Gabby Williams has signed a multi-year contract with Unrivaled, giving the 3x3 winter league another marquee player as it moves deeper into its second season. The deal was announced Thursday, and the only detail left unstated is which Unrivaled team will eventually claim her.
That uncertainty matters because Williams is not just another name on a roster sheet. She is 29, in her first season with the Golden State Valkyries, and making her first WNBA All-Star appearance in 2025 after averaging 16.3 points while shooting 37.8% from 3-point range. She also added a place on the WNBA All-Defensive Team, with 99 steals that the league says leave her second in its history.
For Unrivaled, her arrival fits a pattern that has been there since the league began play in 2025. Founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, it has leaned hard on elite WNBA talent and on players with deep UConn ties. Williams spent four seasons at UConn from 2014 to 2018, won national titles in 2015 and 2016 as Stewart’s teammate and was inducted into the Huskies of Honor in 2018.
Her path through the professional game has not been linear. Williams was selected No. 4 overall by the Chicago Sky in the 2018 WNBA draft and played there from 2018 to 2020 before moving on to the Seattle Storm from 2022 to 2025. She missed the 2021 season after choosing Team France for the Olympics in Tokyo, then was suspended by the Sky for that year after she sat out the season. That part of her career still hangs over any discussion of her next move, because it is the clearest example of how international duty and league expectations can collide.
Unrivaled has room for players like Williams, and not just because it now has eight teams with six players each, or 48 roster spots in all. Last season, six UConn alums were in the league — Stewart, Collier, Azura Stevens, Paige Bueckers, Aaliyah Edwards and Tiffany Hayes — a reminder that Williams is stepping into a familiar pipeline rather than a brand-new lane. Even so, the league has not said whether she will join that same group of former Huskies or land elsewhere.
Williams did not hide her enthusiasm when the signing became public, saying she was excited to compete with some of the best players in the world, keep growing her game and be part of something pushing women’s basketball forward. The next real answer is the one Unrivaled has not given yet: where she fits, and how quickly the league puts her on the floor.
