Unrivaled’s two semifinal games on Monday night “welcomed a sellout crowd” of 18,261 at Barclays Center, with “plenty of stars in attendance,” including two-time Olympic gold medalist Hilary Knight, Basketball HOFer Carmelo Anthony, former soccer player Alex Morgan and actors Ashton Kutcher and Issa Rae, among others. There were “plenty of Liberty sightings, too,” as G Sabrina Ionescu was in the broadcast booth and team owner Clara Wu Tsai, GM Jonathan Kolb and coach Chris DeMarco “sat courtside” (N.Y. POST, 3/3). Others spotted at the games included Basketball HOFer Sue Bird, former NFLer Justin Tuck, comedians Jason Sudeikis and Wanda Sykes, former soccer player Kelley O’Hara and more (USA TODAY, 3/2).
Unrivaled “will crown its second champion” Wednesday night when No. 1 seed Phantom and No. 2 seed Mist face off at Miami’s Sephora Arena. Phantom knocked off No. 6 Vinyl 83-75, while Mist “mounted a 16-point comeback” over No. 5 Breeze 73-69. Unrivaled co-founder and Mist F Breanna Stewart said the league “considered hosting the championship game at Barclays as well before deciding to keep it as scheduled at their 1,000-seat home venue.” Stewart: “There’s a [value] to going and winning a championship in the place that you built. So while it is a smaller arena and venue, that’s where the banner is raised, that’s where the Rose has it, and now we’re going to fight for that championship in the place that we’ve been working all season long” (ESPN.com, 3/3).