Unrivaled, a 3-on-3 women’s basketball league, is leveraging technology to improve the health and wellness of its players.
The 3-on-3 league founded in 2023 by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart has been backed by Samsung, its official technology and presenting partner. According to a press release, Samsung is providing the league with technologies such as its Galaxy S Series, Z Series smartphones, headphones (Galaxy Buds), tablets featuring Galaxy AI, monitors, and wearables (Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Ring).
“We’re a new league,” Unrivaled President Alex Bazzell told AFROTECH™. “There’s a lot of innovation involved. There’s a lot of unknowns involved, and we’re trying to kind of push the envelope forward and having Samsung be a part of that innovation with what they’re already doing. Obviously, it’s a pretty seamless partnership for us.”
Collier’s Most-Used Technology As An Athlete
Collier — who was named Unrivaled’s first MVP — said she mostly utilizes the Galaxy Ring, which tracks the health of its users throughout the day. Among its embedded features is an Energy score that leverages Galaxy AI to capture data on sleep, heart rate, and activities. Insights will be presented in a health report, accompanied by personalized recommendations.
“What I use the most is the Energy score and the sleep tracker because sleep is something that I need to get a lot better at personally,” Collier shared with AFROTECH™. “And so while I’m not doing that, the ring tells me what I need to work on that day… I’m like, ‘OK, I didn’t get as much sleep as I should, so that means I need to be in the training room a little bit longer today. That means I need to probably drink some more water or do whatever it is.’ So it kind of lets me be preventative in that crash. Just having that data is really helpful for me because I need to get better at my sleep. That’s the first part. But when I’m not, it lets me still be able to perform at my high level when I play.”
Micky Lawler, commissioner at Unrivaled Basketball, commented: “Having worked in sports for a very long time, probably the most interesting change that has happened over the past 20, 30 years is the technology revolution, and the acceleration of it is key. Data is key. Data is key for sociology, for every part of our lives. And for athletes, it has become a fundamental insight into performance, into recovery, into areas that need work, into strengths and weaknesses. So to be able to work on all of that with Samsung is phenomenal.”
She continued, “And it’s also kind of a ring network of perfection. With the phones, with the rings, the data… It’s been amazing for us. Obviously without representing partners like Samsung, we don’t exist. And having Samsung gives us instant credibility. And also for us as a group of athletes and professionals, it’s incredibly important to have that data.”
Partnerships
Unrivaled also entrusted several collaborators in health and medicine to scale their efforts to improve player performance and recovery, according to information shared with AFROTECH™. This includes Therabody, which has science-backed percussive massage devices to aid with pain and tension relief, its website mentions. Unrivaled athletes are benefitting from its percussive massage gun and massage chair.
Springbok Analytics, a leading muscle health analytics company, is assisting the league through its MRI-based muscle analysis and a mobile MRI unit that can scan the athletes’ lower bodies in 10 minutes, per information from the Sports Business Journal. With the help of its artificial intelligence-powered technology, it can gather information on individual muscles, fat distribution, and structural balance to inform decisions on recovery, training, and health and wellness goals.
Additional partners include Plantiga, which provides in-shoe sensors and AI, and Firefly Recovery, which offers devices intended to increase the body’s natural healing by increasing blood flow throughout the whole body.
Players are expected to utilize the wearables at least one time per week, but many are sporting them daily, Bazzell said. From there, the data is seen by Lindsey Elizondo, Unrivaled’s director of medical.
“One of our big goals when we came in was, what can we offer that should be standard but isn’t standard?” Elizondo shared. “And how do we raise that level in that bar across women’s sports and really individualize that care for what it really should be doing, regardless of what your gender is, regardless of what sport you’re playing? So we’re really, really proud of that, of different just technologies that we offer for modalities they have for treatment.”
