Unrivaled Lands Two International Stars Amid Project B Battle

Unrivaled has secured two top international players.

French guard Marine Johannès has signed a multiyear deal to join Unrivaled, the 3-on-3 women’s basketball league announced Monday. The announcement comes just days after Unrivaled announced it had signed Canadian forward Bridget Carleton for the 2027 season.

It also comes less than two weeks after Project B, the global basketball league set to launch in December, announced the signing of Dallas Wings guard Azzi Fudd. Fudd had previously signed an NIL deal with Unrivaled. 

Unrivaled and Project B appear to be the two biggest 2027 offseason destinations for WNBA players. Unrivaled has been positioned as a domestic option that offers six-figure salaries, while Project B aims to be an international league that tours across markets. The latter has also offered multi-million dollar salaries to some of its biggest stars.

Unrivaled only has a small handful of slots remaining for 2027, as it only has 48 roster spots and has filled over 90% of them. There is also a six-player developmental pool to help fill teams facing injuries.

But Project B, which has announced 15 players for next season, has already signed two players who played at Unrivaled last year: Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell and Dallas Wings forward Alanna Smith. 

Johannès had previously been linked to Project B. The New York Liberty guard was one of the WNBA players Project B followed on social media when the league began announcing signees in November

Project B is still following Johannès as of this writing, one of 33 accounts the league follows on X/Twitter and 42 on Instagram. Other accounts it follows includes Ogwumike and league investor Novak Djokovic.

It’s unclear whether Johannès had been in talks to join Project B. Project B and representatives for Johannès did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Project B had previously signed French forward Janelle Salaün, who also plays for the Golden State Valkyries. However, in May, Turkish club Galatasaray announced it had signed Salaün, and Project B confirmed to FOS that she was no longer joining the league. (Johannès played for Galatasaray the last two offseasons.)

A week after Salaün was announced by Galatasaray, Project B announced that French guard Leïla Lacan had signed with the new league. Lacan currently plays for the Connecticut Sun.

Project B originally said it planned to bring in 66 players for its inaugural season. A league spokesperson did not give its target number of players when asked by FOS earlier this month, but said more names are expected to be announced soon. 

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