{"id":475495,"date":"2026-02-15T00:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T00:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/475495\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T00:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T00:42:12","slug":"adam-silver-hopes-wnba-players-move-have-more-urgency-in-cba-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/475495\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Silver hopes WNBA, players move have more urgency in CBA fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his experience with labor negotiations, NBA commissioner Adam Silver knows that these things often come down to the proverbial 11th hour \u2014 something, he admitted Saturday, that the WNBA is awfully close to approaching.<\/p>\n

And while he\u2019s not ready to set a drop-dead date for when the WNBA and the Women\u2019s National Basketball Players Association need to agree to a new collective bargaining agreement, Silver admitted that \u201cwhat I\u2019d love to accomplish is putting pressure on everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m encouraged there has been more back and forth over the past few weeks,\u201d Silver said during his press conference at All-Star Weekend. \u201cI think there\u2019s been more direct engagement from players and team owners. I have not been at the table, but I\u2019m very involved behind the scenes. I want to play whatever role would be most productive in getting a deal done, but I think we need to now move toward the next-level sense of urgency and not lose momentum in terms of the amazing amount of progress we\u2019ve seen with women\u2019s basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NBAAdam Silver addresses reporters during his Feb. 14 press conference. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

Silver noted that the WNBA needs to fit in its collegiate draft, an expansion draft and free agency before training camps begin in around two months, and negotiations between the league and the players\u2019 union have continued to drag on since the Aces won the title in October<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last Friday, the WNBPA received the league\u2019s counterproposal<\/a> six weeks after the players\u2019 union submitted theirs, and gaps still exist in negotiations.<\/p>\n

The WNBA proposed a salary cap increase<\/a> to $5.65 million for next season, but that\u2019s well below the $10.5 million number the players\u2019 union wants, according to The Post\u2019s Madeline Kenney.<\/p>\n

Players also want 30 percent of gross revenue, but the league has only presented 70 percent of the net revenue share \u2014 or around 15 percent of gross revenue, according to Kenney.<\/p>\n

\"NBACathy Engelbert is pictured Feb. 13. Getty Images<\/p>\n

An in-person meeting between members from both sides took place on Feb. 2 in a promising sign after negotiations had stalled between the latest proposal and counterproposal. But the sides are running out of time in order to avoid the start of the season getting delayed.<\/p>\n

And all that, then, prompted Silver\u2019s comments Saturday about recognizing the heightened pressure to get it done.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s unfortunate where we find ourselves right now, both from the team and the players,\u201d Silver said. \u201cI mean, we\u2019re coming off tremendous momentum in the WNBA \u2014 it\u2019s not lost on anyone. I feel like in the last few years in particular, the league has turned a corner in terms of fan interest, commercial success, popularity of players.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, all arrows are pointing up in terms of the WNBA, and as someone who was involved from the earliest days, now going into our 30th season, I couldn\u2019t be prouder. I couldn\u2019t be prouder to be a part of that movement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his experience with labor negotiations, NBA commissioner Adam Silver knows that these things often come down to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[23867,49,48,459,82,630,38381,105474],"class_list":["post-475495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-adam-silver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-draft","tag-wnba-free-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475495","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=475495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}