Meet the 6 coaches who will coach Unrivaled teams this winter

November 15, 2024

Unrivaled, a 3-on-3 women's professional basketball league that begins in January, has announced six head coaches who will lead the clubs this winter. The league consists of 36 teams WNBA Players will have six unique clubs that they will compete against regularly throughout the six-week season. The club names are Laces, Mist, Rose, Lunar Owls, Phantom, and Vinyl.

Each is led by a different head coach and all have experience in player development. Players are divided into six pods, with each pod consisting of either a guard, wing, or big. League coaches divide players into clubs, but they do not know which club they will coach until the roster is decided.

Here's who will be coaching in Unrivaled's first season.

Teresa Weatherspoon

Teresa Weatherspoon, a WNBA legend with extensive coaching experience, is one of six coaches heading into the first year of Unrivaled. Weatherspoon is involved in player development and served as an assistant coach for the New Orleans Pelicans for three seasons before becoming the Chicago Sky's head coach last year. Before becoming a coach, she was a star NCAA basketball player.

“We were looking for someone who could empathize with the athletes and help them improve, someone who could also help develop their mindset,” Unrivaled President Alex Buzzell told SB Nation. “To be honest, she was a no-brainer for us.”

phil handy

Phil Handy is a longtime NBA assistant and has experience in player development. Handy played professional basketball overseas for five years before beginning a decades-long NBA coaching career. He served as an assistant coach in the NBA from 2011 to 2024, winning three NBA championships as an assistant.

For his first three seasons, Handy served as the team's player development coach. los angeles lakers Under Mike Brown. He was an assistant coach under Brown in Cleveland for five seasons and then one season under Nick Nurse. Most recently, Handy served as an assistant coach for the Lakers from 2019 to 2024.

adam harrington

Adam Harrington is a former NBA player with eight years of experience as an assistant coach in the league. Harrington went undrafted out of Auburn and played two seasons in the NBA before going overseas for seven seasons. He served as the shooting coach for the Oklahoma City Thunder during the 2014-2015 season and was an assistant with the Thunder. brooklyn nets From 2016 to 2022.

Nora Henry

Nora Henry is the player development coach for the Los Angeles Sparks. Previously, he was a guard for the Charleston Cougars and assistant basketball operations manager for the Connecticut Sun.

DJ Sackman

DJ Sackman is a former basketball player who currently works directly with NBA players as a skills coach in the NBA and WNBA. He founded Hoopstudy in 2018. The company is now recognized as one of the top online basketball education companies in the world.

Indiana Hoosiers head coach Tom Crean praised Sackman's expertise in developing players.

“I'm 51 years old” Clean said. “I've been a head coach for 18 years, and I've learned more in a week than I ever imagined I would by watching DJ.”

andrew wade

Andrew Wade is an assistant player development coach for the Capital City Go-Go, the G League team of the Washington Mystics and Washington Wizards. Wade is responsible for helping set up practice regimes, creating training plans for the players, and analyzing game film for the coaches.