{"id":350531,"date":"2025-12-17T06:35:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T06:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/350531\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T06:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T06:35:07","slug":"silver-willing-to-join-wnba-talks-remains-optimistic-for-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/350531\/","title":{"rendered":"Silver willing to join WNBA talks, remains optimistic for deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday night he is tracking WNBA collective bargaining sessions<\/a> \u201cvery closely\u201d and that he and Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum would both be willing to join the prolonged negotiations to finalize a deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re integrated at the league office,\u201d Silver said ahead of the NBA Cup Final in Las Vegas. \u201cI talk to the people who are at the negotiating table on a daily basis. As I\u2019ve said before, we \u2014 the NBA, WNBA collective \u2014 acknowledged that our players deserve to be paid significantly more<\/a> than they have so far based on the increased success of the league, and it\u2019s just a question now of finding a meeting of the minds in terms of what is a fair deal. It\u2019s going to require compromise on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Oct. 21, Silver riled up the WNBA players union<\/a> when \u2014 on the divisive subject of revenue sharing \u2014 he said on the \u201cToday Show,\u201d \u201cI think share isn\u2019t the right way to look at it because there\u2019s so much more revenue in the NBA. I think you should look at absolute numbers in terms of what they are making. They are going to get a big increase in this cycle of collective bargaining and they deserve it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The WNBPA responded that day with an Instagram headline, saying, \u201cDon\u2019t want to share, @adamsilvernba?\u201d Nearly two months later, there have been separate 30-day<\/a> and 40-day extensions<\/a> to the collective bargaining agreement with still little movement on that same revenue share issue. The players want approximately 30% of league revenue, while the WNBA reportedly prefers the players receive roughly 15% — a gap that sources still call significant with only a little movement in recent days.<\/p>\n

For the league\u2019s part, it considers its offers of a $1M max base salary and projected average salary of roughly $500,000 \u201cmassive\u201d pay increases, and Silver made clear tonight that the two extensions can be construed as a positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresumably, the sides wouldn\u2019t have been willing to do that unless they thought there was a constructive path to getting a deal done,\u201d Silver said.<\/p>\n

Despite the reaction to his October comments, Silver also said he has \u201cgreat relationships with many of the players\u201d and believes the sides are on course for a solution. The current 40-day extension ends Jan. 9.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remain optimistic we\u2019ll get something done but whether that means I\u2019m physically sitting at the table for the negotiation,\u201d Silver said. \u201cAnd again, I speak for Mark as well, we have been involved with this league for three decades in essence. I care enormously about it … and want it to be successful and I want the players to feel fairly treated, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I realize there\u2019s been a disconnect, especially over the last few months in these negotiations. Sometimes that\u2019s the nature of collective bargaining, and we recognize we have to work through those issues. But it remains a very high priority for me even if I\u2019m not at the table to get an agreement done and get one done as quickly as possible.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday night he is tracking WNBA collective bargaining sessions \u201cvery closely\u201d and that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,459,82,630,56438],"class_list":{"0":"post-350531","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-nba","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-wnba","13":"tag-wnbpa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350531","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=350531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}