Each Friday, Inquirer photo editors pick the best Philly sports images from the last seven days. This week, we’re reaching all the way to last Friday night, when Unrivaled took over South Philly and brought a record crowd to Xfinity Mobile Arena. But that’s not all the basketball — we’ve also got the Sixers, some local college action, and a high school hoops showdown between two defending state champs, Father Judge (Class 6A) and Neumann Goretti (5A).
Head to the corner of 32nd and Berks, Kahleah Copper says. And find the telephone pole with the backboard still nailed to it.
“That’s where I started hooping,” Copper said Thursday. “That’s where it all really began for me.”
That spot is so meaningful that Copper took her Unrivaled teammates on a walking tour there, traipsing through snow-lined sidewalks and frigid temperatures to reach it. The 31-year-old wanted them to see the North Philly she always boasts about, to “share that little piece of me.”
Kah visiting where it all started👑 #Unrivaled #WNBA
— WNBA Pics Daily (@wnbapicsdaily.bsky.social) January 29, 2026 at 8:34 PM
It was part of the nostalgia and “waves of gratitude” Copper felt during this particular trip home, culminating in playing Friday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena in professional women’s basketball’s return to Philly. While speaking about the family, friends, and mentors in that sold-out crowd — who knew the kid who once shot on that makeshift hoop — Copper’s emotions quickly (and unexpectedly) bubbled to the surface.
“There’s so many people that just kind of stepped into my life,” said Copper, eyes teary and voice breaking, “and did stuff for me, literally not looking for anything in return. … For them to see me now, like I really made it because of y’all. That’s tough. That’s fire.
“Everybody literally planted little seeds for me to be who I am today. That’s why it’s so special.”
An early opponent on that neighborhood basket? One of her three sisters, whom Kahleah claims “wasn’t even that good, and she did not even, like, like it.” It is how she realized how much she did love basketball — and hated losing.
Then there were the guys who welcomed her into pickup games at Fairmount Park playground courts at 33rd and Diamond, even though she was a girl. As long as she did not cry. As long as she was ready to take hits. And as long as, whenever she lost, she got off the court and found her way back into the next game.
“Nothing being handed to me. Got to go get it. Got to be tougher,” Copper said. “That’s kind of where I got my mindset, and that’s how I approach everything.”
Eric Worley, the cofounder of Philadelphia Youth Basketball, first met Copper as a middle schooler. Sabrina Allen, a friend and then the coach at Girard College, recognized potential in Copper. Worley agreed that Copper “could run real fast, could jump real high” — and “got off the ground twice before the other player got off the ground once.”
“She just came in the game and you knew she was going to bring energy,” Worley told The Inquirer in front of an arena suite Friday night. “Get some offensive rebounds. Get some putbacks. And just kind of bring that North Philly toughness that she always kind of goes back to.
“That’s really true, and that has always been part of her makeup.”
Kahleah Copper introduced in front of the Philly crowd. Got something cooking on her that you’ll be able to read tomorrow 👀
— Gina Mizell (@ginamizell.bsky.social) January 30, 2026 at 8:37 PM
Yet because of work and family obligations for Copper’s mother, Leticia, Kahleah often needed a ride to practices or AAU games. Worley and his family stepped in. Reminiscing about that kindness is what first made Copper’s voice waver in front of reporters on Thursday. The next day, Worley called the gesture “easy” because of the Copper family’s honesty about their situation and appreciation for the support.
“She trusted us with her baby,” Worley said of Copper’s mother. “She was like, ‘Hey, I know y’all are good people. I know you have her best interests at heart. Come get her. What time do I need to have her ready? She’s going to have her bags packed and ready to go.’”
Copper later moved to 23rd and Diamond, into the same Raymond Rosen projects where basketball legend Dawn Staley grew up. Copper started playing at Hank Gathers Recreation Center and walked Broad Street to Temple to join the pickup games with the women’s basketball team.
Eventually, Copper branched out, starring in college at Rutgers before turning pro. She blossomed into a four-time All-Star and won the 2021 WNBA championship and Finals MVP. She played overseas in Belgium, Poland, Turkey, Israel, and Spain. This past fall, she helped the Phoenix Mercury to a surprise Finals run, upsetting the defending champion New York Liberty along the way.
Then Unrivaled, the offseason league in its second season, finally brought Copper home to play professionally.
Veteran star Skylar Diggins sat behind Copper on the bus once they arrived, watching her take in her hometown. Copper kept a camcorder handy to document everything from the familiar surroundings to her teammates crammed in an elevator in their hotel. Awaiting everybody was a massive cheesesteak order from the iconic Dalessandro’s, ready for Copper to dress her sandwich with mayonnaise, salt and pepper, and ketchup (but no onions).
“Everybody I know [eats it that way],” Copper said. “That’s real Philly right there.”
All four Unrivaled teams practiced at the Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Center located about 10 minutes from where she grew up. She marveled at the easily accessible “safe space” — complete with study areas, therapy rooms, and meals — it provides area kids today. That is where she first reunited with Worley, the coach calling it “genuine love.” Copper then spent time with some of Worley’s current players, along with kids who have grown up attending Copper’s summer camp, launched nine years ago.
“Now it’s time to really cement your legacy,” Worley said, “by paying it forward for the next generation.”
