrivaled has not said how Rose BC plans to use Austin.

Last winter, some Mystics went to Unrivaled, some played overseas, and some rested, Austin said.

“Three-on-three is to me just like a build-up for five-on-five,” Austin said. “The principles that I feel you learn in three-on-three, they directly translate. Obviously, adding two more people to the floor clogs things up, but there’s only so many actions you can have with three-on-three unless you’re just gonna iso ball. Being able to have every person on the floor be valuable in different ways. Being able to have our forwards push the ball off the rebound and come off of inverted ball screens, or being able to go set a quick away action and coming back into a dribble, just being able to expand your IQ in that sense.”

Lunar Owls BC had her for the league’s first season in 2025. She moved to Rose BC in 2026 and played on a roster with Gray, Kahleah Copper, Azurá Stevens, Hull, and Sug Sutton. Rose had won the inaugural championship in 2025, and Gray is the reigning Unrivaled MVP.

Austin came out of the 2025 WNBA season feeling she had played with tunnel vision, with too much of her focus on proving herself.

“My intentions with Unrivaled my second year was [one], to be able to play more,” Austin explained. “My first year it was on the bench a lot. I’m like, ‘All right, all right. I ain’t come here to do all this sitting.’ I want to get better.”

Reading the defense was the work last winter. She wanted to see where help was coming from, so she could make the pass or finish.

“I think that really helped,” Austin said. “The skill players, with Chelsea Gray, seeing how you could be efficient off of ball screens, and knowing where the tag is going to come from consistently.”

This winter, she wants a steady training partner.

“My intentions this year is just to, honestly, whoever puts me on the team, put me as a guard,” Austin said. “I want to work on my abilities on the wing. I want to work on my shooting. Just those reads that I’ve introduced more this year, but I don’t think I was as efficient as I could be. Just never really settling. I hope I can find someone consistently to train with this offseason at Unrivaled, so that I just know exactly what I want to get to every single time. Just having the ability to be a three-way scorer is something I want to come into next season with the W.”

For Washington in 2026, she shot 31.5% from 3-point range and averaged a career-high 2.6 assists. The 2027 WNBA season is expected to start May 7, with a record 50 games per team, up from 44 in 2026.

Parker, part of the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026, will call Unrivaled games from the broadcast booth this season, she said. Her generation spent its offseasons overseas, where fans at home never saw it play.

In 3-on-3, Parker said, a player who cannot make plays for someone else has nowhere to hide. She played against Austin in 2022, Austin’s rookie season, and gave her some advice nobody asked for.

“Your motor is ridiculous,” Parker said. “I look at players like Breanna Stewart, A’ja Wilson. Their motors is a skill set. I think a lot of people like adding so many things, but it’s also understanding your superpower is your motor, because nobody wants to deal with that. Breanna Stewart, literally on the scout, she slips screens and she gets people four or five times just off of her activity. Cutting and being active allows others to be better.”

Wilson won a record fifth MVP award this season. Stewart, the New York Liberty forward, co-founded Unrivaled with Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier, and a funding round in August put the league’s value at $650 million. Unrivaled said then that it had signed 95% of its 2027 rosters.

The Unrivaled regular season runs through March 5, with a stop in Philadelphia on Feb. 15.