Unrivaled: “Do Something” & Shakira Austin Took It Personal

Unrivaled is a “tell the truth” league.

For the players playing in the league, it’s a “we about to showcase to everyone who we are league.” It’s space, it’s speed, it’s everybody watching, and it’s your matchup sitting there like food on a plate with the league’s format basically whispering, do something about it.

The thing about this league is it doesn’t just expose bad habits, it exposes ceilings, the kind where you suddenly realize, oh, you’re actually way better than we thought.

Enter Shakira Austin.

Rose head coach Nola Henry said it clearly.

“Shakira still hasn’t even scratched the surface of what she can become.”

That’s not a “she’s been solid.”

That’s not the type of compliment or a “good minutes” type of praise, not even close. That’s literally a warning label. To everyone at Unrivaled, fans, to the front office in Washington and honestly, it’s not hard to see why.

Once the space opened up, Shakira didn’t hesitate.

Let’s keep it 100, and talk about groundbreaking performances from Shakira this Unrivaled.

Can I offer you Shakira going H.A.M, eggs and cheese and dropping a 31 point, 11 rebound masterclass against the Lunar Owls, going 11-for-15 from the field? The game was basically her layup line. Or if that doesn’t interest you, would a 29 point, 10 boards performance against Mist, interest you more? Like normal, Shakira was living in the paint and daring the defense to do something about it. If that’s a little less of your speed, how about a more calm game, if you want to call a 21 point 9/17 performance against the Breeze calm.

That’s not flashes. That’s levels.

That’s showing someone who can be, and will be a WNBA All-Star and someone who will continue to grow as a player.

“She’s super skilled,” Coach henry said, “at her size and with her frame and with her build.”

In Unrivaled, that’s basically a cheat code, because when you give players this much space and they can move, they can eat.

She’s been “super aggressive in the pick and roll,” and she’s “able to separate in and out of screens really well to get behind defense and get easy layups at the rim.” Easy layups in a league where nothing is supposed to be easy is exactly the point.

And when the defense starts trying to sit on it, she just goes one-on-one anyway. “She’s also able to take her matchup one-on-one at times and just be aggressive going downhill and attacking people,” Coach Nola Henry said . That tracks, because when you watch the tape it’s straight downhill pressure with no dancing and no settling, just business to the rim. And if you’re late, soft, or undisciplined, you’ve seen her get to the free throw line a ton.

That’s the difference between promising and problem.

Promising is potential. Problem is when the defense has to start changing the entire game plan because you’re blowing it up.

Some players show flashes. Shakira is starting to show levels.

Let’s just end it here with Nola Henry offering words that sound more like prophecy.

“I think you’ve just seen her take a next step in her career and show what she’s capable of doing.”