And with her Rose BC teammates in tow, Copper still squeezed in that neighborhood walk she made countless times as a kid. They began at the park and then moved to the pole with the backboard, which Copper said left everybody “in awe.” Then they went to her home, sat on the stoop, and yelled “Norf!”
Throughout the stroll, Copper pointed out her favorite water ice stand and go-to gas station. She shared memories of trying to hurry back home before the streetlights came on. It all illustrated why, in teammate Shakira Austin’s words, Copper is an “embodiment of Philly.”
“You can just see the way she speaks about things,” Austin said Friday. “She’s so excited about this opportunity and about this experience. She’s been rambling a lot, but it’s so fun to hear and just to see her be her true self.
“She’s probably been the most out of her shell since we’ve been here.”
Copper took all 60 tickets provided by Unrivaled for “her people” to attend Friday’s game, with several others sharing that they had bought their own. She could not wait to scan the crowd and “probably see people I haven’t seen since I was maybe in college, or maybe in high school.” After the Rose’s 85-75 loss, in which she totaled 19 points and four rebounds, Copper ventured into Section 123, wrapping those loved ones in hugs and posing for photos.
Many of them know all about 32nd and Berks, and the pole with the backboard. And now, so do her Unrivaled teammates.
“I made them walk in that cold,” Copper said. “But they love so much, so they did it for me. I was just super grateful to be able to show that little piece of me.”
We hear often that it’s good to run things in life like a business. It’s said especially loudly about women’s sports, in Philadelphia and elsewhere.
So let’s do that.
The 21,490 fans who packed Xfinity Mobile Arena for Friday’s Unrivaled basketball showcase clearly had business on their minds. It was the largest announced attendance in arena history, helped by Unrivaled’s three-on-three court being smaller than regulation, and it was full of wallets.
They were opened often, to buy T-shirts, hats, hoodies, hot dogs, and all the fancier food and drinks on offer these days.
The crowd roared for hometown heroes Natasha Cloud and Kahleah Copper, but not just for them. Paige Bueckers, Kelsey Plum, Chelsea Gray, and Marina Mabrey also drew big cheers.
“I think it was awesome to see them come out and support us like that,” Mabrey said after scoring an Unrivaled game record 47 points in the Lunar Owls’ 85-75 win over Rose. “I don’t know what I expected, but I didn’t realize it was going to be so much hype around it and so much support.”
There was celebrity wattage from Wanda Sykes, Leslie Jones, Freeway, and Jason and Kylie Kelce. Dawn Staley was in the front row, of course. The 76ers’ Tyrese Maxey, Kyle Lowry, Andre Drummond, Trendon Watford, and Dominick Barlow had courtside seats too.
They all helped answer a question that’s been simmering in town for a while.
At any business school, they’ll teach you that the most fundamental rule of economics is supply and demand. But how can you prove there’s demand when there’s no supply in the first place?
One way, for sure, is to not try in the first place. That was the case with women’s basketball in Philadelphia for 28 years, the time between the end of the Philadelphia Rage in 1998 and now. It’s mostly been the case with women’s soccer since the Independence folded in 2011, though at least the U.S. national team visits every few years.
Yet Philadelphia has now set two women’s sports attendance records in recent years. In 2019, Lincoln Financial Field hosted 49,504 fans for a U.S. women’s soccer game, and that’s still the largest crowd for a standalone home friendly. On Friday, the arena across 11th Street hosted the largest crowd to watch a regular-season professional women’s basketball game.
Another path to travel invokes another rule of economics. In a free market, shouldn’t someone be able try something? If they fail, so be it, and if they succeed, they profit.
The people who brought Unrivaled here, and those who will bring a WNBA team here in 2030, chose the second road.
On the day in October when Unrivaled announced it would come here, Comcast Spectacor chief financial officer Blair Listino watched her phone light up with notifications of ticket sales.
“While we were sitting there waiting for the [announcement] event to happen,” she told The Inquirer, “7,000 tickets were sold within the first few hours of the event being on sale. So right then and there, I knew, ‘OK, there is demand.’”
Listino also is an alternate governor of the Flyers. She was the team’s CFO from 2019 to 2023 and has worked for Comcast in a range of finance-related capacities since 2011. So she has plenty of experience with measuring what Philadelphia sports fans want — and with making hard business deals.
“We worked with Unrivaled management, and we treated it like any other event,” she said. “It wasn’t a charity event; we didn’t give them a sweetheart deal. It was a true rental agreement where we said, ‘We believe in you, we think that you’ll be able to sell out this building, and we’ll all be profitable from it.’”
That made it, she said, “good business sense for both us and Unrivaled.”
Philadelphia welcomes Paige Bueckers to the floor:
— Jonathan Tannenwald (@jtannenwald.bsky.social) January 30, 2026 at 7:26 PM
It was not just based on Jen Leary, the founder of Watch Party PHL, holding events and selling out of “Philly Is A Women’s Sports Town” T-shirts for over a year. Or Chivonn Anderson opening Marsha’s, a women’s sports bar on South Street. Or any number of people on social media, or in this reporter’s inbox, or so on.
No, this was Philadelphia’s biggest company believing that women’s sports can be profitable in its city. And now there’s proof.
Along with that, an Unrivaled spokesperson told The Inquirer on Saturday that the night delivered $2 million in revenue to the league, including over $1 million in ticket sales and $400,000 in merchandise sales at the arena.
