DHJ Quick Take: Jessica Shepard Signs Multi-Year Contract With Unrivaled
Dallas Wings forward Jessica Shepard has signed a multi-year contract with Unrivaled, with her playing debut set for the league’s third season.
- What’s the move? Shepard signs a multi-year playing contract with Unrivaled; her club assignment will be announced at a later date.
- Why now? She’s posting career highs of 14.6 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 5.3 assists this season, with three triple-doubles and her first WNBA All-Star starter selection.
- Why does it matter? She joins a Season 3 signee class that includes Kayla McBride, Kayla Thornton, Marine Johannès, Bridget Carleton, Flau’jae Johnson, Gabby Williams, and Olivia Miles, plus Wings teammate Paige Bueckers, who is already under contract with the league.
- What’s next? Unrivaled’s third season tips off in 2027; Shepard’s club destination has not yet been revealed.
Jessica Shepard has spent the 2026 season rewriting her own record book, and now she’s adding a new offseason home to go with it. The Dallas Wings forward signed a multi-year contract with Unrivaled on Wednesday, the 3-on-3 league announced, with her playing debut set for Season 3. Which of Unrivaled’s clubs she’ll actually suit up for is still to be determined — the league said an assignment will come later — but the signing itself is very much a product of the year Shepard is having in Dallas.
“I am really excited to be joining Unrivaled for the coming seasons. I’ve heard nothing but great things since the league started,” Shepard said. “I’m looking forward to competing and playing with the best players in the world in a different setting, as well as developing my game.”
She’ll enter Unrivaled’s third season alongside a signee class that already includes Kayla McBride, Kayla Thornton, Marine Johannès, Bridget Carleton, Flau’jae Johnson, Gabby Williams, and Olivia Miles.
She’ll also have a familiar face waiting for her. Wings backcourt mate Paige Bueckers is already lined up to be part of the league’s third season as well, carrying over from the three-year contract she signed with Unrivaled in 2025 ahead of her 2026 debut with Breeze BC.
The Best Season of Her Career
It’s not hard to see why Unrivaled came calling. Shepard is posting career highs of 14.6 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 5.3 assists in her first season with the Wings, and she’s done it in historic fashion — her third triple-double of the year came Tuesday night, pushing her to No. 2 on the WNBA’s all-time triple-double list.
She’s one of only two players in the league averaging a double-double this season, and she remains the only one with more than one triple-double to her name.
The stretch run has come with hardware, too. Shepard picked up her first career WNBA All-Star starter nod this year, her sixth in the league, and has twice been named the WNBA’s Western Conference Player of the Week, on June 2 and again on June 23. In between, she authored a piece of league history on May 28, becoming the first player to record a 22-point, 20-rebound, 10-assist triple-double in a WNBA game.
A Résumé Built Overseas
Shepard’s game has been just as dominant outside the WNBA. She earned a spot on the 2026 All-EuroLeague Second Team in April after leading the competition with 17.0 points and 9.5 rebounds per game for Italian club Beretta Familia Schio, adding six double-doubles along the way.
The season before, she swept Greece’s A1 league awards entirely, taking home Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, First Team, and All-Defensive Team honors in the same year.
From Nebraska to Notre Dame
Shepard’s path to professional basketball ran through two Big Ten programs. She began her college career at Nebraska before transferring to Notre Dame in 2017, where she closed out her run with an NCAA championship in 2018.
She still holds the program’s records for career rebounds per game (9.2) and rebounds in a single season (390), and averaged 16.2 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 2.9 assists across her two seasons with the Fighting Irish. The Minnesota Lynx made her the No. 16 overall pick in the 2019 WNBA Draft.
What She’s Walking Into
Unrivaled, co-founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, launched in January 2025 as a player-owned alternative built around 3-on-3, full-court basketball. Players hold equity in the league itself, and its eight clubs have quickly become a magnet for the WNBA’s biggest names in the offseason.
Shepard’s addition and the caliber of her 2026 season only add to that pull.
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