The star-packed league revealed the six head coaches who will lead the teams in their inaugural season come January 2025. The 36-player league will be divided into six teams, each with six players. The league has yet to officially name all 36 players, and a number of negotiations are still taking place to fill up the remaining four spots. The league announced its head coaches on Friday, listing a group of highly experienced individuals whose coaching has created a great deal on their previous teams and will most likely deliver a highly competitive front in the Unrivaled League.
Teresa Weatherspoon
The WNBA Hall of Famer will be one to bring the heat to the new league with her well-seasoned coaching skills. The Chicago Sky team fired Weatherspoon after leading the team through the 2024 season. She was the head coach at the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters (2008-2014) before joining the New Orleans Pelicans as an assistant through 2020-2023. She was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010 and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019. Weatherspoon’s legacy as a player has yet to translate to her coaching role with the Unrivaled League.
Phil Handy
Phil Handy started his coaching career as a player development coach in 2011 with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association. He worked with the Lakers until 2013 when he left to join the Cleveland Cavaliers as an assistant coach until 2018. Phil had a short stint with the Toronto Raptors for one year before returning to the Lakers in 2019 as an assistant coach. He has won three NBA championships: Cleveland Cavaliers (2016), Toronto Raptors (2019), and Los Angeles Lakers (2020). Phil Handy played professional basketball in France, Italy, Germany, Israel, Spain, England, and Australia. He brings grand experience from his time as a player and his experience as a player development and assistant coach.
Adam Harrington
The NBA former player took to active coaching in 2014 as a shooting coach with the Oklahoma City Thunder. He was a perfect fit for this role, given his past experience as a shooting guard while playing college basketball at NC State and Auburn University. He went on to play internationally in Europe and China after his college career. His latest stint as a coach was with the Brooklyn Nets in 2022, where he worked alongside Steve Nash as an assistant. Adam is also known as Kevin Durant’s personal trainer. Adam’s great knowledge of individual player development is a great asset to the league, as the Unrivaled players will be under great mentorship with him.
Nola Henry
Nola Henry joined the coaching world as a player development coach and personal film breakdown. She played as a point guard for the Charleston Cougars during her college career. She worked as an assistant Basketball Operations Manager with the Connecticut Suns for two years before joining the Los Angeles Sparks. She has served two years as a player development coach with the Los Angeles Lakers. Her journey to coach was heightened by her selection into the “So You Want To Be A Coach” Program by WBCA. She worked as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Hartford before joining the WNBA professional coaching ranks.
DJ Sackmann
The renowned skills coach for the NBA is definitely a great selection for the Unrivaled League, with the athletes he will coach having a chance to tap into his great knowledge of the sport and develop more in their craft. DJ Sackmann is the founder of HoopStudy, a program that focuses on the holistic development of a dominant athlete. He has worked mainly with NBA professional players, but his work ethic and coaching style, which focuses on player development, are a great addition to the Unrivaled players who double as WNBA athletes.
Andrew Wade
Andrew Wade has a proven track as a video coordinator and player development coach. He works with the Washington Mystics and Monumental Sports in those particular roles. During winter, he works with the Washington Wizards affiliate team in a minor league as a player development and video coordinator coach. Andrew is all about the growth of the players to bring out their best. Wade attended Catholic University, where he played for three years before focusing on a coaching career.
What Lies Ahead
Despite the announcement of the coaches, the coaches have yet to be attached to any specific teams. Unrivaled has yet to make the announcements about the teams and their coaches in these coming weeks building up to the season’s inaugural games. Analyzing the selection of coaches, Unrivaled heavily focused on coaches whose impact on the player’s skill set and development has been observed to grow with the teams they have dealt with. This selection already sets a standard for the level of competition we should expect to watch with the season starting in January.
