A Domestic Path to the WNBA

For years, women who finished their college basketball careers but did not immediately secure a WNBA roster spot faced a difficult decision: go overseas, find another way to stay connected to the game, or potentially watch their professional basketball dreams end. The UpShot League is trying to create another option.

Founded in 2025 and launched in May 2026, the professional women's basketball league began with four teams — the Jacksonville Waves, Charlotte Crown, Greensboro Groove, and Savannah Steel — with a stated goal of creating paid opportunities and another pathway for elite players. Every game was made available live on YouTube, with additional television and streaming distribution helping make the players accessible to fans and scouts.

After only one season, there are already signs that pathway can work.

That matters. Not every player who leaves college is ready to walk away from basketball, and not every player wants — or is able — to spend months overseas to continue a professional career. A legitimate domestic league gives those women another place to develop, compete, and remain visible to WNBA organizations.

It also gives established players another opportunity to keep going. Players such as AD Durr have been able to return to consistent professional competition, while Jacksonville's Ariel Hearn turned her season into the inaugural UpShot League MVP award. Hearn joined Deja Kelly, Diamond Johnson, Lasha Petree, Rennia Davis, and Schaquilla Nunn on the league's first All-UpShot Team.

The first season also delivered a championship worth remembering. The first-place Jacksonville Waves hosted the Charlotte Crown for the inaugural title, but Charlotte erased a double-digit fourth-quarter deficit and won 81–76. Deja Kelly scored 29 points and was named Championship MVP after helping the Crown outscore Jacksonville 32–19 in the fourth quarter. The game was played in front of a packed VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, giving the league a strong visual ending to its first season.

And UpShot isn't standing still. The league will expand to six teams in 2027 with the Baltimore Starlings and Nashville Vibe joining the original four. Leadership is evolving as well. Two-time WNBA champion and six-time All-Star Taj McWilliams-Franklin has been promoted to Deputy Commissioner after helping build the league's basketball operations during its inaugural season. Women's basketball legend Chamique Holdsclaw has also joined the league as an investor, adding her name to a group of prominent supporters that has included Cheryl Miller and Tamika Catchings.

Other professional leagues are creating opportunities for women too, and that growth is good for the game. But what makes UpShot particularly intriguing is the pathway it is beginning to demonstrate: College. UpShot. WNBA opportunity.

Five players receiving WNBA contracts in the league's first season is more than a talking point. It is evidence that another door is opening. For women who still have professional basketball dreams but don't want their only option to be thousands of miles from home, that door could become extremely important.

College. UpShot. WNBA Opportunity.

Five players. One season. Another door is opening.

After Year One, We Ballin Too will definitely be watching where the UpShot League goes next.