“I think when choosing a market that doesn’t necessarily have a team, but there’s demand, you take a leap of faith into your decision,” said Cloud, whose Phantom beat Breeze, 71-68. “And Unrivaled chose the right city, the right sports town, and the right fan base.”
The crowd returned the favor many times over Friday, bringing the Broomall native to tears in a postgame interview on court.
“You just give us the opportunity to actually do it,” North Philadelphia’s Copper said. She recalled playing a WNBA preseason game in Toronto with the Chicago Sky in 2023 in front of a sellout crowd at the city’s NBA arena. That moment lit a spark that led to the Toronto Tempo, an expansion team that will tip off this year.
“How they were able to kind of lead up and have that build up, I think it’s kind of the same,” she said. “And I think the city has been wanting it. So this is a good introduction, and we’ll give them something to look forward to.”
It’s not just the local products who’ve felt that. Players from elsewhere who are used to big crowds at their games were excited to be part of a first here.
“Kudos to Alex [Bazzell], our president, and the whole league having ‘Tash’ and ‘Kah’ be spokespersons for this amazing city,” said Breeze’s Cameron Brink, who played collegiately for Stanford and is now with the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks. “Kah has done so much for women’s basketball in this city and the resources that are now available. I’m just proud that we saw that this is a city that wants to cheer on women’s basketball — so hopefully there’s more of it in the future.”
Brink grew up in Princeton, N.J., and her parents played college basketball at Virginia Tech. She moved to the Portland, Ore., suburbs at age 8, but heard plenty of stories from her mother, Michelle, about the East Coast.
“I was talking with her the other day — she’s like, ‘I honestly can’t believe women’s basketball has gotten to this point,’” Brink said. “I mean, we’ve always believed, but it’s really special that we get to soak in this moment. So I just think back to the women before me, and I’m just thankful for how they paved the way.”
Kate Martin of Unrivaled’s Breeze has played for Iowa and the WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries, both of which draw huge crowds to every game. She knew Philadelphia doesn’t have that track record, so she was excited to be part of a first.
“I think it’s really important for young girls to be able to see people that they want to be like,” Martin said. “I think it’s important for them to be able to see if they want to be a women’s basketball player, to see that in their city, and be able to have access to going to a game.”
Friday’s spectacle undoubtedly will push Unrivaled to take more of its games on the road next season, and they may well come back here. There might not be another full house with the novelty factor gone, and one night in 2026 doesn’t mean the future WNBA team will sell out all of its games years later.
Nor does it mean that what’s true today was true in past years, when Cloud and Copper weren’t yet big names.
But it does mean there’s demand for a product right now, and that it can make money right now. Philadelphia finally got an opportunity, and took it.
The crowd inside Xfinity Mobile Arena for Philly is Unrivaled already was high-energy. Then Marina Mabrey brought the house down with an Unrivaled-record 47 points in the second game of the doubleheader.
The Belmar, N.J., native plays in Connecticut and has no real connection to Philadelphia, but the crowd went crazy for every three-pointer like she was one of their own.
“I brought my Jersey to Philly, and I hope that you guys enjoyed it,” Mabrey said. “Thank you for welcoming me with open arms.”
Friday’s Unrivaled doubleheader at Xfinity Mobile Arena was the first time the three-on-three league had left its Miami-area home. Unlike the WNBA or NBA, the teams are not tied to a specific city or region. That makes the league a fascinating “social experiment,” TV analyst Renee Montgomery said.
Unrivaled is driven by fans’ love for players and for the game, Rose BC’s Lexie Hull said. A number of the 21,490 fans in the building came in repping their favorite players across the women’s basketball world, with plenty of love for superstar Paige Bueckers and Philly locals Natasha Cloud and Kahleah Copper, or in T-shirts declaring that “Everyone Watches Women’s Sports” or that “Philly is a Women’s Sports Town.”
“Philly is a basketball city,” Montgomery said. “… I think there’s certain cities that lean in and they don’t just halfway do anything, and I feel like Philly is that type of city. They see that Unrivaled chose this place to be the first one, and Philly’s like, ‘Bet, let’s show out.’ That’s what it felt like to me.”
The neutral crowds make Unrivaled a different environment in the pro sports landscape, but neutral didn’t mean there was any less passion.
“One thing I know about Philly is, it’s really passionate about its sports, good and bad, through and through, the City of Brotherly Love,” Bueckers said. “You feel that, and we felt that tonight, just how passionate they were and are about women’s basketball.”
Philadelphia has never been home to a WNBA franchise, and was home to an American Basketball League franchise for just two years before the team folded in 1998. But with an expansion franchise set to come to Philadelphia in 2030, Unrivaled’s sold-out crowd at Xfinity Mobile Arena was just a taste of Philly’s appetite for women’s professional basketball.
Hull said she hoped to see Unrivaled continue to thrive in that niche, serving markets like Philadelphia that don’t have WNBA franchises yet. Unrivaled’s Philly tour stop set the record for most fans at a regular-season professional women’s basketball game, and a building record for Xfinity Mobile Arena.
“With the growth of the sport, there’s just so many people that want to see it live and don’t have the opportunity to fly to a [WNBA] city and watch a game during the season,” Hull said. “This gives them the opportunity to get to watch and grow the game, so it’s awesome.”
