DURHAM, N.C. – The WNBA’s collective bargaining negotiations have slightly less than a month until the next deadline to come to an agreement, with the league and union still in talks that Fever G Caitlin Clark characterized as “down to the wire a little bit.”

Clark was among some of the league’s top talent that convened for USA Basketball’s senior national team camp on Friday. A new class of players made their camp debut at Duke Univ., with their sights partly on a Jan. 9 deadline for the WNBPA to agree to a new CBA with the league. The WNBA and the union agreed to a 40-day extension last month as they have failed to find common ground on the biggest issue around salary structure and revenue sharing.

“This is the biggest moment the WNBA has ever seen, and it’s not something that can be messed up,” Clark said. “We’re going to fight for everything that we deserve, but at the same time, we need to play basketball. That’s what our fans crave and that’s what all of you crave as well. You want the product on the floor. At the end of the day, that’s how you make the money, that’s how you’re marketable, that’s what the fans get excited about, that’s what the fans want to show up for.

“It’s business. It’s a negotiation, and there has to be compromise on both sides. We’re starting to get down to the wire a little bit.”

Clark said she has not been in most meetings as part of the negotiations but stays informed through WNBPA reps. Negotiations have remained focused on players’ salary structure and revenue sharing, with the union aiming to tie salaries to the growth of league revenue.

Sources familiar with the WNBA’s thinking also believe its proposals have been a clear concession to players — with revenue sharing now tied to the growth of the league and also what it considered “massive” salary increases.

The league’s revenue has increased in recent years and been accelerated dramatically by some of the stars at the USA Basketball camp, including Clark, Sky F Angel Reese and Wings G Paige Bueckers.

“It’s just learning more, asking more questions, understanding the two sides of the negotiation and how we have to come to terms with it and find a middle ground in what both sides want,” Bueckers said. “We are to stand firm in what we believe we have earned and the people before us have earned, so it’s continued negotiations but we’re being firm on what we believe in and what we stand for.”

The senior team camp was the first since USA Basketball named Kara Lawson as head coach for the team going into LA28. It represented a changing of the guards, of sorts, with some of the biggest young stars in the WNBA making their senior national team camp debut.

In addition to Clark and Bueckers — the 2024 and 2025 rookies of the year, respectively — the camp included Sparks C Cameron Brink, Mystics G Sonia Citron and F Kiki Iriafen and Reese. UCLA C Lauren Betts and USC G JuJu Watkins also made their debuts.

USA Basketball in May named Sue Bird, a five-time Olympic gold medalist, its first managing director for the women’s national team. In addition to building toward LA28, Bird is evaluating players to be named to the FIBA Women’s World Cup next year where the USA will look for a fifth consecutive gold medal.