JuJu Watkins congratulated long-time basketball coach Phil Handy as he was revealed, along with five others, as one of the head coaches for the new and upcoming 3-on-3 women’s basketball league Unrivaled.
Watkins took to her Instagram and shared the news of Phil getting announced as Unrivaled coach, with a simple caption of: “The greatest!!!”
Phil Handy’s coaching history included handling the Los Angeles Lakers, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Toronto Raptors. Joining him as head coach for Unrivaled are former Chicago Sky coach Teresa Weatherspoon, Adam Harrington, Nola Henry, HoopStudy founder DJ Sackmann, and former Washington Mystics coach Andrew Wade.
Unrivaled was formed from the idea of women athletes going out of the country whenever the WNBA is off-season. Some of them play in other teams or for other leagues for a while, while some, like Caitlin Clark recently, dip their toes in a new sport to expand their professional experience.
With Unrivaled, the idea is to give both fans and athletes alike something on their plate while the WNBA is offseason.
“For a long time, going overseas was the only option that people had in their offseason, and so this is kind of changing the narrative around that and giving another option,” Unrivaled co-founder Napheesa Collier said. “Overseas is a great option for some players, but it shouldn’t be the only thing you can do to make money and play basketball and get better.”
“So it’s shorter, but that really allows you to have that space for athletes to showcase their skills and go head to head every night and not have those extra four players on the court to kind of bog you down,” Collier added about the league.
JuJu Watkins’s “On the Rise”
JuJu Watkins is set to be featured in a sports documentary series titled “On The Rise: JuJu Watkins.” the docuseries will feature a total of six episodes, with the first two premiering on November 23 on NBC and the rest of the series episodes exclusively via NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service.
Produced and made by Klutch Sports, Uninterrupted and 4.4.Forty, the sports docuseries will take the audience into a closer look at JuJu’s life, values, and story.
“I’m an introvert, so I don’t really share that much online, honestly,” juJu Watkins said. “I think to just give people more perspective into who I am, and my family, my friends, I think that’s also an important dynamic.”
takes a question at the podium during the 2024 Big Ten Womens Basketball media day at Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Melissa Tamez-Imagn Images
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Dan has been active in sports since 2016 and has worked behind the scenes as a scriptwriter for basketball, volleyball, and other sports. At a time, Dan has also been working as a sports commentator for CBA Pilipinas. During the pandemic, he has also been actively writing betting articles for CashBet and BetNow.
