STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) \u2014 NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said a new collective bargaining agreement with WNBA players will be reached, but acknowledged relationship issues that must be repaired following recent criticisms of Commissioner Cathy Engelbert.<\/p>\n
Those reached a high point last week when Minnesota\u2019s Napheesa Collier said the league had the \u201cworst leadership in the world,\u201d and they have threatened to overshadow the WNBA Finals between Las Vegas and Phoenix that began days afterward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no question that the WNBA is going through growing pains and it\u2019s unfortunate that it\u2019s coming just as their most important games and their finals are on right now,\u201d Silver said Monday. \u201cWe\u2019ve had two fantastic games so far and we want to celebrate the game at the moment, and then we\u2019ve got to sit down with the players and negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Engelbert has also said a new deal will get done, albeit not necessarily by the Oct. 31 deadline. Negotiators for the league and the players association were expected to meet this week.<\/p>\n
Players are seeking significant changes following the WNBA\u2019s enormous growth in recent seasons and some have expressed their frustration with Engelbert \u2014 though not as loudly and forcefully as Collier, the runner-up for the league\u2019s MVP.<\/p>\n
\u201cCathy Engelbert has presided over historic growth in the league but there\u2019s no question that there\u2019s issues that we need to address with our players, not just economic,\u201d Silver said. \u201cThere\u2019s relationship issues as well. I\u2019m confident we can fix those over time and this league can continue to be on the rocket trajectory that it\u2019s on right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silver spoke at NBC Sports headquarters to discuss the network\u2019s return to broadcasting the league this season. It will also televise the WNBA Finals in 2026.<\/p>\n
Former Lakers guard Derek Fisher was the National Basketball Players Association president in 2011 when the league and union couldn\u2019t reach an agreement in time and a lockout reduced the season to 66 games. He said it was rare to see someone express themselves the way Collier did during bargaining, but understood the reason.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not the norm, but those were the feelings a lot of times,\u201d said Fisher, who also coached in the WNBA and will be one of NBC\u2019s game analysts for its NBA coverage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever you\u2019re in the heat of high stakes negotiations and conversions and discussions, it reaches the level of distrust sometimes, misunderstandings due to miscommunication or poor communication. But ultimately, until you reach an agreement, there is a very adversarial nature to it until you come back together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silver insisted they will.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will get a deal done with the players,\u201d he said. \u201cLots of work left to be done, but we\u2019ll of course get a new collective bargaining agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n
It may not be easy. Fisher said he can sense that WNBA players feel they have not been valued enough and have a disconnect with league\u2019s management.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the W could have been at this point sooner,\u201d Fisher said. \u201cCaitlin Clark and Angel Reese kind of reaccelerated the growth, but this league has always been a special league. And so I think that the players are just saying we can\u2019t allow some of the things that have taken place in our previous 27-year history. We don\u2019t want to leave the girls over the next 20 years in the position that we were in when we had no leverage.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP WNBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball<\/p>\n
Brian Mahoney, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) \u2014 NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said a new collective bargaining agreement with WNBA players will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-386990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386990","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=386990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}