The WNBA pushed back on the idea it’s intentionally stalling in negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement with an Oct. 31 deadline only weeks away.
A league spokesperson told The Athletic’s Ben Pickman the narrative is “not accurate.”
“We continue to negotiate in good faith and remain focused on delivering significant increases to salaries and benefits for players while building a league that can thrive for decades for the benefit of all,” they said. “We already have several meetings scheduled with the WNBPA to move this forward and get it done in as timely a manner as the Players Association wishes.”
Those remarks were in response to WNBPA executive director Terri Jackson saying the WNBA and its team owners “look to be trying to play the only card they have, and that is running out the clock.”
Regardless of the details behind it, the lack of progress between the WNBA and players’ union is impossible to ignore.
The two sides met in July to touch base and perhaps work toward a firm agreement. The WNBPA came out of that discussion saying the league’s proposal “fails to address the priorities we’ve voiced from the day we opted out: a transformational CBA that delivers our rightful share of the business we built, improves working conditions, and ensures the success we create lifts both today’s players and the generations that follow.”
Months later, it doesn’t look like the situation has changed much.
Chicago Sky forward Elizabeth Williams, who’s the union secretary, told Sportico’s Eric Jackson in August she was “cautiously optimistic about striking a bargain prior to the deadline but that it’s “probably not going to happen.”
Los Angeles Sparks star Kelsey Plum, a WNBPA vice president, provided an even more grim picture to The Athletic’s Sabreena Merchant in September.
“There’s been multiple proposals that have gone back and forth, and neither is close,” Plum said. “It feels almost the more that we have presented, the further away we are, which is just unfortunate. But at the end of the day, I think it’s just about the principle of not budging. And we have leverage, we have unity, we have a common goal, particularly in salary, and we’re just not where we want to be.”
The stunning statement from the Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier, who’s another union VP, on Tuesday only heightened the tensions. Collier told reporters the WNBA has “the worst leadership in the world,” and she called WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert to task for what she believes is the league’s unwillingness to address big issues.
Engelbert said in a subsequent statement that her “focus remains on ensuring a bright future for the players and the WNBA.”
But Collier’s statement has led some people outside of the WNBA to say Engelbert should resign.
A league spokesperson had to refute a report from Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal that Engelbert may step down once a new CBA is in place.
At the very least, it’s looking less and less likely the WNBA and WNBPA find common ground before Oct. 31.
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