Sabrina Ionescu and Kayla McBride’s Unrivaled debuts Saturday were the first time they played a competitive basketball game since the WNBA Finals.
It has been almost three months since the Liberty beat the Minnesota Lynx in overtime to claim the franchise’s first title.
But McBride still feels jabs of heartbreak when she thinks about losing that series.
When she learned her Laces squad was opening its season against Ionescu’s Phantoms, she thought about the last time the two played.
“I’m not gonna lie and say that didn’t cross my mind,” McBride said. “But we’re here now … and that competitive energy never turns off.”
McBride got some semblance of revenge, leading the Laces to an 86-48 win against the Phantom.
After suffering defeat, Phantom coach Adam Harrington clenched his jaw as he passed Laces coach Andrew Wade. Within an hour, Harrington had received texts from half his team about when they can meet Sunday to practice and regroup before Monday’s game against the Mist.
“We’re all competitive,” Harrington said. “I don’t like the result that just happened so you immediately go to, like, ‘What I can do to help them get better?’”
For the past week, players talked about the summer camp-like atmosphere at Unrivaled. The setup of the facility — which includes a fully outfitted recovery room, weight room and glam room — makes it easy for players to mingle with those on opposing teams.
But now that games have started, the competitive traits that made them the stars they are have started to come out.
That was clear during the league’s opening weekend. Trash talk was being spewed on the court. On Saturday, two players were slapped with technical fouls for arguing with officials.
“It’s competitive,” McBride said. “The WNBA is already competitive so it’s kind of even a more locked-in version of that because there’s only 36 of us here … there’s still internal rivalries whether it’s from teams or from individual aspects and we’re all competitors.”
Rose guard Chelsea Gray didn’t think the realities of being confined in close quarters with adversaries would be a big deal. Then, her team lost to the Vinyl on Friday.
“I don’t like it,” Gray said. “I thought I was going to be OK, I’m not OK. We’ll see. I mean, it’s the competitor in me. It’s hard. I’ll probably put my AirPods in.”
Vinyl guard Rhyne Howard said Unrivaled mirrors that of the WNBA All-Star Game and the 2020 WNBA season, which was played in a bubble because of the pandemic.
“Obviously you’re going to see the people you play against, play with,” Howard said. “But just being able to keep it professional. … We’re here to do a job. There’s no bad blood with anybody as far as I’m concerned.”
Ionescu has a similar outlook as Howard. While the play is competitive, Ionescu said she’s focused on getting better — not necessarily winning.
“There’s kind of a fine line of understanding you’re here to get better and continue to work on your game,” she said. “But also, like for me, I can’t be mentally locked in the way that I am in the ‘W’ season here now or I’d be burnt out by the time the ‘W’ starts.
“For me, it’s kind of finding balance. … We’re able to surround yourself with the best players continue to work on your game and get better but also just enjoy kind of being around one another.”