Sixers Kyle Lowry, Andre Drummond, Trendon Watford, and Dominick Barlow, and New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu were among the basketball stars in the building.
But of course, one of the most excited fans in the building was South Carolina head coach and local basketball legend Dawn Staley. For Phantom BC’s Aliyah Boston, who played for Staley in college, it was an amazing surprise to see Staley courtside again.
“I was shocked, when I came out, one of our assistants was like, ‘See Coach Staley?’” And I was like, ‘What? What?’ Saw her right over there, gave her a hug.”
Boston said that the two still have a “special relationship,” and she had to go up to Staley at halftime to ask for feedback on her game.
After playing for Staley, Boston said she had an idea of what to expect of playing in Philly, and the intensity and toughness needed for the tight game matched her expectations.
“The biggest thing for her was just that mindset,” Boston said. “She talked about her upbringing and that grind in Philly, and that’s the approach that she wants us to take on the court. Just have that dog mentality. Being able to hear that for four years just continued to shape me into who I am as a player today.”
Friday’s event was a huge head start in showing the players just how good of a women’s basketball market Philly can be. With the record-setting, energetic crowd, the conversation now turns to how to keep the momentum going until the WNBA franchise establishes itself in 2030.
Unrivaled players were excited about the prospect of adding new tour stops and continuing to travel in the seasons to come, and Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell confirmed Friday that the league plans to do more road trips next year.
Could Philly be on that list a second time?
Breeze BC’s Kate Martin, who played for the Golden State Valkyries in their inaugural season last year, shared the advice she’d give to anyone playing for a Philly expansion franchise, after the Valkyries quickly became the most-attended team in the WNBA in their first year.
“When you start to build that sense of community, that people feel more like they have a relationship with you, they want to come, they want to support,” Martin said. “Making the atmosphere fun, making people feel welcome, making people feel excited about basketball.”
Xfinity Mobile Arena became the home of Unrivaled on Friday night. Fans flooded the arena in their favorite WNBA gear as Philadelphia made history, bringing the world’s top WNBA players to the city for the women’s basketball three-on-three league’s first — and only — tour stop.
The doubleheader, featuring the Breeze, Phantom, Rose, and Lunar Owls, gave Philadelphia an early glimpse of what’s to come in 2030, when the city gets its own WNBA team.
From fans discussing the importance of the night at Stateside Live! to different activations at Xfinity Mobile Arena, here’s everything you missed from the historic night:
To celebrate the landmark event, The Stoop Pigeon by Watch Party PHL partnered with the Philadelphia Sisters and Unrivaled to host a pregame party and watch party across the street from the arena at Stateside Live!
“We’re in the middle of history right now,” said Jen Leary, the founder of Watch Party PHL. “Unrivaled is sold out, and this will be the most-attended women’s basketball game in history, and it’s happening here in Philly. It’s just so important for the city. It shows that not only did Unrivaled make the right decision coming here, but that the WNBA made the right decision giving us a team in 2030.”
The event, which was thrown to build up excitement entering the doubleheader, was free and open to the public. Fans traveled far and wide to witness history in the making, including 35-year old Connecticut native Corrine Sisk.
“Women’s basketball is so important in Connecticut,” Sisk said. “It has been since I was a teenager. I’ve been watching games like this since I was a little kid, and I’m so excited to see it happening countrywide. I think it’s important that we support these women, and they need to know that this is where everybody wants them to be.”
Kiley Gelston, a 25-year-old New Jersey native, has been playing basketball ever since she could walk. As soon as she found out Unrivaled would make its way to Philly, she knew she had to had to be in the arena.
During Friday’s pregame party, Gelston, who is a high school basketball coach, recognized the impact the doubleheader would have on the younger generation.
“It’s important for the younger girls because they can see where they can get to,” Gelston said. “They can have somebody to look up to, especially now with the women’s basketball boom.”
One of those younger girls in attendance was 16-year-old Baylee Rubeck. As a big fan of the WNBA, and a major fan of Paige Bueckers, the Pennsylvania native was excited to see some of her idols take the court at the Xfinity Mobile Arena.
“I’m so excited to see everybody that I’ve been following on social media,” Rubeck said. “I’m so excited to finally get to watch all my role models. I look up to them so much because they’re just amazing human beings. So I’m just so excited to see that in person.”
Another Bueckers superfan in attendance was 15-year-old Laila Perez. Wearing her “Everyone Watches Women’s Sports” T-shirt, she took the train from New Jersey to attend.
An avid women’s basketball fan who started her own basketball YouTube channel called LP’s Bucket List, she was excited to attend her first women’s professional basketball game.
“It’s so cool. It’s kind of crazy,” Perez said. “I’m not used to seeing the players in person. … It’s important for women’s sports to be promoted in Philly because the more people see it and are around it, they’ll be more curious and want to to come and see what it’s all about.”
Although Philadelphia doesn’t have a WNBA team yet, this could be a glimpse of what the city will see in 2030.
“This is just the beginning,” Gelston said. “This is going to continue on for many years to come, hopefully. This is just a taste. It sucks that we have to wait until 2030 now. So it’s almost like a tease. But we can enjoy it now.”
