Las Vegas Aces player Chelsea Gray named MVP of Unrivaled League
By Doug Feinberg
The Associated Press
March 3, 2026 - 11:40 am
NEW YORK — The Unrivaled League has a new Most Valuable Player, and it's none other than Las Vegas Aces star guard Chelsea Gray. Gray, who plays for Rose BC, was honored before the semifinal games at the sold-out Barclays Center on Monday.
"I want to say thank you to everyone who voted," Gray said. "I love this game. Want to be great every night, and that’s always my goal. Women’s basketball is where it’s at, shows by all you guys coming out and watching us compete every single night."
Gray, who won the Unrivaled's 1-on-1 tournament last month, averaged an impressive 24.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 6.1 assists. She broke her own league single-season assists record with 85 in 14 games. The 33-year-old had an outstanding season, with nine games of 20 or more points and 10 games with five or more assists. She also tied the league single-game 3-pointers record with 10.
Former Aces star Kelsey Plum of the Los Angeles Sparks led her team, Phantom BC, to the championship game with an 83-75 win over Vinyl. Dearica Hamby, another former Aces player who now plays for the Sparks, led Vinyl with 30 points. In the other semifinal, Arike Ogunbowale celebrated her 29th birthday by hitting a decisive 3-pointer to lift the second-seeded Mist to a 73-69 victory over Breeze.
The championship game will be played on Wednesday at Unrivaled’s home arena in Miami. The winning team will take home a prize pool of $600,000 that will be split among its six players. After the success of taking the league to Philadelphia in late January for a weekend that drew more than 21,490 fans, Unrivaled moved the semifinals to New York a few weeks ago. Monday’s star-studded sellout crowd of 18,261 included basketball greats Carmelo Anthony and Sue Bird, actors Ashton Kutcher and Jason Sudeikis, and gold medal-winning U.S. hockey player Hilary Knight. But here's where it gets controversial... While Gray's achievements are undoubtedly impressive, some may argue that the MVP title should have gone to another player who had an equally stellar season. Who do you think should have been named MVP? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
