![\"Frances](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/6ff1e84f2b19a25275bbced84c5f630c0c0bbe6c.png\")
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April 12, 2026 \u2014 4:30pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n It took months of negotiations, threats of strike action and T-shirts worn by stars saying, \u201cPay us what you owe us\u201d<\/a>. But now, weeks after players in the world\u2019s premier women\u2019s basketball league signed a historic new collective bargaining agreement, they are starting to benefit.<\/p>\n Among them are Australians Alanna Smith and Ezi Magbegor, with Smith on Sunday (AEST) signing the richest contract by an Australian woman in team sport, valued at $US3.68 million ($5.2 million) over three years with the Dallas Wings.<\/p>\n Last week Magbegor received a one-year offer from her current team, the Seattle Storm, to earn the maximum salary of $US1.4 million this season. She is yet to accept the offer.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel real, to be honest,\u201d Smith said on Sunday. \u201cYou put so much hard work into your craft and to be rewarded for it is pretty cool. I just feel grateful to be in this position and hopefully lead the way for other women to get what they deserve as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith signed with Dallas on Sunday morning (AEST) and will leave the Minnesota Lynx, where last season she was named co-defensive player of the year \u2013 the first Australian to do so since Lauren Jackson in 2007.<\/p>\n On Sunday, Jackson welcomed the news of Smith\u2019s contract and Magbegor\u2019s offer, saying the league had come a long way since her 11 years in the WNBA when players had to play in Europe in the off-season to subsidise their incomes.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s incredible that they\u2019re able to capitalise now the way that they are off basketball, and that equity that we\u2019ve been talking about for forever, it\u2019s starting to pay off for them,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s still a long way to go until they\u2019re paid what they\u2019re worth, but this is a major, major, major milestone … The money is life-changing.\u201d<\/p>\n The new WNBA collective bargaining agreement was reached on March 18 after more than a year of tense negotiations between the players, their union and league officials.<\/p>\n The most significant changes to the agreement concern player salaries. Last year, the maximum annual salary was about $US250,000; under the new CBA it will be $US1.4 million. Even the lowest-paid players this year will earn more than last year\u2019s richest, with the new starting salary $US270,000. And while a team\u2019s total salary cap in 2025 was $US1.5 million, now teams will have $US7 million to spend.<\/p>\n Also significant is the greater share players will get of the league\u2019s revenue \u2013 one of the most divisive clauses during the negotiations. While men in the NBA receive between 49 per cent and 51 per cent of revenue, women in the WNBA shared no more than 10 per cent. That figure will now double.<\/p>\n Her new contract will make Smith one of the highest-paid female Australian athletes of any sport, even before accounting for brand partnerships. By comparison, Sam Kerr\u2019s current contract at Chelsea is worth \u00a3466,000 (almost $890,000) a year.<\/a><\/p>\n It is all the more remarkable considering Smith was cut from the WNBA and Australian national women\u2019s team, the Opals, in 2022. Returning home, she played in the Australian domestic basketball league, the WNBL, and later the Polish league before getting another contract in the WNBA in 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the contract is really just a statement of what makes Alanna, Alanna,\u201d her agent, Sammy Wloszczowski, said. \u201cYou don\u2019t get through what she\u2019s been through without a certain make-up, without a certain amount of fight, a certain amount of strength of character, the resilience to go from having every one of those career aspirations pulled from you and to go back and get them all back.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith and Magbegor aren\u2019t the only Australians already enjoying a salary boost after the CBA negotiations. The Opals\u2019 Jade Melbourne (23) and WNBL player Nyadiew Puoch (21) are also set to sign new contracts this year.<\/p>\n Wloszczowski said these contracts were \u201c40 years in the making\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI think every female basketballer and every Aussie female basketballer helped pave the way to get where we are this year,\u201d he said. \u201cIt feels like we\u2019ve finally crossed a threshold where we\u2019ve taken a substantial leap closer to fair remuneration for the work and for being in the top 0.01 per cent in the world for what they do for a living.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Alanna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/747b0af485438fd1b0ab5fb94f315d0895db2189.jpeg\")
Alanna Smith has signed a record multimillion-dollar contract with the Dallas Wings.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Australia\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/750968c55c00e1602e92c6afcfd58c67c9ae31d9.jpeg\")
Australia\u2019s Alanna Smith and Ezi Magbegor celebrate victory in the bronze medal match at the 2024 Paris Olympics.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Alanna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/af331689662ae311e70ce63ee0f3177de5c21228.jpeg\")
Alanna Smith receives her trophy for being co-defensive player of the year.Getty Images<\/p>\n
![\"Alanna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/05d4360cb21dd27259a5030d5465510a80c8a912.jpeg\")
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