If Friday’s pregame party at Stateside Live! wasn’t enough to get fans excited for the doubleheader, there were activations aplenty. The Sephora tunnel offered fans an opportunity to channel their inner WNBA star with their own tunnel walk.
There also were plenty of merchandise tables of Unrivaled gear for sale. Lines at each table extended across various sections.
There were plenty of surprises throughout the night. Fans received a number of chances to win a Sephora goody bag through music trivia, fashion competitions, and parachutes from the rafters.
And in between games, Philly-born hip-hop artist Lay Bankz performed several songs in front of the sold-out crowd, including her hit single “Tell Ur Girlfriend.”
After both games concluded, smiling fans crowded the main concourse. For 29-year-old Maryland native Brandi McLeain, the night was the perfect birthday present.
“First game was great,” McLeain said. “A real nail-biter. Then we got to see the point god in action in Kahleah Copper. And of course, Marina Mabrey broke a record tonight. So that was amazing.”
Mabrey finished with an Unrivaled single-game record 47 points, and it was clear McLeain wasn’t the only one was impressed by the Belmar, N.J., native’s performance.
Dalilah Haden, 28, and Samantha Woods, 29, made the trip from Brooklyn to watch the doubleheader and said Mabrey was the most impressive player of the night. And this wasn’t Woods’ first Unrivaled game of the week. She also attended Sunday’s game in Medley, Fla., near Miami. But, according to Woods, the 1,000-seat Sephora Arena doesn’t compare to Philly.
“Getting to be here with 21,000 other fans is so cool,” Woods said. “Sephora Arena is dope. But, this is like a treat. The women deserve this kind of love. And you can see it in the way they played tonight.”
Haden added: “Here you had everyone from different backgrounds, different ages, different races, genders, sexualities. This was so cool. And the energy was also crazy.”
As more eyes are being brought to women’s basketball in Philadelphia, learning about the past is a key part in growing its future.
The documentary series, Assist: Can’t Retire From This does just that.
The project, directed by Melanie Page, was featured at Temple on Thursday night. Page shared a teaser of her documentary about women’s basketball greats who have come through the Philadelphia area over the years.
The event included a panel discussion with Temple coach Diane Richardson, Temple Hall of Famer Marilyn Stephens, Philly basketball legend Yolanda Laney, and former Army coach Lynn Arturi-Chiavaro. Page’s first documentary, about women’s basketball in the Washington, D.C., area, also was screened.
“I’m a student of basketball, but that was how I was raised in my upbringing from 5 years old,” Page said. “Seeing the Washington Mystics, it’s never left me. And here I am today, being able to tell more stories and bring the youth up to speed.”
The Philly documentary will feature prominent local women’s basketball figures like Laney and Stephens. The DMV documentary starred Richardson from when she was the head coach at Riverdale Baptist School and Towson and an assistant at Maryland, along with Temple associate head coach Wanisha Smith, who played for Richardson at Riverdale Baptist. (Richardson also was an assistant at two other Washington-based universities, American and George Washington.)
Page started the project during the pandemic in 2020. A DMV native, she began her storytelling there, and it gained some traction in 2021, when she released clips of her interviews from the documentary.
The next step was to bring it to Philly. Arturi-Chiavaro played for the city’s first professional women’s basketball team, the Philadelphia Fox of the Women’s Professional Basketball League, which only lasted from 1978 to 1981.
Stephens was a ball girl for the Fox and starred at Temple from 1980 to 1984. She scored 2,194 points and grabbed 1,516 rebounds, ranking second in school history in points and first in rebounds. She was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 1995.
“You can’t erase our history,” Stephens said. “We got to just stand strong and educate the generations that’s come behind us and give them the information about women’s basketball.”
Richardson and Laney also emphasized the importance of not letting the history of women’s basketball be forgotten.
Laney helped lead Cheyney State (now known as Cheyney University) to the first-ever NCAA women’s national championship game in 1982. Her daughter, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, plays for the New York Liberty. Richardson is not from the area, but has become one of the biggest advocates for women’s basketball in the city since being hired at Temple in 2022.
“We heard a question for what would you name the Philadelphia WNBA team … I would call it the Philadelphia Cradle,” Laney said. “Because we are cradling basketball history in this area and we have a different style of play in Philadelphia basketball.”
With a WNBA franchise coming to Philly in 2030, Richardson and Laney believe the documentary will help keep the city excited.
“Doing things right now like what Melanie is doing and just opening people’s eyes to the explosion of women’s basketball is really important,” Richardson said. “We’ve got to catch that lightning in a bottle and do it now because five years from now, we’re going to be too late.”
Stephens, Arturi-Chiavaro, Richardson, and Laney have a hand in the history and future of women’s basketball. Page wants to keep educating folks about their impact.
“This is the standard,” Page said. “This is how it should be. This should be the norm of what we are doing. People should know Yolanda Laney’s name off the top of their heads. They should know Marilyn Stephens. … It should definitely be the standard. That’s the message.”
Natasha Cloud will never forget Mr. Ross.
The youth coach used to hold 6 a.m. workouts inside a Baptist church on City Avenue, where Cloud first learned how to be disciplined in basketball and in life.
“I hope he sees this,” Cloud said Thursday afternoon, while facing a slew of television and phone cameras inside the Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Center. “… He set a standard. He set an expectation. And he set a work ethic for my skill set, my career.”
