INDIANAPOLIS — Shortly earlier than tip-off of the 2025 WNBA All-Star Sport, the gamers took the ground for warm-ups. As a substitute of their league-issued gear, they had been carrying T-shirts with a transparent message relating to their ongoing collective bargaining settlement negotiations with the league: “Pay us what you owe us.”
Los Angeles Sparks guard Kelsey Plum stated the gamers held a gathering Saturday morning and that is once they made the choice to put on the shirts.
The tone stayed the identical after the sport as Washington Mystics‘ Brittney Sykes held a sign that read “pay the players” whereas Crew Collier, the successful crew, was being interviewed in the course of the court docket.
The group at Gainbridge Fieldhouse appeared to be in full help as they chanted “pay the gamers” as WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert was talking. Plum stated the gamers did not know the gang was going to try this however described it as “a really highly effective second.”
Earlier within the evening, Napheesa Collier and Caitlin Clark, the All-Star captains, instructed reporters the gamers are taking the labor battle “very critically.”
“We now have probably the most participation in league historical past. I believe we had near 40 gamers in our league assembly,” Collier stated. “I believe it simply sends a very robust message that we’re standing actually agency on the sure areas that we really feel actually strongly about that we have to enhance on, and I believe we obtained that message throughout.”
In October 2024, the Girls’s Nationwide Basketball Gamers Affiliation opted out of the present CBA, which is able to run by the tip of the 2025 season. Since then, little progress has been made on a brand new CBA. The league and the WNBPA met in particular person this weekend for the primary time since December, however the talks solely served to frustrate the gamers.
“I believe [Thursday’s] assembly was good for the truth that we may very well be in the identical room because the league and the board of governors and that sort of factor, however I believe, to be frank, it was a wasted alternative,” New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart stated. “We might have actually gotten right into a deeper dive of every thing, however we there was a variety of fluff that we could not get previous, and it sucks as a result of conditions like that are not gonna occur once more as a result of gamers are taking part in for various groups and completely different leagues and that is the one time to have a bunch collectively like this.”
Breanna Stewart says WNBA players’ CBA meeting with league was a ‘wasted opportunity’
Jack Maloney
From the day the gamers opted out, they’ve made it clear they’re in search of “transformational change.” Whereas the league has been sympathetic to points reminiscent of household planning, it has not been as eager on the gamers’ calls for for greater salaries and a much bigger share of income.
“Primarily based on their most up-to-date proposal, we simply aren’t capable of get to a spot the place we’re truly even speaking about the identical factor,” Stewart stated. “So I believe that is the toughest factor. Our first supply after which their counter was, like, black and white.”
The 2 sides hope to have a brand new settlement in place by October, however are shortly working out of time to make that occur. Whereas it is doable for deadlines to be prolonged — the newest CBA was ratified in January 2020, as commissioner Cathy Engelbert famous Saturday throughout her pre-All-Star Sport press convention — any delay would have have an effect on the remainder of the offseason calendar.
That is set to be a busy and groundbreaking winter. Two new growth groups, the Portland Fireplace and Toronto Tempo, will enter the league, and practically each participant that isn’t on a rookie scale contract is ready to be a free agent. The growth drafts and free company can not happen till a brand new CBA is in place.
Neither aspect needs to hurry by key parts of the offseason, or worse, have a piece stoppage. However as of now, neither aspect has proven any willingness to budge. The gamers have been a united entrance all weekend, as their warm-up shirts re-emphasized.
“Yeah, I believe for myself that was the perfect a part of [the meeting] being within the room and there is over 40 different gamers on this league, and I am certain much more would have beloved to be in there in the event that they had been in Indianapolis,” Clark stated. “And I believe that is probably the most highly effective factor is all the women from throughout the league simply being in that room collectively… like [Collier] stated, we ought to be paid extra. And hopefully that is the case shifting ahead because the league continues to develop. I believe that is one thing that is in all probability a very powerful factor that we’re within the room advocating about.”