{"id":229882,"date":"2025-10-21T17:58:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T17:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/229882\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T17:58:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T17:58:08","slug":"adam-silver-says-wnba-players-are-going-to-get-a-big-increase-in-pay-amid-cba-negotiations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/229882\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Silver says WNBA players are \u2018going to get a big increase\u2019 in pay amid CBA negotiations"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an interview on NBC\u2019s \u201cToday,\u201d NBA commissioner Adam Silver offered his opinion on the CBA negotiations in the WNBA.<\/p>\n

Silver was asked by \u201cToday\u201d host Craig Melvin on Tuesday if WNBA players should get a larger share of total revenue. \u201cThey get 9 percent of total revenue compared to roughly 50 percent of the revenue of NBA players. Should they be getting a larger share of revenue in the WNBA?\u201d<\/p>\n

Silver was quick to clarify. \u201cYes, I think \u2018share\u2019 isn\u2019t the right way to look at it because there\u2019s so much more revenue in the NBA,\u201d Silver said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should look at it in absolute numbers in terms of what they\u2019re making,\u201d he added. \u201cThey are going to get a big increase in this cycle of collective bargaining. And they deserve it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NBA and WNBA have different revenue-sharing systems<\/a>. In the NBA, players make roughly half of basketball-related income (BRI) with the other half going to owners. BRI determines the NBA\u2019s salary cap.<\/p>\n

The WNBA\u2019s current CBA doesn\u2019t explicitly use BRI to determine the salary cap. The CBA sets the salary cap for each year of the agreement.<\/p>\n

The league\u2019s current collective bargaining agreement is set to expire Oct. 31. Players have identified revenue sharing<\/a> as a major sticking point in a new agreement.<\/p>\n

Negotiations have become more tense after Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier read a statement in her exit interview admonishing the league\u2019s leadership. Several players praised Collier, and WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert was heavily booed when she presented Las Vegas Aces star A\u2019ja Wilson with the WNBA Finals MVP trophy on Oct. 10.<\/p>\n

Collier said in her statement that the WNBA has \u201cthe best fans in the world, the best players in the world, but the worst leadership in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also revealed details of a conversation she had with Engelbert at Unrivaled, the 3\u00d73 professional winter basketball league that Collier co-founded last year with her husband, Alex Bazzell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked how she planned to fix the fact that players like Caitlin (Clark), Angel (Reese) and Paige (Bueckers), who are clearly driving massive revenue for the league, are making so little their first four years,\u201d Collier said. \u201cHer response was, \u2018Caitlin should be grateful she makes $16 million off the court, because without the platform that the WNBA gives her, she wouldn\u2019t make anything.\u2019 In that same conversation, she told me, \u2018Players should be on their knees thanking their lucky stars for the media rights deal that I got them.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Engelbert denied making those comments in a press conference ahead of the WNBA Finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I did not make those comments,\u201d Engelbert said. \u201cCaitlin has been a transformational player in this league. She\u2019s been a great representative of the game. There were a lot of inaccuracies reported out there, and I certainly did not say that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Collier and Engelbert had a meeting planned that Collier canceled.<\/p>\n

At an event earlier in October, Silver offered his thoughts on the relationship<\/a> between league leadership and players, saying that the situation has \u201cbecome too personal and we\u2019re going to have to work through those issues.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an interview on NBC\u2019s \u201cToday,\u201d NBA commissioner Adam Silver offered his opinion on the CBA negotiations in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-229882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}