Cloud brings all of that back to Philly on Friday night for the Unrivaled offseason league’s two games at Xfinity Mobile Arena. The 33-year-old Broomall native called it a “dream come true” to help lead the return of professional women’s basketball to her city ahead of the WNBA’s arrival in 2030. Yet Cloud is most elated for “Young Tash,” who has blossomed into a WNBA champion, an 11-year professional, a dynamic personality, and an activist on and off the court.
“I carry this city everywhere I go,” Cloud said following practice for the Phantom, her Unrivaled team. “… I just never thought I would be here, so I think the most gratifying thing is just trusting God’s journey for my life. Doing it my way, too. Because I don’t think a lot of people get to do their careers their way.”
Before Mr. Ross, Cloud credits her Aunt Dawn as one of her first sports role models. A Delaware County basketball and softball star, she helped Cloud embrace being a tomboy — and a “powerful, badass woman.”
So Cloud honed that athleticism on the basketball hoop on the side of her home, which became a neighborhood gathering spot on school half-days. She played King — nah, Queen — of the Court against the boys. They lowered the rim so they could dunk. They idolized Allen Iverson and Dawn Staley.
When Linus McGinty, the legendary Cardinal O’Hara girls’ basketball coach, first watched Cloud play as an eighth grader, he believed she had WNBA potential because “she could do everything.” And Cloud wanted to play for that program because, in her words, “in Linus we trust.”
Cloud also appreciated O’Hara’s structure, from the nuns on campus to McGinty’s “strict” practices. She became an immediate starter on a talented team immersed in the competitive Philadelphia Catholic League.
McGinty’s one gripe about Cloud? She was almost too unselfish as the point guard.
“She never tried to score first,” the coach told The Inquirer by phone last week.
But Cloud made up for that in defensive prowess. The 5-foot-10 Cloud guarded the much more imposing Morgan Tuck and Elena Delle Donne, then elite recruits who became college and WNBA stars. Cloud preserved O’Hara’s 2008 PCL title victory by blocking a three-point attempt at the buzzer.
Then when Cloud was the only starter who returned her senior year, she finally carried more of O’Hara’s offensive load. She was an All-State selection after averaging 12.3 points, 7.9 rebounds, 5.2 assists, and four steals, before beginning her college career at Maryland in 2010-11.
After her freshman season, she transferred to St. Joseph’s to be closer to home. Her sister had been diagnosed with stomach cancer, and she was looking for a similar family atmosphere within her next college program.
“Tash is a very compassionate person,” St. Joe’s coach Cindy Griffin recently told The Inquirer by phone. “So if there’s anything going on at home, she feels that. She would have to learn how to manage that, and she did an unbelievable job doing that.”
While sitting out the 2011-12 season because of NCAA transfer rules at the time, Cloud worked on refining her jumper. Her energy filtered to teammates and staff, Griffin said, even when she was playing on the scout team. That perhaps was most evident on defense, where she consistently covered ground (and others’ mistakes) while understanding how to rotate sharply and when to take risks on the ball. She was the Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Year in 2014.
“That just fueled fire for all of her teammates,” Griffin said, “and it just elevated everybody around her. … They really appreciated that, and they wanted to play hard for her and with her.”
Then when the Hawks needed more scoring punch from Cloud as her career progressed, she delivered.
She totaled 15 points, six assists, and six rebounds in a comeback win over Fordham in the 2013 A-10 tournament championship game, and “looked like a pro out there, finishing in transition, taking and making tough shots,” the coach said. That carried over to the next season, when Cloud hit timely buckets to propel the ninth-seeded Hawks’ to upset eighth-seeded Georgia in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
“Came down to a 1-5 ball screen,” Griffin said, “and [Cloud] being able to put us on her shoulders and win the game for us. … The answer is yes she can, and yes she will.”
Cloud’s impact has now stretched far beyond Philly.
She won the 2019 WNBA championship with the Washington Mystics and led the league in assists in 2022. She has made a WNBA All-Defensive team three times. She has played overseas in Turkey and Australia. She opted out of the 2020 WNBA “bubble” season to focus on social justice issues and remains outspoken on such topics.
But she has stayed connected to her roots.
She still has a house in town, meaning one might catch her during the offseason at the local Wawa or driving her truck. She regularly visits St. Joe’s to work out and chat with the team, reminding them how special college bonds can be. Unprompted, she told The Inquirer last week that she hopes to have her jersey number retired by St. Joe’s and O’Hara — preferably while her parents are still around to celebrate with her.
And now, she finally gets to play professional basketball in Philly. When she learned Unrivaled would be making a tour stop here, she knew fans would “show up and show out” for the showcase event. She stepped onstage wearing a Phillies cap for the October announcement at LOVE Park and pumped up the crowd. She hopes local kids getting to watch her play in person is a jolt of inspiration.
Among those in attendance Friday will be the Hawks, “shouting as loud as we can for Natasha Cloud and the Phantom,” Griffin said. An intrigued McGinty said he also might need to get down to South Philly. Mr. Ross surely is welcome, too. And it will be the first time Cloud plays in front of her family here since 2015.
They all helped develop “Young Tash.” And that is why she carries the city with her everywhere she goes — including back home.
