{"id":65165,"date":"2025-07-14T15:14:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T15:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/65165\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T15:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T15:14:08","slug":"skys-ariel-atkins-joining-athletes-unlimited-this-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/65165\/","title":{"rendered":"Sky’s Ariel Atkins joining Athletes Unlimited this offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ariel Atkins<\/a> is making the switch from Unrivaled to Athletes Unlimited this season.<\/p>\n

The Chicago Sky<\/a> guard played part of last offseason in the fledging 3-on-3 league that was developed by Napheesa Collier<\/a> and Breanna Stewart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now Atkins will play in Athletes Unlimited, which is returning to Nashville, Tennessee, in February for a second straight season.<\/p>\n

“I’m super excited about it. They’ve been building something for awhile now,” Atkins said in a phone interview. “They focus on the players having everything they need to give us the opportunity in the offseason.”<\/p>\n

Athletes Unlimited will start its fifth season Feb. 4 at Municipal Auditorium after enjoying record attendance in the Music City earlier this year. Maddy Siegrist<\/a> of the WNBA’s Dallas Wings<\/a> won the individual title as the league wrapped up play March 2.<\/p>\n

The league features 40 pros competing over four weeks in a traditional 5-on-5 format with $500,000 in prize bonuses up for grabs, with rules set by the players.<\/p>\n

Atkins said she talked to a few of the players who have competed in the league, including Theresa Plaisance, Elizabeth Williams<\/a> and Alysha Clark<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I had deep conversations to get the gist of how it is and they all truly enjoy it,” Atkins said.<\/p>\n

Atkins had nothing bad to say about Unrivaled. She played there for a few weeks as a relief player, filling in on teams that had injuries.<\/p>\n

“They were doing a phenomenal job and the players are taken care of,” she said.<\/p>\n

Atkins has played overseas in the past, but as of now she just plans on playing in the Athletes Unlimited season.<\/p>\n

Besides Atkins, early signees include three members of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces<\/a> in NaLyssa Smith<\/a>, Kiah Stokes<\/a> and Aaliyah Nye<\/a>, and two from the New York Liberty<\/a>, Isabelle Harrison<\/a> andJaylyn Sherrod<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Others include three-time WNBA champ Clark, theSeattle Storm<\/a>‘s Lexie Brown<\/a>, who chairs the AU Pro Basketball player executive committee, two-time WNBA champ Sydney Colson<\/a> and WNBA rookie Te-Hina Paopao<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Megan Perry, Athletes Unlimited’s vice president of basketball, said they are thrilled to return to Municipal Auditorium after being welcomed in Nashville last season.<\/p>\n

“With a roster that blends proven leaders and exciting new faces, AU Pro Basketball is where legends rise and new stars are born,” Perry said.<\/p>\n

AU Pro Basketball debuted in Las Vegas in 2022 and played the 2023 and 2024 seasons in Dallas.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2025 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ariel Atkins is making the switch from Unrivaled to Athletes Unlimited this season. The Chicago Sky guard played…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":65166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[46363,46362,1497,5723,50,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-65165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-46363","9":"tag-atkins-ariel","10":"tag-chicago-sky","11":"tag-espn","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114852243865832524","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}