Why Unrivaled Offers Caitlin Clark Intriguing WNBA Offseason Option After Injury

After battling five separate injuries (two quad, one in each groin, and a bone bruise she sustained on her ankle while rehabbing her most recent groin issue),  it was reported by Indystar's Chloe Peterson that Clark had not been able to progress from that final right groin injury in enough time to get back out this season.

Having not been injured since high school and getting through her entire NCAA career without needing to be sidelined, Clark was in uncharted waters dealing with the domino effect of issues her body had given her this year. So it begged the question: what could she do differently to avoid the frustrating hiccups she went through in the 2025 season?

During the WNBA’s long eight-month offseason, Clark elected not to play in any competitive basketball, though she was reportedly offered a hefty sum of money to take part in Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart’s new 3 on 3 league, Unrivaled, in its inaugural season.

It’s not hard to understand after a heavy college season in 2024, where Clark went all the way to the WNCAA finals in April and stepped right into the W in May, that she may have wanted some time away from the court. But could stepping away from competitive play for so long have actually left her more susceptible to setbacks once the season began?

According to sports physician Dr. Laura Moore at the Hospital for Special Surgery, muscle strains are generally an acute event and acute injuries generally tend to happen early to mid-season, when athletes aren’t quite fit enough. And while Moore was speaking on the biology of athletes in general, that sentiment applies to Clark, who suffered a left quad strain early in the season.

Can Unrivaled Help With Player Development and Aid in Injury Prevention in the WNBA?

That’s where Unrivaled comes into play. While many WNBA stars typically head overseas for winter ball, Clark may benefit from keeping her body stateside — in a league whose stated priority is player development. 

According to The Next’s Chelsea Leite, “The idea is for Unrivaled to be an offseason development league to help players with their specific training goals as well as becoming more well-rounded players…The point is to make sure these players have an excellent offseason development option for themselves, in the United States.”

There is really no substitute for in-game competition like playing in a game itself and in Unrivaled's inaugural season, if a player felt a tinge of injury, the league would take precautionary measures and keep them sidelined until the athletes felt back to 100%.

Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell emphasized his passion for player safety when speaking to CBS Sports in February saying, “We're…trying to put the players' health at the forefront and making sure they're not carrying on through some lingering little injuries that happen throughout the course of any season, [and] making sure that they're fully healthy as they move forward throughout the course of the remaining season.”

The majority of the athletes that played in Unrivaled in January of 2025 went into the follwing WNBA season putting down strong performances. Phoenix Mercury’s Alyssa Thomas is in heavy contention for MVP , and Azurá Stevens of the Los Angeles Sparks has been in the league's Most Improved Player talks. Additionally, no one who participated in Unrivaled suffered season ending injuries after heading into the WNBA.

Betnijah Laney-Hamilton did step into Unrivaled as a relief player and suffered an acute meniscus injury, which sidelined her for the season in the WNBA, but Laney-Hamilton was just coming back from rehabbing a previous injury that had given her issues.

Of course, no player is completely safe when playing basketball in any league. The Seattle Storm’s Jordan Horston suffered an ACL tear when playing in the 2025 Athletes Unlimited league, as did Nika Muhl when she headed overseas to play with the Turkish club Besiktas, which sidelined them for the entirety of the 2025 season in the W.

Yet it can be argued that playing basketball in the offseason can get the players of the WNBA into game shape, and limit the possibility of acute injuries in the WNBA season, whether it be overseas or electing to take part in Unrivaled.

Though overseas ball means 30–40 games, heavy travel, and often little regard for player recovery. Unrivaled is the opposite: a shorter season, fewer games, and an environment tailored around high-level training and recovery. 

For Clark, this could be the perfect balance of staying sharp, developing a rapport with players on different teams, and getting ready for the WNBA season without running her body into the ground.