“I’ve stayed true to myself,” Cloud said. “True to my character, my morals, my values through all of it. And that’s just a testament to, I feel like, being from Philly. We stand on our [stuff]. We’re going to talk our [stuff]. You can’t tell us otherwise. We know who we are.
“We’re confident in who we are, and a lot of people take it as arrogance. But it’s just, like, ‘Man, God has blessed me so abundantly. Who am I to not walk out in this light every single day?’”
Paige Bueckers has lived in a big spotlight since her senior year of high school. It, understandably, hasn’t always been easy, but she is pretty comfortable with it these days.
She also is comfortable using her fame as a platform, and she has done so again.
The 24-year-old grew up in Hopkins, Minn., about 10 miles southwest of downtown Minneapolis. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s recent swarming of the Twin Cities, from raiding homes and business to the killings by ICE officers of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, hit especially close to home for her.
On Friday night, Bueckers will be in another big spotlight, in a city that has paid much attention to ICE’s actions. The Unrivaled basketball showcase will have a sellout crowd at Xfinity Mobile Arena and another national TV audience watching from home.
“Innocent lives are being taken; innocent families are being broken apart,” Bueckers said Thursday amid the four touring teams’ practices at the Alan Horwitz Sixth Man Center. “People are afraid to send their children to school, people are afraid to go to work and provide for their family, people are afraid to go to the grocery store. What’s going on is not OK, and at some point — we feel like, and we hope and we pray, that there’s a change in direction in where this is heading.”
All of Unrivaled’s games this season except Friday’s are played in Medley, Fla., just outside Miami, with the season running from early January to early March. That has kept Bueckers away from participating in protests at home, which she said she would do if she could.
“I’m very proud to be from Minnesota, and to see the community come together and show strength and unity and try to do everything possible to stay together through this really tough time,” she said. “That’s kind of what Minnesota is all about. So it’s tough, just being from there and not being able to go there and help and [have] feet on land, but you try to do everything from afar to support.”
In the meantime, Bueckers has put her money where her mouth is.
Paige Bueckers getting some shots up:
— Jonathan Tannenwald (@jtannenwald.bsky.social) January 29, 2026 at 11:37 AM
At the start of the week, she won Unrivaled’s $50,000 prize for having the best free-throw shooting percentage through the three-on-three league’s first five games of this season. Soon after that, she put the same sum on the table as a donation match to the Hopkins Strong Relief Fund.
The fund describes itself as “an ongoing drive to help feed Hopkins children and meet other urgent needs during this time of heightened stress and uncertainty in our community.”
Bueckers, who also plays for the WNBA’s Dallas Wings, spoke resolutely about the importance of leveraging her fame.
“I feel like I’ve been very blessed and fortunate,” she said, “and God has given me this platform to speak out on things that are important to me and use my platform for good. And whether that be donations or just speaking out or standing up for what I think is right, I think that’s very important.”
She also was ready for a response she has seen often across society.
“As athletes, it can be so easy for people to say, ‘Just play your sport. Don’t worry about politics; don’t worry about all of life’s issues,’” Bueckers said. “But I think as somebody who’s in the entertainment business, and we get this platform, and we have this platform to say things, I think it’s important for us to use our voice and stand up for what we believe in.”
Fellow superstar Breanna Stewart of Mist BC and the New York Liberty made a major statement Sunday when she held up a handwritten “ABOLISH ICE” sign during that day’s player introductions.
“All day yesterday, I was just disgusted from everything that you see on Instagram and in the news,” Stewart said afterward. “Everyone here [at Unrivaled] is feeling that way, one way or another. … We’re so fueled by hate right now instead of love, so I wanted to have a simple message of ‘ABOLISH ICE,’ which means having policies to uplift families and communities instead of fueling fear and violence.”
Another Minnesota native playing in Unrivaled, the Lunar Owls’ Rachel Banham, added her voice on Thursday.
“There’s a lot of things that need to, on a deeper level, be fixed, right?” said Banham, who also plays for the Chicago Sky. “I think the biggest thing that we can control — I mean, obviously, use your voice, continue to pray, continue to be there for people who need it. Lend a helping hand, if you can, because a lot of us have that privilege to be able to do that.”
She also acknowledged the scale of the current task.
“It’s going to be something that’s going to be [from] higher up, right?” Banham said of finding a solution. “It’s come from the top, government-wise.”
Bueckers did not say whether she’ll do something specific at Friday’s games. But she praised the WNBA’s tradition of player activism for “having always inspired me in that way.” She also spoke of her own history having “grown up, and I’ve seen, and I’ve been a part of, peaceful marches and protests and the community coming together just because of tragic events.”
She added that the Unrivaled player group has “talked about” doing something collectively, and “we want to do something to stand up for [it].”
Philadelphia is ready to get its first taste of professional women’s basketball with Unrivaled hosting a doubleheader Friday at Xfinity Mobile Arena. In front of a sold-out crowd, the three-on-three tournament is set to have plenty of spectators for its first event outside the Miami area — making this the perfect time for Jordan Brand to debut its Heir Series 2 sneaker.
On Thursday, Jordan Brand unveiled the women’s basketball shoe with Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier as the face. The sneaker will make its on-court debut during Friday’s Unrivaled doubleheader in Philly with Jordan Brand athletes Dana Evans and Dominique Malonga.
