WNBA star Caitlin Clark will not play in Unrivaled during offseason, per report

Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark will not play in Unrivaled's second season, according to Front Office Sports. Unrivaled, the upstart 3-on-3 league founded by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, has heavily pursued Clark, but has been unable to get her signature. 

Ahead of Unrivaled's inaugural campaign last winter, FOS reported that the league made a "full-court press" to recruit Clark, and offered her a "Messi-like" deal worth seven figures, along with equity and revenue sharing. Clark turned them down, however, and did not play during the offseason in order to rest and recover following a grueling 2024. 

Clark's sophomore campaign with the Fever did not go to plan. She was limited to 13 games due to an array of lower-body injuries, and had to sit and watch as her team advanced to the semifinals. Clark last played on July 15, when she suffered a right groin, and had her recovery stunted by an ankle injury on Aug. 7. 

During her exit interview on Thursday, Clark did not give away her full offseason plans, but said her "main focus" is getting healthy and returning to 5-on-5 action, which she hopes to do by the end of October. She also said that she's looking forward to some opportunities with USA Basketball. 

"There's some USA Basketball stuff I need to get ready for, and I need to be able to find some runs and some ways to play 5-on-5 just so I can get that feel back," Clark said. "But more than anything I think my main focus is really just getting my body healthy. Once we get back to 5-on-5 of just being able to test my body and make sure I know its in a good spot where it's gonna be able to hold up with everything that we think we've corrected, or think we've worked on, to be able to know I'm in a really good spot there.

"You always explore every opportunity and I haven't made any decisions and I don't know what that's necessarily gonna look like for me," Clark continued. "Like I said, there's some USA Basketball stuff that is probably my top priority for that I need to prepare for and I think that will help me prepare for next season too. But then you have to prepare for USA Basketball in some manner, so there's a lot of different things you gotta figure out and balance. I'll work through a lot of that too."

Team USA has already qualified for the 2026 FIBA Women's World Cup, which will take place in Germany in September, but the federation plans to hold a training camp and some exhibition games next spring. 

Unrivaled, which will tip off its second season on Jan. 5, has spent the past week announcing its player pool. After starting with six teams and an initial 36 players last season, Unrivaled has grown to eight teams and 48 players this season. 

As of Thursday, 46 of the 48 players have been announced, and the league issued a statement saying that "a few players we're in productive negotiations with just need a little extra time." That statement led to speculation that one of the final two players could be Clark. 

Even without Clark, Unrivaled could take center stage this winter in the event of a WNBA lockout. The Women's National Basketball Players Association and the WNBA are embroiled in a heated labor dispute that shows no signs of being resolved before the current collective bargaining agreement expires on Oct. 31. 

Collier, one of Unrivaled's founders and its inaugural MVP, took aim at WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert earlier this week in a scathing statement in which she said she was "concerned about the future of our sport" and added, "right now we have the worst leadership in the world."

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Clark said Thursday during her exit interview that Collier, "made a lot of very valid points."