The low silhouette is similar to the Heir Series 1, which is the lowest shoe in Jordan Brand’s basketball lineup. The sneaker was first introduced in 2024 and put emphasis on the running and cutting that’s central to women’s basketball.
While the Heir Series 2 continues to share the same focus as its predecessor, it adds key improvements to enable more quickness in every step.
“With my footwork being an important part of my game, the Heir Series 2 is a performance shoe that provides the flexibility and stability for me to be a force on both ends of the floor,” said five-time WNBA All-Star Collier in a press release. “Everyone who follows my game knows I was a fan of the Heir Series, but the innovation in the Heir Series 2 has exceeded my expectations.”
Some of its new features include a forefoot Air Zoom unit to provide standout responsiveness for speed, a thicker drop-in Cushlon 3.0 midsole that is wrapped in an additional layer of foam cushioning above the outsole for more comfort, a translucent TPU cage, and a rubber herringbone traction pattern for greater quickness and control.
The sneaker also includes a removable hair tie attached to the heel and features a series of bold colorways — including a pink, yellow, and green colorway, a white, black, and red colorway, and a gray and black colorway that includes speckled pink paint along the midsole.
“Women’s basketball has a very important place in the sports landscape, and Jordan Brand is committed to helping the next generation of hoopers reach their greatness. We titled this series of footwear ‘Heir’ knowing that these amazing athletes are next up — here to claim the basketball throne as their own,” said Leo Chang, the senior creative director of Jordan Brand basketball and sport, in a press release.
“The Heir Series 2 is the next iteration of the basketball sneaker designed for her, by her. The new forefoot Air Zoom unit enables even more support and responsiveness, tailored to the beautiful playing style of the women’s game.”
The sneaker will be available globally on Feb. 20 at jordan.com and select retail locations.
The WNBA kicks off its 30th season in May, but that doesn’t mean fans have to wait until the spring to see stars take the court.
Unrivaled, the three-on-three professional women’s basketball league, tipped off its season on Jan. 5. In its second season, the league is hitting the road for Philly is Unrivaled, in which four of the eight teams will head to Xfinity Mobile Arena for a doubleheader.
Here’s everything you need to know:
Unrivaled is a three-on-three professional women’s basketball league that provides WNBA players with an opportunity to play domestically during the offseason.
Its inaugural season tipped off on January 17, 2025, with six teams. The league now has eight teams and a total of 54 players.
The teams are: Laces, Mist, Rose, Lunar Owls, Phantom, Vinyl, and the two new additions — Hive and Breeze.
Gameplay features three seven-minute quarters with a game clock, an 18-second shot clock, and six fouls per player.
The fourth quarter of play uses a “winning score” rule. This means at the end of the third quarter, officials determine a winning score by adding 11 points to the leading team’s score. The first team to get to that winning number wins the game.
In addition to the two new teams, another change this season is a development pool of six players. None of these athletes are assigned to a specific team at the start of the season but remain on-site and serve as injury-relief players.
WNBA players Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier founded Unrivaled in 2023 to give players a new option for offseason play.
Within just one year, the league raised $35 million in capital and attracted sponsors like Miller Lite and Under Armour, while being backed by other professional athletes including U.S. women’s soccer star Alex Morgan.
Unrivaled began with six teams and 36 total players, with each of the 36 earning more than $220,000 in salary. The league also offers players equity and revenue sharing, which has created an incentive for WNBA players to not head overseas during the offseason.
In its second season, the league will feature more than a dozen first-time players, including Los Angeles Sparks guard Kelsey Plum, Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell, and Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers.
While Unrivaled games typically are played at Sephora Arena in Medley, Fla., the 2026 season has one scheduled stop in Philadelphia.
Philly is Unrivaled, a doubleheader announced in October at LOVE Park, is set for Friday at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Game 1 is Breeze against Phantoms (7:30 p.m.), while the second game features last year’s champion, Rose, against the Lunar Owls (8:45 p.m.).
For the 2026 season, Unrivaled games can be viewed on traditional TV via TNT and truTV or streamed on HBO Max. Both games of Philly is Unrivaled will air on those channels.
Stateside Live! has partnered with the league and Miller Lite to offer watch parties for Friday’s doubleheader. The official pregame begins at 4:30 p.m.
Natasha Cloud, a guard for Phantom, is a Broomall native and graduate of Cardinal O’Hara and St. Joseph’s. Cloud, a three-time WNBA All-Defensive team honoree, was traded to New York Liberty ahead of the 2025 WNBA season after stints with the Phoenix Mercury and Washington Mystics.
This also is a pro hoops homecoming for North Philly native Kahleah Copper, who plays for Rose and the Mercury. She starred at Prep Charter before moving on to Rutgers. Copper, a four-time WNBA All-Star, also won a gold medal with the United States women’s basketball team at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
While she won’t be competing in Philly is Unrivaled, former Villanova star Maddy Siegrist is playing for Laces in her debut Unrivaled season. Siegrist set Villanova’s all-time scoring record before getting drafted third overall by the Wings.
While Philly is Unrivaled is officially sold out, tickets are still available on the secondary market via websites such as Ticketmaster and StubHub. Prices started at $35 for standing room only, as of Wednesday afternoon.
Unrivaled tickets for the league’s Florida games can be purchased on their website or resale ticket websites, including Ticketmaster, Vivid Seats, and GoTickets.